Our teaching of English includes phonics, reading, writing, handwriting and EGPS (English, punctuation, grammar and spelling). Children in Key Stages One and Two have a daily writing lesson. Children in EYFS have a daily lesson that will feed into the writing curriculum, though the structure and timing of this will depend on the topic and the time of year. Please find here the primary national curriculum for English: 

Please click here to see the primary national curriculum for English. 

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/335186/PRIMARY_national_curriculum_-_English_220714.pdf 

In Key Stage One, children use text mapping techniques to orally rehearse and internalise basic sentence structures. This helps children to ‘think in sentences’ before they begin to write. In Key Stage Two, children analyse quality texts, sometimes committing them to memory and performing them aloud, before beginning to craft their own writing.  

Then, children begin to develop ideas for their own writing, practising skills, techniques and sentences structures discretely and in the context of shared, guided or slow writing. This gives them all the tools and ideas that they need to be able to write a piece independently after watching how their teacher crafts a piece of writing themselves. Both key stages have opportunities to explore writing fiction, poetry and non-fiction in a range of contexts and genres. 

Writing is always taught in the context of a rich stimulus, often (but not always!) from a curriculum area that the children have already studied or linked to a text that the children have already read. We do not make tenuous, topic-based links to writing: children need a solid understanding of what they’re writing about before they begin to write! 

The requirements for English, grammar and punctuation are taught in writing lessons. Each lesson begins with a short grammar bite that recaps previously taught grammar or explicitly teaches grammatical ideas that don’t fit in to longer writing units. Most of the grammar we learn is taught in the context of the larger unit of writing work. Children will practise grammatical techniques and sentence structures discretely and in short bursts of structured writing before applying their skills to longer, final pieces. Children continually see editing, redrafting and the craft of writing across a unit of work.  

For further information about our English curriculum, please speak to Miss Laws.

Our governor with responsibility for English is Colleen Jackson.