English Curriculum

At Hungerford, we promote high standards of English and a lifelong love of literature. We support all children to develop as confident orators, fluent readers and purposeful writers. We believe that English empowers learners. The ability to communicate, read and write opens the doorway to learning and exploring the world in which we live and so English is fundamental to pupils’ learning across the curriculum, their ability to work independently and their future success.

The aims of the English curriculum are to:

• Develop the children’s speaking and listening skills and wider understanding of language.
• Provide a language-rich environment, activities and experiences with quality adult interactions.
• Explicitly teach and model the use of new and challenging vocabulary to build the language needed for communicating, reading and writing.
• Promote a love of and enthusiasm for reading with a wide range of engaging, high-quality texts both within English lessons and across the curriculum.
• Use an engaging, systematic approach to the teaching of Phonics as the primary strategy for learning to read.
• Develop both decoding and comprehension skills to ensure our children can read with confidence and enjoyment.
• Develop stamina and fluency to ensure that our children read with understanding across the curriculum.
• Develop spelling and handwriting skills so that our children can write confidently and fluently.
• Provide opportunities for children to master and apply their writing skills across the curriculum.
• Encourage stamina for and enjoyment of writing with purposeful writing tasks.

Reading

At Hungerford, we consider reading to be an essential skill that enables children to access their learning and is also a huge factor in ensuring success later in life. This is why we place a clear focus on helping our children master this skill and become confident, fluent readers. Reading for pleasure is prioritised across the school to foster a love of books, with weekly ‘Starbooks café’ sessions, attractive class library areas, daily stories and interactions with significant authors.  Reading is also integral to learning in all subjects and is therefore promoted across the curriculum.

In the Early Years, there is a focus on developing language skills, sharing stories and learning rhymes using a wide range of high-quality, engaging texts. There is a language-rich environment to support the development of reading skills.

We use the Read Write Inc (RWI) programme to teach early reading. RWI is a structured and systematic approach to learning to read and write, centred around letter sounds and phonics. Using RWI, the children enjoy reading because they learn to read effortlessly so that they can put all their energy into comprehending what they read. It also allows them to spell effortlessly so that they can put all their energy into composing what they write. These Phonics lessons start in Pre-school and continue into Year Two (and Key Stage 2 where needed). In order to build confidence and fluency, the children take home books that they have been reading in School so that they can practise the phonics sounds that they have been learning.

Once children have completed the Read, Write, Inc scheme they then progress to the engaging, levelled texts in the Collins Big Cat scheme to continue to foster their love of reading and develop their fluency and comprehension skills. Children are encouraged to read at home a minimum of five times each week to become a ‘Star Reader.’

Children in Years 1-6 also participate in a daily whole class reading lesson, following the Pathways to Read programme where teachers focus on developing a wide vocabulary, modelling and developing comprehension strategies, promoting discussion and developing fluency.

 Writing

At Hungerford, we follow the Pathways To Write scheme to ensure clear progression of skills from Reception through to Year Six. This ensures that there is a clear link between reading and writing. All learners become immersed in a high-quality class text and base their learning around this. Within writing sessions, children are provided with multiple opportunities to practise key skills so they will be able to write confidently and accurately for a range of purposes. The children plan, draft, edit and revise their writing.

Children in Years 1-6 have daily Spelling and Grammar lessons following the Emile programme which teaches these key skills in a fun and engaging way. Children are also taught Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation within English lessons, providing children with the opportunity to apply their skills in different contexts. Handwriting is taught following the Happy Handwriting scheme to ensure children write fluently and confidently. Each term, Hungerford children have multiple opportunities to practise and apply their skills by writing for a range of purposes in subjects across the curriculum.

• Children will achieve age related expectations in Reading and Writing at the end of their cohort year.
• Children will read easily, fluently and with good understanding.
• Children will read widely and often, for both pleasure and information.
• Children will be enthusiastic, confident and capable life-long readers.
• Children will have a wide vocabulary.
• Children will write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences.
• Children will be confident speakers.
• Children will be able to explain their understanding and ideas clearly.