Here at Hillary, English is at the heart of everything we do. A high-quality education in English will teach pupils to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others and through their reading and listening, others can communicate with them. Through reading in particular, pupils have a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. Literature, especially, plays a key role in such development. Reading also enables pupils both to acquire knowledge and to build on what they already know. All the skills of language are essential to participating fully as a member of society; pupils, therefore, who do not learn to speak, read and write fluently and confidently are effectively disenfranchised.

English is made up of; 

Our Aims

Through our English curriculum our aims are to ensure that all pupils:

• read easily, fluently and with good understanding
• develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information
• acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language
• appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage
• write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences
• use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas
• are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate.

Speaking and Listening

Our curriculum reflects the importance of the spoken language through the English curriculum. The pupil’s language is developed across the whole curriculum – cognitively, socially and linguistically. Spoken language underpins the development of reading and writing. The quality and variety of language that pupils hear and speak are vital for developing their vocabulary and grammar and their understanding for reading and writing. We expose our pupils to range of high-quality vocabulary through the texts we share with them. We are very fortunate to have the service of two Speech and language therapists who support the children we have identified as having a speech and language barrier. We have 49 different first languages spoken here at Hillary. We use a range of resources to support language and communication development, such as; Makaton, Communicate in print and sentence starters. We understand the value of the spoken language and know; ‘If they can’t say it, they can’t write it’. We also have a dedicated HLTA who supports our Newly Arrived Children and the children are assessed and a bespoke [programme is created to support their learning in acquiring English.

Reading

Here we understand that the use of a robust phonics programme (RWI) is key to our children learning how become skilled readers. We know ‘Children who read a lot do well at school – whatever their background’.

The second element of reading is comprehension, the understanding of what is being read. in Pupils in KS1 who require RWI will have a daily reading lesson where the children will unpick a text and build up their comprehension skills based on the high quality text. Year 1, have short comprehension lessons throughout the week to support their comprehension skills on top of their daily RWI lessons. In Year 2 (for children who have completed RWI comprehension programme) and Key Stage 2, each class has a daily 'Reading for Meaning' session to improve pupils' reading fluency and comprehension skills. As well as this, in these sessions pupils' encounter a range of high quality texts to engage and motivate them to read, and develop reading preferences. As well as this, children will be taught specific skills to improve reading comprehension. All pupils must be encouraged to read widely across both fiction and non-fiction to develop their knowledge of themselves and the world in which they live, to establish an appreciation and love of reading, and to gain knowledge across the curriculum. Reading widely and often increases pupils’ vocabulary because they encounter words they would rarely hear or use in everyday speech. Reading also feeds pupils’ imagination and opens up a treasure-house of wonder and joy for curious young minds. 

Every child also has access to the library on a fortnightly basis and the children are encouraged to choose books for pleasure. The Reading for Pleasure leads, do a fantastic job ensuring that a wide range of books are available to the children. As well as this, our pupil  Reading Ambassadors across key stage 2, support and encourage Reading for Pleasure. Furthermore, in KS2 and Year 2, children have access to a book of their choice from the class library book that matches and challenges their reading. This is to improve their reading fluency and stamina. It is essential that, by the end of their primary education, all pupils are able to read fluently, and with confidence, in any subject in their forthcoming secondary education.

Writing

We know that Reading and Writing goes hand in hand, a good reader who reads widely will be a good writer. With this is mind, we use ‘The Centre of Literacy in Primary Education’, ‘Power of Reading’ teaching programme. This highly successful programme has supported thousands of schools in raising engagement and attainment in reading and writing for all pupils. Our pupils will be exposed to high quality texts which will drive the writing they do in class. Our standards in writing are improving as the children are so engaged with the text they are studying. One child said; “my mum bought me the sequel to the text we had been reading, I’m so excited!” This is the engagement and passion we want to ignite in the children. We want them to love both Reading and Writing. Teachers will teach Grammar and Punctuation in context so that the children have a greater understanding of how the conventions of writing work and the impact this has on the reader. Through the teaching of high quality texts, children will be exposed to a wide range of vocabulary that they can apply this in their own writing. As well as this, English lessons boost writing motivation and  encourage children to write for pleasure. In KS1 and in year 3, the focus remains on writing fluency i.e. sentence structure and basic skills, and in Year 4 and UKS2, children work on compositional skills in order to develop a writer's voice and master the craft of writing.

We use the 'Penpals for Handwriting scheme in school. In Year 1, we secure letter formation and begin simple joins in year 2. By the end of year 4 children should achieve handwriting fluency, so that when they enter UKS2 they can focus on compositional skills. When a child can join all their letters consistently they are awarded a pen license.

To further improve transcriptional skills, we use ‘Spelling Shed’, to support children with spellings and embrace knowledge of spelling conventions – patterns and rules.