English

Welcome to the English page!

English at Windy Arbor

The overarching aim for English is to promote high standards of English by equipping pupils with a strong command of the written and spoken word and to develop the children’s love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment and pleasure.

We intend to develop our pupil’s skills in Language and Literacy so that they continue to improve in their ability to:

• Communicate effectively in speech so they can talk appropriately with confidence to different audiences.
• Listen attentively with understanding.
• Express themselves clearly in writing and understanding, using good spelling, punctuation and grammar.
• Write in ways appropriate to an intended audience and/or for the intended purpose/
• Produce well-presented work using good, legible handwriting and using current standards of ICT.
• Develop reading skills so that they become proficient, enthusiastic, knowledgeable and responsive to a variety of texts.
• Develop reading skills so that they can analyse and extract meaning from increasingly challenging texts.
• Develop a love of reading.

Reading

Writing

Writing at Windy Arbor

English is taught for up to an hour each day. Each half term, the children will focus on a piece of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Throughout these pieces, children will explore a range of sources and prompts that engage their imagination. Children are also expected to produce quality written work in Topic and Science lessons, applying their writing skills across the curriculum. 

We aim to teach writing in a range of genres, fiction and non-fiction, in line with the National Curriculum. We aim to give pupils the opportunities to practise all the skills of writing in a particular genre towards the end of the teaching sequence.

The required writing process: 

1. Thinking and planning
2. Drafting
3. Revising
4. Editing and proofreading
5. Publishing/rewriting to a high level of presentation
6. Reflecting and evaluating

To develop our children as writers, we:

• Treat children as writers from the earliest stage, with ideas they will communicate, building on the writing skills they have acquired and their knowledge of print from their environment.
• Provide experiences where the children can acquire confidence and positive attitudes to writing.
• Develop and sustain writing skills by providing opportunities for children to write for a range of purposes and audiences.
• Model writing “live” to encourage children to use metacognitive strategies and become independent writers.
• Use a range of guided writing and shared writing sessions to model writing skills, teaching children how to compose, amend and revise their writing.
• Teach children to become critical readers of their own writing by using self-evaluation and checking their work independently for sense, accuracy and meaning.
• Teach grammar and punctuation in the context of children’s own writing as well as through discrete lessons.
• Teach children to develop their ability to organise and present imagination/factual/poetry writing in different ways.
• Teach strategies for spelling to enable children to become confident and competent spellers.

COMING SOON-

Writing progression document

Word of the Day!

Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation Support