Our English Curriculum: Achievement through Enjoyment and Excellence

Literacy at our school incorporates the skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening that are so essential for children in today’s society. We make sure all children at our school are equipped in these vital areas of learning.

Our aim at Wymondham is to ensure that all pupils become fluent readers and creative writers who make effective decisions about the use of the English language, with a passion for the different aspects of the subject which allow them to succeed in their creative and analytical expression.

Children embed and apply their understanding of the written and spoken language across the curriculum through a wide range of activities which inspire them to develop a love of reading, broaden their vocabulary and apply grammatical features effectively.

Phonics

In Reception and Year 1, we use Sounds Write to teach Phonics. Children are taught through discreet lessons, and explore phonemes (letters) and graphemes (sounds) on a daily basis. Please see our Phonics curriculum page for further information.

Spellings

From Year 2-6, our children are taught through a comprehensive spelling programme the focus is on identifying patterns and grammatical features such as prefixes, suffixes, plurals and homophones, alongside the teaching of the statutory spellings from the National Curriculum, as appropriate for their age and ability. Our children are regularly tested on spelling patterns that have been learnt throughout the year.

Reading

We are extremely passionate about developing a culture of reading in our school. Children are taught the essential skills of reading (decoding and comprehension) We use a range of genres and texts to support our comprehension and skills-teaching.  Reading lessons take place twice a week, with a 30 minute fluency lesson focused on echo reading and performance and a lesson of 1 hour which covers comprehension skills and is linked to a novel which is used throughout the half term.

Our culture of reading helps cultivate a deep love and pleasure for reading across different genres; we have a wide range of books and a small but well-stocked library where children can borrow books to enjoy both in school and at home.

Children are taught the essential skills of reading (decoding and comprehension) whilst also using a rich and varied range of literature to further extend their knowledge and vocabulary. Our culture of reading helps children to foster a love of books and encourages them to read for pleasure. 

We try to connect our children up with authors and use use digital platforms to learn more.

See our Recommended Reading lists on each of our class pages.

Please visit Books for Topics (external link) for more suggested reading.

Visit the Oxford Owl website (external link) which has over 100 free e-books for you to enjoy with your child.

Writing

As part of our English curriculum, each class receives high-quality teaching to develop their ability to articulate their thoughts, opinions and creative ideas effectively for different audiences. Spelling Punctuation, Grammar and handwriting are taught discreetly as well as collectively across the curriculum and children are expected to apply these skills in all aspects of their writing. Through regular feedback, we encourage children to edit and refine their work, which gives them a sense of accomplishment when completing their final work.  

Through the Jane Considine ‘The Write Stuff’ programme, (see links below for further details) our children are exposed to a wide range of broad vocabulary and grammar skills, with short writing units focusing on different genres and purposes, to ensure we maximise vast opportunities for our children to develop as keen, articulate writers.

To unlock their creativity, our pupils are exposed to a variety of stimuli, including: author visits, experience days (as part of our Writing programme), visual literacy, class novels and cross-curricular links where possible.

Handwriting

We use 'Letter-join' to teach handwriting. It is an on-line handwriting resource and the lesson planners are the basis of our teaching approach as they cover all the requirements of the National Curriculum.

Handwriting is a basic skill that influences the quality of work throughout the curriculum. By the end of Key Stage 2 all pupils should have the ability to produce fluent, legible and, eventually, speedy joined-up handwriting, and to understand the different forms of handwriting used for different purposes. Our intention is to make handwriting an automatic process that does not interfere with creative and mental thinking.

We aim to develop a neat, legible, speedy handwriting style using continuous cursive letters, which leads to producing letters and words automatically in independent writing; establish and maintain high expectations for the presentation of written work; we want pupils to understand, by the end of Year 6, the importance of neat presentation and the need for different letterforms (cursive, printed or capital letters) to help communicate meaning clearly.

Children learn to write letters correctly right from Reception, through the Sound Write programme. They see and hear the letter name and sound and practise through a series of progressive steps using visual and auditory clues.

You can also visit the dedicated handwriting page in the children's area (link below) as this enables them to access their homework.

After many 'free flow' exploratory experiences, where children can rehearse writing in their own way, they are introduced to cursive letter formation whereby the letters are written the same but we start to write them on the line and we encourage a 'flick' at the end. Teachers expose children to cursive writing right at the start when they create displays, instruction sheets and when they write on dry-wipe/interactive boards, for example; this continues all the way through school. We also use a special font when creating worksheets for all children across the school and one which they can use themselves.

This then leads into beautiful joined-up writing.