At Wooden Hill Primary, we use English to communicate in both written and spoken form. We use language to build our view and opinion of the world and our community. We believe that developing a love of our language in our children is vital in achieving success at school and later in life.  The exploration and enjoyment of the English language is our priority and we value all its aspects – speaking, listening, reading and writing. English is taught daily across the whole school with work appropriately differentiated to match all abilities.

Speaking and Listening

Talking is fundamental to learning. Pupils are encouraged to speak clearly, confidently and with expression in order to state their ideas and opinions.  Just as important, is the need to listen carefully to others and respond in appropriate ways. At Wooden Hill Primary, pupils are given opportunities in all areas of the curriculum to develop their speaking and listening skills, in paired, group or whole class situations. Therefore, role play, poetry recital and drama are key elements of speaking and listening across the school.

Phonics

At Wooden Hill, our aim is for all pupils to become confident and engaged readers. This is taught through a consistent and engaging curriculum programme known as ‘Read Write Inc’. Within Read Write Inc, the children will learn to identify 74 sounds across Reception to Year 2 and apply these sounds to segment and read words.  Children will learn to read ‘red’ words, words that are not phonically decodable, which are provided on a bookmark based on the colour books they are reading. Children will also read nonsense words to assess their confidence in reading unusual words.

Reading

Children who read for pleasure gain a richer vocabulary, more knowledge, critical thinking skills and become independent learners. Guided Reading is an important part of our curriculum. Children work to develop their reading skills and their understanding of texts. We provide children with rich reading experiences within the English lessons and encourage them to appreciate the author’s use of language and writing techniques in order to develop their own writing skills. Our children take their reading books home daily to share with their families/carers. As they go through the school, they are given more responsibility for making their own reading choices from the excellent resources we have in school.

Spelling

We place great value on the importance of accurate spelling. A structured programme of spelling extends across the whole school, beginning with Phonics using the Read Write Inc programme in EYFS and Key Stage 1. There is a natural transition to the Spelling Shed programme at the end of Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 and this continues to be used through to the end of Year 6.

Writing

At Wooden Hill Primary, we aim for children to be independent writers. We encourage them to write clearly and with confidence in any given genre. We teach them to use punctuation and grammar accurately, to be able to proof-read their own work and make amendments and improvements. We place value on the development of correct letter formation and neatly presented handwriting. We give children a wide range of opportunities in which to develop their writing skills and display work of which they are proud. Through our English curriculum, we aim to nurture in the children a love of literature and language, and the confidence to continue reading and writing throughout their lives.

We follow a Talk 4 Writing approach to the teaching of writing.