English and Reading Lead: Ros Baker

Our Curriculum Intent

At Trent Young’s we believe that a quality English curriculum should develop children’s skills in, and love for reading, writing and discussion. We aim to inspire an appreciation of our rich and varied literary heritage and a habit of reading widely and often. We recognise the importance of nurturing a culture where children take pride in their writing, can write clearly and accurately and adapt their language and style for a range of contexts. We ensure that children develop a secure knowledge-base in all aspects of English. National Curriculum requirements form the basis of our teaching. These are broken down into smaller chunks of learning in our curriculum documents.

Our Curriculum Implementation

Our curriculum closely follows the aims of the National Curriculum for English 2014.

• The national curriculum for English aims 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.
• Genres for both reading and writing are mapped across the school to ensure children experience a wide range during their time at Trent Young’s.
• Knowledge and skills for reading, writing, spelling and grammar have been planned so that there is a clear progression across key stages, and across the school.
• Our vocabulary strategy gives details of tier 2 words (academic vocabulary) to be used and learned by each year group.
• Curriculum offers for every subject give details of tier 3 words (subject specific vocabulary) to be used and learned by each year group.
• Spelling and grammar is taught both discretely and as part of reading and writing lessons.

Our Curriculum Impact

We strive to ensure that our children's attainment is in line or exceeds their potential when we consider the varied starting points of all our children. We measure progress and attainment using a range of methods:

• Moderation of writing within school and with other schools using assessment criteria for each year group, adapted from Somerset Literacy Network;
• Ongoing assessment in lessons, which informs planning and the setting of children’s individual targets
• Weekly spelling tests
• Termly reading, and grammar and spelling tests
• Self and peer assessment.