At Newlands our English curriculum provides a vital stepping stone to ensure children are taught to communicate their ideas and emotions through the five strands of the English curriculum: reading, writing, grammar, speaking and listening. 

We aim to provide all children with a literacy rich environment which includes the opportunity to explore rich texts and inspiring learning opportunities to become great readers, writers and speakers.

Reading: the aim is to build pupils who can read accurately, fluently and with understanding. They should be able to read with appropriate intonation, clarity and confidence. In Ks1 and Ks2 there is a large focus on retrieving and inferring key information from what children have read in the text.

Writing: Writing at Newlands aims to provide children with all the tools which enable them to write clearly, coherently and accurately for a range of meaningful contexts, purposes and audiences. Towards the end of the learning journey, children are given time to refine and evaluate their pieces, taking pride in their presentation using fluent and legible handwriting.

Grammar: Each year group is taught the grammar and punctuation that is suggested in the National Curriculum. This is taught discretely and as an embedded part of our learning journey model to ensure these are interwoven in their writing.

Speaking and Listening: Within any learning journey there are many opportunities to develop oracy before writing opportunities, this can include: drama opportunities, discussions of the text, sharing ideas with partners and listenin

How we deliver our curriculum

English and phonics are taught on a daily basis in EYFS through Ks1 and Ks2.

Writing at Newlands is taught through a variety of rich text drivers to stimulate and inspire our pupils to produce a wide range of writing outcomes. In order to deliver writing effectively we use the HIAS learning journey model, this includes three phases that the unit of work is delivered in to aid the children to get the most out of their learning. The three phases are: stimulate and generate, capture, sift and sort and create, refine and evaluate. Across the three phases there are writing opportunities which enable children to build on these as they progress through the key stages and to develop the skill of editing.

Reading sessions are held everyday this may form part of the phonics sessions for Ks1 pupils and some of Year 3. Additionally, we have bi-weekly library sessions where children borrow a book/s of their choice. We used echo reading, choral reading, shared reading, independent reading and 1:1 reading to an adult to boost reading skills. When reading children will be asked comprehension style questions for them to respond to the text they are reading.

Handwriting sessions are taught 3 times a week, there is a focus on the letter formation, statutory words/HFW and spelling patterns specific to each year group. Early mark making forms the basis to then progress to foster their imagination in order to provide writing opportunities. When starting to mark making and begin letter formations, they follow the RWI letter formation before moving onto CVC words and then sentence writing. Cursive letter formation is for children in year 2 upwards who are forming their letters correctly in order to be able to join. Children should leave Newlands writing in a legible style.

We currently use No-nonsense spelling scheme; this focuses on specific patterns and rules and provides strategies for children to help them spell particular words. These sessions occur 3x a week. g to other pupils’ ideas. Drama opportunities not only support the children with their spoken language and ability to communicate to an audience but is also used to inspire and shape their writing.

How we support everyone to learn

At Newlands we aim to ensure that everyone accesses the same rich texts but support varies and the outcomes are adapted. We provide children with a range of writing styles to enable all children to achieve. The learning journey model allows many opportunities for talk, partner/adult work and independent work this enables children to build on their existing knowledge and extend their understanding which in turn improves their writing/reading standards.

We have a range of ways in which we adapt the learning to suit individual needs, these include: visual aids, chunking instructions into more manageable steps, we have a clear modelling process to allow children to consider their thought process. We provide all children with visual aids, scaffolded models (vocabulary bank, writing frames, WAGOLL etc), word/sentence level resources in order to support their writing.

We have a consistent approach to delivering the RWI phonics programme, children are regularly assessed and grouped accordingly. For those children requiring extra support we offer fast track phonics to ensure over teaching in order for these individuals to achieve and to close the gap.