English

Intent

At Chelsfield our goal is to inspire and nurture our children to develop a lifelong love of reading, to be confident, effective communicators and enthusiastic, creative writers. Our curriculum closely follows the aims of the National Curriculum for English and ensures that children acquire the knowledge and skills to become successful and confident readers and writers. We believe that confidence and achievement in literacy provides children with the essential tools for lifelong learning and for success and effective participation in society. 

When our children leave Chelsfield, we aim for them to 

• Be confident and fluent readers, who read widely and are able to express preferences and opinions about the texts that they read
• Take enjoyment and pleasure in reading, having had access to a wide range of text types, genres and authors. 
• Write with confidence and accuracy for a wide variety of purposes and in a range of genres, whilst developing their own individual style and flair.
• Be able to write with grammatical accuracy and be able to apply spelling patterns, using a neat handwriting style.
• Be exposed to and use a wide range of vocabulary, being able to recall those words and use them effectively for their own communication, both orally and written.
• Listen and respond appropriately, effectively and confidently; asking relevant questions, collaborating with others and expressing their own views.

Implementation

We use the Power of Reading programme which fosters a love of reading and writing throughout the whole school and ensures a high quality literacy curriculum which develops reading comprehension and writing composition. Children are encouraged to consider the purpose and audience of their writing whilst developing their own individual writing style. Inspirational and diverse texts are carefully selected to excite, engage and motivate children to encourage a love of reading and writing. High quality modelling and shared writing provide a structure for children to begin the writing process combined with the teaching of grammar, punctuation and spelling skills embedded within the context of the unit of writing.

In Reception and Year 1 we teach reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds  which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move throughout the school. 

Handwriting and letter formation is explicitly taught and modelled throughout the school. Good presentation is emphasised at all times and through all forms of writing in every subject.

Impact

We aim to foster a community of enthusiastic, skilled and confident readers and writers, who are increasingly confident to employ knowledge and skills to showcase their flair for language and effective communication across a range of contexts and purposes.