English
English at Beeches Junior School
English is a vital subject in both education and society, equipping pupils with the skills to express their thoughts and emotions fluently. A high-quality English curriculum nurtures confidence in speaking and writing while fostering meaningful connections through reading and listening.
At Beeches Junior School, we are committed to maintaining high standards of language and literacy by providing pupils with strong spoken and written communication skills. We foster a lifelong love of reading and writing through frequent engagement with diverse, high-quality texts. Carefully selecting books for our English lessons, we ensure children are exposed to the best and most current literature, including titles that reflect modern society and celebrate a wide range of voices. By promoting inclusivity, we create a learning environment where every child feels represented, valued and inspired to explore the power of language.
We firmly believe that the most effective way to learn to read is through a systematic phonics programme. For children identified as needing additional support, our Little Wandle rapid catch-up phonics intervention provides targeted assistance to help children accelerate their phonics learning and reach age-appropriate reading levels.
In addition to this, we follow the Little Wandle fluency scheme which acts as a vital bridge between the Little Wandle rapid catch-up programme and age-appropriate reading, providing targeted support through the assessment of fluency, automaticity, and prosody. All year 3 pupils, along with those who complete the rapid catch-up scheme, are assessed and grouped accordingly for reading lessons. This ensures they are reading books that align with their reading age and stage. Children in Years 3 and 4 who are reading at an age-appropriate level, as well as all pupils in Years 5 and 6, participate in whole-class reading lessons focused on a core book. These sessions take place four times a week.
We encourage children to read their home reading books for at least 15 minutes each evening, though they are always welcome to read more. To support their progress, we ask children or adults to record daily comments in their home reading books, reflecting on what has been read.
Children learn to write for different purposes and audiences, using a variety of writing styles. Reading and writing are closely linked, as both build on shared knowledge of topics, literature, syntax and vocabulary. Our writing lessons are based on a high-quality core book, supported by additional materials. In Years 5 and 6, the same book is used for reading and writing, while in Years 3 and 4, reading and writing texts may vary depending on the fluency needs within the key stage. Every learning journey has an opportunity for speaking and listening. Writing lessons are taught daily, with each learning journey lasting approximately three weeks although for some literature, this might be longer. During this time, children develop two grammatical or punctuation skills while planning, drafting, editing and refining their work. At the end of each cycle, they produce a final piece that integrates all the skills acquired throughout the journey. This piece is published.
At Beeches Junior School, we strongly believe that spelling is an essential skill, which allows children to communicate their understanding in all curriculum subjects. If pupils are to become effective and confident writers, they need to develop a love of language, a knowledge of words and to adopt and employ a range of spelling strategies.
By adopting a consistent approach to the teaching of spelling, we aim for the children to develop confidence and accuracy when spelling across the curriculum. We understand that people may approach spelling in different ways; therefore, we will expose children to and teach a range of strategies using the Spelling Shed scheme.
In doing so we aim to:
· Help children recognise that spelling is a valuable, lifelong communication skill
· Encourage children to take an interest in the morphology and etymology of words
· Encourage children to have a positive view of themselves as spellers
· Encourage creativity, where children have the confidence to use and spell more challenging and ambitious words
We are very proud of our pupils’ handwriting and take particular care in our handwriting style. We use the ISHA handwriting programme as it covers 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.