English

At The Willows Primary School we recognise that an important part of all our teaching is to develop pupils’ ability to use language to think, explore, organise and communicate meaning in a range of different situations.

Our English Curriculum aims to

enable pupils to develop basic literacy skills in order to access all other curriculum subjects
enable pupils to acquire the language skills to express themselves correctly and appropriately.
enable pupils to read accurately and with understanding.
enable pupils to understand the relationship between reading and writing.
provide pupils with learning opportunities which integrate reading, writing, speaking and listening
provide real contexts for language learning in English and across the curriculum.
encourage pupils to have an interest in words, their meaning and a growing vocabulary.
develop the thinking skills of pupils to help them on the path to becoming reflective, independent learners.
provide opportunities for pupils to use ICT to facilitate and extend their learning in speaking, listening, reading and writing.

Working Together to Achieve Literate primary pupils who are able to:

Read and write with confidence, fluency and understanding.
Use a full range of reading cues and strategies.
Monitor their reading and correct their mistakes.
Understand the sound and spelling system and use this to read and spell accurately.
Have fluent and legible handwriting.
Have an interest in words and their meanings.
Develop a growing vocabulary.
Understand, use and be able to write a range of non-fiction.
Know, understand and be able to write in a range of styles within fiction and poetry.
Know about the narrative structure - setting, character, plot.
Plan, draft, revise and edit their own writing.
Be interested in books and read for enjoyment.
Develop imagination through reading and writing

Equipping children with valuable life skills

Why reading and sharing stories matters

It’s the most important thing you can do to help your child succeed. Research shows that involvement in your child’s reading and learning is more important than anything else in helping them to fulfil their potential.
Books contain new words that will help build your child’s language and understanding. Children who are familiar with books and stories are better prepared to make the most of the literacy teaching in school.
Reading together is fun and helps build relationships. Reading with children, or talking about what they have read, is a wonderful way to show that it is an important and valued way to spend free time.
The impact lasts a lifetime. Readers are more confident and have greater job opportunities.
Children learn by example, so if they see you reading, they are likely to want to join in.

The Willows Quality Text Spine

One Million Minutes of Reading

All children at The Willows have been given an extra special reading challenge – to read collectively for a total of 1 MILLION MINUTES every academic year.

This challenge is part of our whole school “Read to Succeed” initiative where we want children to develop their reading skills because being able to read is a vital life skill.

Reading regularly is a really important part of every child’s language development and overall progression in learning.

To successfully pass this whole school challenge, every child in the school (from Y1 through to Y6) needs to read for at least 10 minutes a day, 5 days a week.

Children need to make sure that their 10 minutes of reading at home has been recorded in their reading record and signed by their parent/ an adult.

There is a 1 million minutes reading challenge chart in each class and the children will mark off every hour of reading that they have completed. Weekly totals will be collected and displayed on the whole school reading challenge display in the main building.As a school, we are very excited about taking part in this challenge. Please support your child/children to read as much as possible – 10 minutes a day WILL make a REAL difference to them achieving their full potential.

Further Information

Year 3 English
Year 4 English
Year 5 English
Year 6 English

Common exception words

Year 1 - Common exception words
Year 2 - Common exception words
Year 3-4 - Common exception words
Year 5-6 - Common exception words