English

Through delivering an engaging and diverse English curriculum, we intend to ensure that children leave Woodlands as effective communicators, accomplished readers and purposeful writers.

We are developing a book led curriculum that continues to evolve to suit the needs of our children and the changing world around them using high quality and varied texts to provide a stimulus to explore different genres and develop literacy skills. We use books that have cross curricular links and explore historical, cultural, emotional and social issues allowing children to express their ideas and contextualise real world issues. Literature such as ‘Samson’s Titanic Journey’ by Lauren Graham, ‘The River’ by Valerie Bloom, ‘How to Live Forever’ by Colin Thompson are examples of some of the books that promote these themes. In addition to this, we explore whole school books where children across the year groups study a text in depth. Through whole class, individual and guided reading, teachers nurture and model the value of reading, aiming to develop a love of books and a habit of reading widely and often.

Beginning in nursery, children are taught phonics through the Read, Write Inc scheme which provides a holistic approach that encompasses and combines the skills needed for reading and writing.

As children progress, they are taught the importance of having a clear audience and purpose when communicating. We aim to teach them the importance of expressing themselves with clarity and equip children with the vocabulary in order to achieve this. We recognise the importance of nurturing a culture where children take pride and ownership of their writing: children are taught to spell correctly and write grammatically correct sentences reflecting and adapting their language and style for a range of contexts. We want children to be proud, enthusiastic learners and endeavour to provide an interesting and rich experience of literature in its many forms including drama and visual media.