English

Intent

At Christ the king, we want all of our pupils to be capable readers, writers, spellers and speakers, who can transfer their English skills to other curriculum subjects and who are prepared for the next steps in their education. We know the value of excellent vocabulary and this is developed and practised across our curriculum constantly.

Our pupils are encouraged to read for pleasure and to read widely through our reading scheme, class reading areas and the school library.

We develop writing skills so that our children have the stamina and ability to write at the age expected standard. We also intend to create writers who can re-read, edit and improve their own writing, and enable pupils to be able to confidently use the essential skills of grammar, punctuation and grammar.

We promote the importance of written work by providing a writing purpose and opportunities for children’s writing to be displayed around school, read aloud and listened to by an audience.  We intend that pupils learn how to understand the relationships between words, word meaning and implied meaning within writing lessons, whilst ensuring that children are supported in their spelling strategies.

Examples of Writing displays around school

Autumn 1 English in Year 1

During the Autumn 1 half term we have looked at the book 'Harry the Happy Mouse'. We read, analysed and responded to the text. Next we gathered content and planned an extra part of the story. Then we wrote our stories. Finally we carried out a non-fiction unit about mice, learning and writing facts about mice.

Autumn 2 English in Year 1

 During the Autumn 2 half term Year 1 have carried out an integrated English unit based on the book 'Supertato' by Sue Hendra.

Creating an interest - first we used our senses to explore fruits and then used this knowledge to write a poem about fruits.

Reading response and reading analysis - we immersed ourselves into the text by looking at new vocabulary, making predictions, retrieving information and inferring how characters felt.

Instructions - next we carried out a mini non-fiction unit on instructions. We made and wrote instructions for making a jelly and for making a jam sandwich. This was also used as gathering content for our innovated story.

Gathering content and planning - from a visual story map we learnt the text off by heart. Then we gathered ideas and planned our innovated stories.

Writing phase - finally we used our ideas and planning to write an innovated story based on Supertato.

Autumn 1 English in Year 2

 During this half term we have looked at the book 'A way for Wilf' and looked at non-fiction texts based on wolves and safari animals. 

During the creating interest and reading phases of the narrative unit, we shared and explored in detail the text The Way Home for Wolf by Rachel Bright. We took part in a range of reading response lessons, during which short writing opportunities, both modelled and independent, featured. As part of the gathering content section, a non-fiction unit was embedded within the sequence, in which children had the opportunity to create a page for an information book based on their chosen animal. This was facilitated through both modelled and independent writing. Upon returning to the narrative unit, children then used this content about their chosen animal to inform the writing of their own story based on the original text The Way Home for Wolf.

Autumn 2 English in Year 2

During Autumn 2, we studied traditional fairy tales and traditional tales with a twist. During the reading phase we were immersed in traditional tales and traditional tales with a twist. We explored characters, vocabulary, key story language and made comparisons with original versions. At the end of the reading phase, we orally learnt a traditional tale with a twist. During the gathering content into the writing phase, we explored ideas for our own traditional tale with a twist, we also started to plan our own versions and began our scaffolded write. We then finally started the writing phase were we completed our scaffolded write, planning and the writing of our own independent traditional tale with a twist. 

Autumn term English in year 3 

This term in year three we have focused on Paddington stories. During the creating interest and reading phase we have focused on lots of book talk, exploring our grammar focus of noun phrases and subordinate conjunctions and have had many short writing opportunities throughout these phases. The children have made top trumps, written character descriptions and post cards and letters to Aunt Lucy. This unit has helped to further embed our year two skills and develop our new year 3 skills. 

Autumn term English in year 3 

This term in year three we have focused on folk tales about Green Children and a short poem about a child named Greenling. Using these texts we have written our own folk tale about a different coloured child! We have had lots of talk for writing opportunities throughout the unit and lots of short writing opportunities including role of the wall which the children loved!

Autumn Term Year 4

During Autumn 2, our focus text was Beowulf by Michael Morpurgo. After lots of speaking and listening activities and reading analysis, we gathered ideas for our own stories. The children developed their sentence level skills and included some fantastic description in their stories. After completing their stories, we studied newspaper reports and wrote a newspaper report about the Vikings attack on Lindisfarne, linking it to our work in history. 

Autumn Term English in Year 6

 In Year 6 this term, we have based some of our work on The Nowhere Emporium by Ross Mackenzie. This amazing story inspired us to write in a range of styles and for different audiences, and also helped us develop our grammar, punctuation and spelling skills and our speaking and listening skills.

In the second half of the term, our focus was on non-narrative reading and writing, and on  biographies in particular.