The English Curriculum
Watch our English Curriculum video below and read more about the curriculum in the documents section on this page.
English Curriculum Intent
To equip every child with sufficient oracy skills in order to communicate effectively when creating friendships, building teams and expressing their own opinions in their everyday life. To inspire a love of reading and writing and an understanding of language through carefully chosen texts in order to develop fluent readers and creative writers.
“Pupils love to read. This is typified by the example of a Year 6 pupil who explained how the class was inspired by a book suggested by the teacher.”
Ofsted 2018
Our English Vision
“Words are, in my not so humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic…” (JK.Rowling)
Reading and Writing is at the heart of everything we do at Kentmere Academy & Nursery. It is interwoven with all areas of the curriculum to provide a breadth of opportunity and to develop the specific skills required for high standards of language and literacy. We recognise the immeasurable importance of communication through the written and oral word and this is consistently shown throughout our school. The children who attend Kentmere are from a range of socio-economic and cultural backgrounds; often English is not their first language, therefore it is imperative that we introduce them to a wide range of language and vocabulary from the very start of their education with us. A high-quality education in English will teach pupils to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others and through their reading and listening, others can communicate with them. Through reading in particular, pupils have a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. Literature, especially, plays a key role in such development. Reading also enables pupils both to acquire knowledge and to build on what they already know. All the skills of language are essential to participating fully as a member of society; pupils, therefore, who do not learn to speak, read and write fluently and confidently are effectively disenfranchised.
We are passionate about the importance of Early Reading and follow the phonics scheme ‘Read, Write, Inc.’ for our Early Years and KS1 children. The ‘Fresh Start’ programme is continued into KS2 for those children who didn’t reach the required standard by the end of KS1 or who need more time to embed their skills. Pupils read fully decodable books at a level appropriate to them and this is mirrored in the texts they take home.
Once children are proficient in Phonics, they move away from decodables to continue to build a range of strategies and a greater focus on fluency and comprehension. In addition to the daily phonics sessions in Early Years and KS1, all pupils at Kentmere are offered the following in terms of their reading opportunities:
- Whole Class Guided Reading twice a week
- Small Group Guided Reading every week
- Vocabulary lesson once a week
- English lessons based on a high quality text
- Daily reading for pleasure opportunities, including listening to a teacher read the class text
- Curriculum subjects with opportunities for reading planned for
- Celebration days including Author Days, Starbooks Day and World Book Days
- Access to a recently refurbished library and Reading Hut
- Access to an annual book fair
We follow the RAMP reading structure for our reading sessions to provide the children with lots of opportunities for repetition, retrieval, inference and summarising of texts. We extend our learners beyond the National Curriculum through the use of high quality, ambitious texts chosen by the teachers to really develop their vocabulary and ability to become confident, fluent readers.
At Kentmere, the children are taught to write in a variety of styles for a range of purposes and audiences, linked to the subject driver and through the means of high-quality texts. As they progress through the school, our expectations of the children’s stamina for writing and the quality of their writing increase significantly. We encourage children to develop their vocabulary (helped by reading), their creativity and their technical skill in writing. Our children learn the importance of editing and improving their work concentrating on punctuation, grammar, word choice and the flow of their writing. They are encouraged to be adventurous and ambitious with their work. As you walk through Kentmere you will see the fantastic writing our children produce proudly displayed on our corridors and in our classrooms. We have a heavy focus on the importance of presentation of our written work, the children all write using Kentmere Script and take pride in the work they produce.
Read our Reading Strategy here.
Read our latest Reading to Succeeding Newsletter here.
Watch our English Video
We hope you will watch our video that will show you some of the amazing learning and fun that takes place in our school. Our pupils had fun being filmed and showcasing their work.
