Reading and Writing

English Intent 

At Whitmore Park, we believe reading, writing and communication create the foundation for children’s learning. The English curriculum is centred around high-quality literature to enable pupils to broaden their vocabulary as well as open their minds to new cultures and experiences, helping to foster a love for language and literature and give the children the tools to be life-long learners. In our curriculum, reading is a priority and we endeavour to support children to become fluent and confident readers. We provide pupils with quality examples of writing in order to inspire their own work so they can develop their own style and voice as they draw upon what they have read. We want to provide a rich and engaging English curriculum that not only equips pupils with essential literacy skills, but also inspires creativity and passion. Our ultimate aim is to ensure that all pupils, regardless of background or ability, develop a strong command of the English language, enabling them to communicate effectively with both spoken and written language; think critically about authors’ writing and their own and access a wide range of texts with confidence and understanding.  

Reading Implementation 

After completing the Read Write Inc scheme of work, pupils are then taught further fluency and comprehension skills. We follow a bespoke weekly reading structure using carefully selected books, chosen for their interesting structures, high level of vocabulary and engaging themes. In every lesson, children read an extract of text and have the opportunity to develop their word reading and fluency skills. Throughout the week, the teacher models fluent reading and the children echo this and then practice applying these skills with a partner.  

Every reading lesson begins with a pre-teach of new vocabulary from the text. The children are taught up to 3 words that they need to know in order to understand the text and they have the opportunity to orally apply this vocabulary in context.  Each week begins with ‘book talk’ lesson with an extract from the class text. In this lesson, the aim is to create a mental model of the text and for the children to develop a strong understanding of what they are reading through questioning and discussion. The children are then taught key skills they need for reading and have the opportunity to apply these skills to different styles of comprehension questions before completing a stand-alone comprehension task at the end of the week to apply their skills in a new context.  

The children have reading for pleasure sessions three times per week. This is an opportunity to read quietly with a book that they enjoy, read their levelled reading book or talk about and recommend books that they have been enjoying recently. The teacher’s role is to listen to children read or to facilitate discussions around books to promote a love of reading. 

Writing Implementation 

In Year 1, the children being to learn key sentence structures each week based around a high-quality text. They will also begin to develop the basic skills of sentence writing before, over the course of the year, building on this and developing the cohesion between sentences. They will then move on to writing sentences that are sequenced to form a narrative or recount based on the chosen class texts or a real experience. This creates a secure foundation for the children as they move on to Year 2 where they begin to learn about writing for different purposes.