English at Monksdown
Key Documents
English Intent, Implementation and Impact
Progression of Skills in Reading
Progression in Skills in Writing
Adaptations to the Curriculum for Pupils with SEND (Curriculum Statements)
We believe…
English is at the heart of every child and adults life. We live in an environment where written text is all around us and we use the
fundamentals of writing and reading in our daily lives. This is why at Monksdown we believe that English should be at the heart of all aspects of school life.
At Monksdown we aim to deliver a high quality English curriculum that gives children the best possible opportunities to become confident and successful readers and writers with a deep love and understanding of the English language. We believe the development of reading and writing skills is central to improving a child’s life chances.
Our teachers have high expectations for all children to achieve and enjoy the art of Writing and to be able to use the skills they acquire in a range of contexts. We promote reading throughout our Curriculum and children are taught to develop their reading skills every day. We strive to ensure all children can communicate clearly in written form and become masters of language.
Children are given daily opportunities to explore and develop their reading and writing skills through a number of rich, engaging and creative activities in order to prepare them for the world they live in.
We understand the importance of writing and language in our lives and we are committed to ensuring we do our very best to help the children in our care become creative writers and successful readers.
How Reading is Taught.
In EYFS and Year 1, daily phonics supports the development of early reading skills. Additionally, to this the children learn to read using a fully phonetically decodable reading scheme to ensure they can put their phonetical skills to use to read for understanding.
In years 2 – 6 guided reading sessions provide the children with opportunities to develop word reading and comprehension skills, incorporating all strands of reading comprehension using the VIPERS questioning model.
Whole class guided reading is use to encourage high level vocabulary, inference techniques, prediction skills, explain their thinking around a text, learn how to retrieve information and sequence and summarise information they have read.
In addition to the discrete daily reading, a diverse range of reading opportunities are embedded across the curriculum. Quality texts are used as a lead into many writing opportunities where new vocabulary can be learnt and applied and whole class texts are shared with the children to allow time to listen to and enjoy stories. First Chapter Friday’s allow children to have renewed enthusiasm about books within their classroom and our ‘Authors’ of the Month’ alongside our numerous Author Visits, allow children to discover books and writers they may not have come across without it.
To discover more about what we do at Monksdown, please click here
To see more about our reading events at Monksdown, please click here.
How Writing is Taught.
Writing is taught using the Pathways scheme of work. Through the use of a quality texts and teaching of ‘mastery keys’ we teach the children to infer, understand and use high-level vocabulary, a range of punctuation. Each text is purposefully selected in order to promote a love of reading, engagement and high-quality writing from each child. We ensure that each year group is taught the explicit grammar, punctuation and spelling objectives required for that age groups. Writing is celebrated across the school with displays of high-quality writing along with sharing successes for the children in our celebration assemblies.
As well as teaching the national curriculum objectives, teachers are able to embed the skills throughout the year in cross curricular writing opportunities.
To see more about our writing at Monksdown, please click here.