English

At Woodloes Primary School, our English curriculum is ambitious and inclusive, designed to ensure that all pupils, regardless of background or starting point, develop the knowledge, skills and confidence to become fluent readers, capable writers and articulate speakers. Reading is placed at the heart of our curriculum because we recognise it as the foundation for learning, enabling pupils to access the full breadth of the curriculum and to succeed in future education and life.

Our curriculum is coherently planned and carefully sequenced to ensure pupils know more, remember more and can do more over time. Through a systematic synthetic phonics approach using Supersonic Phonic Friends, pupils rapidly acquire secure decoding skills, enabling early reading success and preventing gaps from widening. This strong foundation ensures that pupils develop accuracy and fluency, allowing them to transition confidently from learning to read to reading to learn.

As pupils progress, reading is developed through exposure to a wide range of high-quality texts, authors and genres. Accelerated Reader supports pupils to read widely and often at an appropriate level of challenge, fostering independence, stamina and secure comprehension. Regular opportunities for reading aloud, discussion and independent reading promote enjoyment, deepen understanding and build cultural capital. This ensures pupils develop both a love of reading and the ability to comprehend increasingly complex texts across the curriculum.

Writing is deliberately and explicitly linked to reading and is taught through a text-led approach using The Literacy Tree. This ensures pupils are immersed in ambitious, high-quality literature and rich vocabulary, enabling them to understand how effective writing is structured and crafted. Writing is taught through clearly sequenced learning episodes, allowing pupils to build on prior knowledge and apply new learning with increasing sophistication. Grammar, punctuation and spelling are taught explicitly and progressively so that pupils gain a secure command of written language.

The curriculum places strong emphasis on the process of writing, with pupils learning to plan, draft, edit and refine their work. Through consistent teacher modelling, shared writing and guided practice, pupils develop independence and confidence, enabling them to write clearly and coherently for a range of purposes, audiences and contexts. High expectations for presentation and accuracy ensure pupils take pride in their work across all curriculum areas.

Oracy is embedded across English and the wider curriculum. Structured talk, discussion and presentation opportunities enable pupils to articulate ideas clearly, listen actively and extend their vocabulary. This language-rich approach supports inclusion and is central to closing vocabulary gaps, particularly for disadvantaged pupils and those with additional needs.

Our curriculum intent ensures that pupils leave Woodloes Primary School as fluent, confident readers, effective and adaptable writers, and articulate communicators, fully prepared for the demands of secondary education. Through a carefully sequenced and ambitious English curriculum, pupils develop the knowledge, skills and cultural understanding needed to achieve well and thrive beyond primary school.