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English
At Old Cleeve C of E First School we use a book based approach to underpin our curriculum. These high quality texts support the curriculum in each of the year groups from Foundation Stage all the way to Year 4. We aim to immerse children in a literary world, creating strong levels of engagement and provide meaningful contexts for primary English.
We follow Read Write Inc (RWI) for phonics teaching. Children are assessed on a regular basis and taught in groups based on their stage of reading. Children follow the RWI programme from Reception upwards, with the aim to exit during Year 2.
Writing Opportunities
Whilst at Old Cleeve, children have the opportunity to be involved in a variety of extra curricular activities to further promote a love of writing and to demonstrate the skills that they have learnt.
Beacon First School Debate - We have our annual Beacon First School Debating competition for our Year 4s, where children write their own persuasive argument about a chosen debate topic. This is either in the role of For or Against. Children compete against another Year 4 cohort from another school.
World Book Day - Children have the opportunity to meet local and national authors who inspire them to write their own poetry/prose and to take part in lots of different writing and create activities. Authors that have visited recently includes James Carter, Kate Wakeling and Claire Helen Walsh.
House Spelling Bee - All children participate in the House Spelling Bee. Children spell words that have been taught over the year through using the Decision Spelling and RWI Phonics Programme. Children earn points for their house and the house with most points wins the trophy!
KS2 English
In KS2, our curriculum is book-based. The aim of our curriculum is to focus on high-quality texts to inspire our children to develop good awareness and use of key English language features and to inspire their creativity. We follow the OA Canon, which has been adopted across all schools within the trust. The aim of the canon is to ensure that all pupils are given access to a wide variety of texts, including:
Each unit is focused on a central text, with further enrichments texts to support development and learning of key concepts and ideas. Each unit has a particular writing focus:
Over the course of the unit, children become familiar with the text and focus on identifying core language features which exemplify the writing focus. We emphasise that these language features are used to create an excellent piece of writing. At the end of the unit, children are given the opportunity to produce a final write. At Old Cleeve, we want children to write for a purpose, so children are given opportunities to produce writing linked to other curriculum subjects, to further enhance their learning and understanding.
Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation
At KS2 we also teach our Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation as separate lessons. Our Spelling units are taught through the Decision Spelling Programme whilst Grammar and Punctuation is taught through a progressive model. This is to ensure that children have a solid foundation of the core grammar and punctuation skills that are needed at KS2. We ensure that the content taught in these lessons are then applied into our main English lessons, so children can practise the skills that they have learnt. This helps them to demonstrate their understanding of these language features and how they can be applied into different styles of writing.