English

At Abingdon Primary School we aim for all children to be passionate and excited about writing. We strive for our children to be equipped with the skills and knowledge needed to be an enthusiastic and successful writer. By the end of their primary school journey, our children will be independent, successful and ambitious writers who have the ability to write in a variety of different styles and are not afraid to make mistakes.

We want our pupils to have an awareness of the wider world and be immersed by high-quality texts which inspire and motivate our children. We aim to provide an exciting learning environment which is rich in vocabulary and full of opportunities for children to explore their creativity and imagination through writing and reading.

English in Early Years Foundation Stage

In Early Years, the curriculum is guided by the ‘Prime and Specific Areas of Learning’ covering Communication and Language and Literacy. The Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage is followed to ensure continuity and progression from the Foundation Stage through the next stage of education where a bespoke English curriculum (based on the National Curriculum) is followed from Year 1.

In the Early Years Foundation Stage; Communication and Language and Literacy is taught within the seven areas of learning inter-connecting to children’s physical, emotional and social development. We know that children learn best when activities engage many senses and when they are happy and confident.  At Abingdon, a love of books, stories, rhymes, poems, songs, sounds and words starts straight away in our EYFS provision moving up through the whole school. Structured play activities provide valuable opportunities for children to:

• Engage in conversation with other children and adults
• Be exposed to a rich range of vocabulary and language structures
• Share music, songs, poetry, stories and non–fiction
• Experiment with writing for themselves through making marks, personal writing symbols and conventional script, transcription and composition
• Apply phonics knowledge and skills within all seven areas of learning

English in Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2

English is delivered using a personalised English Curriculum based on the National Curriculum. At Abingdon, we follow a writing cycle, and use books as hooks to expose children to a wide range of texts, genres, authors and poets which link with our key school drivers and develop their cultural capital. The book itself, or themes from the book, are used to drive activities where objectives from the curriculum are met in composition, spelling, grammar and punctuation. Our writing curriculum aims to capture the children’s imagination and encourages them to become fluent, thoughtful and creative writers. Each writing unit starts with a ‘hook’ and then the children journey through writing cycle where they will learn and practise specific skills, and plan, draft, edit and publish their writing. We work on a 2 year cycle alongside the rest of our curriculum so that we can make links with the learning in other subjects and create an emmersive curriculum and to enable deeper learning and knowledge retention to happen. Our writing cycle, long term plans and skills progression document can be found in English files. 

Approaches to Writing

In the Foundation Stage, children are encouraged to use emergent writing and phonics knowledge to write freely. The children see writing modelled by the teacher in shared writing sessions and phonics lessons. By the end of Reception, children should be confident with their phonetical knowledge and apply this to spell simple words and write simple sentences which can be read by others.

Within Key Stage 1 and 2, children are taught to write in a variety of genres, for a variety of audiences.

Punctuation, grammar and spelling are taught discretely within English lessons and link to the text being studied at the time. Additional grammar and punctuation sessions are planned in each week to reinforce learning and address any misconceptions.

The Martin Harvey Handwriting Scheme is used across school. Handwriting is taught regularly within focussed handwriting lessons and across the curriculum. Children in Reception and KS1 are taught to use a printed handwriting font, which correlates with and supports their phonics graphemes. In KS2, children are taught a cursive handwriting font.

Spelling

At Abingdon Primary, we use ‘The Spelling Shed’ to teach, practise and assess spellings. From Year 2 – Year 6 we teach spelling lessons 3 times a week. These lessons are revise and introduction, main teaching input, and independent and consolidation work. During spelling lessons, children have the opportunity to recap and consolidate previous spelling words. Spelling Shed's approach to spelling involves the relationship between sounds and written symbols as well as using morphology to help spell through meaning.

Click here for National Curriculum guidance

Files to Download