English
“English opens the door to amazing stories, exciting ideas and new worlds. Through reading, writing and sharing our thoughts, we can discover, imagine and make our voices heard!”
“Life in all its fullness” – John 10:10
We want all our children to LIVE – Life in all its fullness.
As a Church of England primary school, our Christian values of Love & Kindness, Friendship, Respect, Justice, Freedom & Responsibility, and Equality underpin everything we do.
Our LIVE curriculum encourages children to become:
L – Life-Long Learners: Developing the knowledge, confidence and skills to communicate effectively throughout life.
I – Immersive: Engaging with high-quality literature, rich language experiences and purposeful opportunities to read, write and communicate.
V – Valuing Diversity: Exploring different cultures, experiences and perspectives through carefully chosen texts and meaningful discussion.
E – Enquiring Minds: Asking questions, thinking critically, expressing ideas and developing curiosity about language and the world around them.
At Bickerton Holy Trinity, we believe that reading, writing and effective communication are fundamental to children's learning, wellbeing and future opportunities.
Our English curriculum is ambitious, inclusive and carefully sequenced to ensure that every child develops the knowledge, skills and confidence to become a fluent reader, skilled writer and articulate communicator.
Through high-quality teaching, engaging literature and meaningful learning experiences, we aim to nurture a lifelong love of reading and writing while ensuring that all pupils secure the essential foundations needed to succeed across the curriculum.
Intent: What do we want our pupils to learn?
Our ambition is for every child to leave Bickerton as a confident, independent and enthusiastic reader, writer and communicator.
We want all pupils to:
Become fluent, confident readers who read accurately, understand what they read and develop a genuine enjoyment of books.
Develop a love of literature through exposure to high-quality texts, authors, genres and perspectives that broaden their experiences and understanding of the world.
Write accurately and effectively, developing secure foundations in spelling, handwriting, punctuation, grammar and sentence construction.
Communicate confidently, using a rich and increasingly sophisticated vocabulary to express ideas clearly in speech and writing.
Develop comprehension and critical thinking, making inferences, retrieving information, questioning texts and explaining their understanding.
Write for a range of purposes and audiences, selecting appropriate vocabulary, language structures and organisational features.
Build on prior learning, securing essential knowledge and skills before applying them to increasingly complex reading and writing tasks.
Become resilient, reflective learners who take pride in their work, respond positively to feedback and recognise that improvement comes through practice.
Experience an inclusive and ambitious curriculum, with appropriate adaptations and support to enable all pupils, including those with SEND, to achieve their potential.
We recognise that strong foundations in phonics, reading fluency, spelling, handwriting and sentence construction are essential for future success.
Our curriculum therefore prioritises accuracy, fluency and automaticity, enabling children to become increasingly independent and confident in their learning.
Implementation: How do we teach English?
English is taught daily throughout the school, following the Early Years Foundation Stage statutory framework and the National Curriculum.
Our curriculum is supported by carefully selected, evidence-informed programmes that provide consistency and progression:
Read Write Inc. Phonics: Systematic synthetic phonics and early reading.
Read Write Inc. Spelling: Developing spelling knowledge, patterns and strategies.
Pathways to Read: Developing reading comprehension through high-quality literature.
Cracking Comprehension: Supporting the development and application of comprehension skills.
Pathways to Write: A progressive, text-based approach to writing, developed by The Literacy Company.
These programmes provide a structured foundation for teaching while allowing teachers to respond to the needs of their pupils.
Our mixed-age class structure requires careful planning to ensure that children access the appropriate year-group expectations and make sustained progress.
Teachers identify prior learning, plan clear progression and adapt teaching to ensure that essential knowledge and skills are revisited, secured and extended.
Our approach reflects our principle of “Different Routes, One Destination”, recognising that pupils may require different levels of support and different pathways to achieve ambitious outcomes.
Phonics and early reading
We use Read Write Inc. (RWI) Phonics to provide a consistent, systematic approach to early reading.
Children are taught to recognise sounds, blend accurately and develop increasing fluency and confidence when reading.
Daily phonics teaching includes:
Explicit teaching and regular review of phoneme–grapheme correspondences.
Oral blending, segmenting and decoding.
Reading carefully matched decodable books.
Developing accuracy, automaticity and expression.
Regular assessment to identify gaps and ensure appropriate progression.
Children are grouped according to their current phonics knowledge and receive teaching matched to their stage of development.
Pupils who require additional support receive targeted practice and intervention to help them keep up with their peers.
We recognise the importance of early identification and timely support, particularly for pupils who experience difficulties with decoding and reading fluency.
Our aim is for every child to become a confident, fluent reader as quickly as possible, providing a secure foundation for learning across the curriculum.
Reading: Developing fluency, comprehension and a love of literature
Reading is at the heart of our curriculum.
We want children not only to learn to read but to develop a lifelong love of reading.
As children become secure in phonics and decoding, teaching increasingly focuses on fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.
Through Pathways to Read and Cracking Comprehension, pupils develop the knowledge and strategies needed to understand and interpret increasingly challenging texts.
Teaching focuses on:
Reading accurately, fluently and with expression.
Developing vocabulary and understanding language in context.
Retrieving and summarising information.
Making inferences supported by evidence.
Predicting, questioning and clarifying meaning.
Exploring authors' choices, themes and perspectives.
Making connections between texts and prior knowledge.
Teachers explicitly model comprehension strategies and provide guided opportunities for children to practise and apply them.
Our curriculum exposes children to a rich range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry, including texts that reflect diverse cultures, experiences and viewpoints.
Reading is promoted throughout school through class stories, reading for pleasure, author studies, book recommendations and opportunities to share and discuss literature.
We also recognise the importance of reading fluency beyond the early stages of phonics. Pupils who can decode accurately but lack automaticity, pace or expression receive further support to develop fluent reading.
Writing: Developing confident, accurate and creative writers
Writing is taught through The Literacy Company's Pathways to Write, which provides a progressive approach built around high-quality texts and purposeful writing outcomes.
Children are immersed in engaging literature that stimulates imagination, develops vocabulary and provides meaningful contexts for writing.
Our approach combines creativity and composition with the explicit teaching of essential transcription and sentence-level skills.
We place particular emphasis on securing the foundations of writing so that pupils can communicate their ideas clearly and accurately.
Teaching includes:
Handwriting and presentation: Developing correct letter formation, consistent joins where appropriate, fluency and pride in written work.
Spelling: Applying phonics knowledge, spelling patterns and statutory word expectations accurately.
Sentence construction: Writing grammatically accurate sentences using appropriate punctuation and increasingly varied structures.
Vocabulary development: Selecting precise, ambitious and purposeful vocabulary.
Grammar and punctuation: Understanding and applying grammatical knowledge within meaningful writing contexts.
Composition: Planning, organising, drafting, evaluating and improving writing for different audiences and purposes.
Editing and proofreading: Developing independence in identifying and correcting errors and refining written work.
Our teaching is informed by the principle that secure foundational knowledge enables more ambitious and creative writing.
Teachers use explicit modelling, shared writing, worked examples and guided practice to demonstrate successful writing processes.
Children are taught to understand what successful writing looks like through clear learning outcomes, examples and focused feedback.
We prioritise opportunities for pupils to practise and embed essential skills, particularly handwriting, spelling, sentence accuracy and punctuation, before expecting them to apply these independently in extended writing.
Across the curriculum, pupils are expected to apply their writing skills consistently and take pride in the accuracy and presentation of their work.
Spelling, handwriting and transcription
We recognise that fluent transcription is essential to successful writing.
When spelling and handwriting become increasingly automatic, children can devote more attention to vocabulary, sentence construction and composition.
Our approach includes:
Systematic phonics teaching through Read Write Inc.
Progressive spelling instruction through RWI Spelling and age-appropriate teaching.
Explicit handwriting instruction and consistent presentation expectations.
Regular practice of high-frequency and statutory spelling words.
Opportunities to revisit and apply spelling patterns.
Clear expectations for spelling and handwriting across all subjects.
Teachers use assessment to identify gaps in transcription skills and provide additional practice or targeted support where necessary.
Our focus is on developing accuracy, fluency and independence, ensuring that pupils can apply their knowledge confidently in everyday writing.
Speaking, listening and vocabulary
Oracy is fundamental to learning and is embedded throughout our English curriculum.
We want every child to develop the confidence to express their ideas, listen respectfully and participate in meaningful discussions.
Pupils are provided with regular opportunities to:
Speak clearly and confidently for different purposes and audiences.
Listen actively and respond thoughtfully.
Ask questions, explain ideas and justify opinions.
Develop and apply increasingly sophisticated vocabulary.
Participate in discussions, debates, drama and presentations.
Rehearse ideas orally before writing.
Respect different perspectives and communicate with kindness.
Teachers explicitly model vocabulary, sentence structures and effective communication.
Through purposeful talk and discussion, pupils develop the language needed to think deeply, explain their understanding and become confident communicators.
Our Christian values of Respect, Equality and Friendship are reflected in how children listen, respond and engage with one another.
High-quality teaching and adaptive practice
Our approach to English is informed by evidence-based teaching principles, including explicit instruction, modelling, guided practice, retrieval and responsive assessment.
Teachers use:
Clear explanations and small, manageable learning steps.
Regular review of prior knowledge.
Teacher modelling and thinking aloud.
Shared and guided practice before independent application.
Carefully selected examples and scaffolds.
Explicit vocabulary instruction.
Frequent questioning and checks for understanding.
Timely feedback and opportunities to practise and improve.
These approaches support pupils in developing secure knowledge and becoming increasingly independent.
Inclusion and Ordinarily Available Inclusive Provision (OAIP) are central to our teaching.
We maintain high expectations for all pupils, including those with SEND and disadvantaged pupils, while recognising that some children require additional teaching, repetition, scaffolding or alternative ways to access learning.
Adaptations may include pre-teaching vocabulary, visual prompts, sentence scaffolds, worked examples, additional phonics practice, chunked instructions and targeted adult support.
Where appropriate, individual learning pathways are informed by pupils' identified needs and support plans.
Our aim is to remove barriers to learning without unnecessarily limiting the ambition of the curriculum.
English in the Early Years
In Reception, communication, language and literacy are developed through a carefully planned balance of adult-led teaching, purposeful play and meaningful interactions.
Children experience a language-rich environment where stories, songs, rhymes and conversations form an essential part of daily learning.
Our Early Years provision focuses on:
Developing listening, attention and understanding.
Building vocabulary and confidence in spoken language.
Enjoying stories, rhymes and books.
Learning phonics through Read Write Inc.
Developing early reading and comprehension.
Strengthening fine motor skills and letter formation.
Exploring early writing through meaningful experiences.
Adults model language, extend children's thinking and provide opportunities to practise and apply developing literacy skills.
We aim to ensure that children leave Reception with strong foundations in communication, phonics and early writing, preparing them for the next stage of learning.
Assessment and responsive teaching
Assessment is an integral part of our English curriculum.
Teachers continually evaluate pupils' understanding and use this information to adapt teaching, revisit essential knowledge and address misconceptions.
Assessment includes:
Regular RWI phonics assessments.
Ongoing reading fluency and comprehension assessment.
Review of pupils' writing against year-group expectations.
Spelling and handwriting assessments.
Termly NFER tests
Teacher observations, questioning and discussion.
Writing moderation and assessment of independent work.
Termly assessment and pupil progress reviews.
Statutory assessments, including the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check and Key Stage 2 assessments.
Assessment information helps teachers identify pupils who are at risk of falling behind and plan timely, targeted support.
We recognise that progress is demonstrated through what children know, remember and can independently apply, rather than simply the completion of tasks.
Impact: How do we know our English curriculum is successful?
The impact of our English curriculum is reflected in pupils' confidence, knowledge, independence and ability to communicate effectively.
We want pupils to leave Bickerton as enthusiastic readers, capable writers and articulate communicators who are well prepared for secondary education and life beyond school.
We evaluate success through the following outcomes.
Confident, fluent readers
Pupils develop secure phonics knowledge, read accurately and fluently, and demonstrate increasing comprehension of a wide range of texts.
They enjoy reading, discuss books confidently and develop personal reading preferences.
Accurate, independent writers
Pupils demonstrate increasing accuracy and fluency in spelling, handwriting, grammar and punctuation.
They can plan, compose and improve writing for a range of purposes, applying their knowledge independently and taking pride in their work.
Articulate communicators
Pupils use increasingly rich vocabulary, explain their ideas clearly, listen respectfully and participate confidently in discussions.
Secure knowledge and progression
Pupils build on prior learning, retain essential knowledge and apply their reading and writing skills across the curriculum.
They demonstrate progress towards clearly identified curriculum end points and age-related expectations.
Positive attitudes and resilience
Pupils approach reading and writing with confidence, curiosity and enthusiasm.
They recognise the value of practice, feedback and perseverance in improving their work.
Inclusion and achievement for all
All pupils, including those with SEND and disadvantaged pupils, are supported to make progress from their starting points.
Additional teaching and intervention are evaluated to ensure that they address identified barriers and support pupils towards greater independence.
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