Intent

Our curriculum is aligned with the National Curriculum for English 2014 and is designed with the intent that all children, regardless of background, will become fluent, insightful readers, technically skilled, creative writers and confident, articulate speakers. We want our children to develop a love of reading, writing, discussion and performance which will last a lifetime and we aim to equip them with the skills they need to be successful in these areas and to empower them to access a greater range of career pathways in their futures.

Our English curriculum has been developed to recognise the importance of English in every aspect of daily life and also in supporting children to access the whole curriculum more readily. It is our intention to provide a stimulating, language-rich environment in which staff are committed to promoting high quality speaking, listening, reading and writing experiences whilst valuing and celebrating diversity in culture and language. We recognise the importance of nurturing a culture where children love to read, take pride in their writing and can clearly and accurately adapt their language and style for a range of contexts.

At St. Bede’s, we believe in setting high expectations for all our children to help them achieve to the best of their ability in all aspects of the English curriculum. We teach our children to take great pride in their work and to have the courage to take risks in order that they may learn from any mistakes they may make.

We have planned a coherent and well-sequenced curriculum which develops children’s learning and results in the acquisition of knowledge and skills which is conducive to all of the children knowing more, remembering more and understanding more.

Our intent is to enable children to –

Read confidently, fluently and with good understanding
Establish good reading habits from an early age which include reading frequently and widely for both pleasure and information
Have access to a wide range of quality texts and a variety of reading experiences
Appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage
Acquire a wide vocabulary
Confidently use the essential skills of spelling, grammar and punctuation
Develop a love of writing and to be able to express their thoughts and ideas clearly and creatively through their writing
Write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences
Re-read, edit and improve their own writing
Use discussion in order to learn; pupils should be able to elaborate and clearly explain their understanding and ideas
Become competent in the arts of speaking and listening and performing in front of an audience
Take pride in their presentation and write legibly and fluently.

Implementation

At St. Bede’s we have developed a writing curriculum which is tailor-made to meet the needs of our staff and pupils focusing on quality first teaching to ensure that all of our children are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to be able to write effectively for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences.

Our writing process draws upon guidance from the Education Endowment Foundation; however, we have adapted this to create a more bespoke curriculum which we believe better reflects the needs of our children, helping them to achieve high quality writing outcomes. We prioritise staff professional development in school, ensuring that teachers have the secure subject knowledge needed to be able to deliver high quality lessons to our children. We recognise that this is the key to supporting children to achieve their maximum potential and supporting them to make rapid progress.