English

INTENT

READING

Content

At Osbaldwick, we want children to become lifelong readers and we aim to promote a positive reading culture throughout the school. Early reading is taught following Little Wandle in Nursery, Reception and Year 1. Whole class reading sessions are taught from Year 1 upwards, which provides children with the opportunity to dive more deeply into a book. During our reading sequence, we focus on three areas: ‘First Encounters’, ‘Digging Deeper’ and ‘Back to Me’. This ensures that children develop a wider understanding of what is being read and can make links between the book and real-life situations.. When appropriate, our whole class reading texts link to our class topic to enhance our knowledge of the wider curriculum. 

Creativity 

Across their school journey, children are equipped with the tools needed to express themselves creatively and imaginatively, as they become enthusiastic and critical readers. Reading sessions involve a range of creative and active tasks such as hot-seating, freeze frames and readers’ theatre. 

Cohesion

Lessons are structured so that the children are exposed to high-quality, age-appropriate texts. We make links between the key stages to help the children revisit and understand certain genres. For example, in EYFS, the children are introduced to traditional tales and in KS1 the children read alternative versions of these stories. 

Community

We have a number of opportunities for parents to read in school with their children such as reading cafes. We have an annual book fair.  We visit libraries and have visiting speakers related to reading and enjoy World Book Day where we come together as a school community to share a love of reading. 

Compassion

We carefully select texts from a wide range of diverse authors which include a host of characters from different backgrounds and that explore important themes.  In our sequence, we have embedded a section called ‘Back to Me’ where children can share and discuss a key part of the book from their own individual perspectives (for example, ‘Is it ever okay to lie?’).

INTENT

WRITING

Content

We intend for children to be able to plan, revise and evaluate their writing. Children develop a love of writing through a range of genres and an awareness of their audience and purpose. Context is important so that the writing is relevant and meaningful to them.

Cohesion

Lessons are structured to provide high-quality modelling from staff to ensure children understand and are confident with the writing process, before having more responsibility and independence in their own writing. It is our intention to ensure that, by the end of their primary education, all children can be proud of their writing.

Creativity

Children are given opportunities to use their imaginations to become creative writers.

 Community

There are opportunities for children to share their writing through Seesaw and storytelling events with parents.

Compassion

Texts are chosen with care to expose children to writing from different perspectives and backgrounds.