At North Fawdon, we believe that English is a fundamental aspect of learning. Success in English provides access to the whole curriculum and gives children opportunities for success throughout. It is vital that we encourage a love of language and literature to ensure lifelong learning for all pupils.

Reading is at the heart of the curriculum at North Fawdon and reading for pleasure is an element of English we strongly encourage. Every classroom has a wonderful reading area which houses a range of high quality texts that promote a love of reading.

At North Fawdon, we are dedicated to providing all children with a balanced curriculum of genres whilst teaching key skills in a meaningful, purposeful context. Careful planning and assessment alongside high quality teaching ensures we meet the needs of all learners.

In addition to this, we provide children with challenges that stretch and encourage exploration of language and literature by encouraging the use of critical higher order thinking skills.

English teaching covers specific categories:

• Spoken language – speaking and listening
• Reading – word reading and comprehension
• Writing – transcription (spelling and handwriting) and composition (planning and structure)
• SpaG – spelling, punctuation and grammar

At North Fawdon Primary School, we believe it is essential that all children are given plenty of opportunities to equip them with the skills, across all four categories, needed to succeed. These opportunities present themselves both in the English lesson and across the curriculum including topic and science. Well-planned, thoughtful organisation of the school timetable ensures that this is possible for all learners.

Daily guided reading sessions are incorporated in addition to the English lesson. This provides opportunities for children to work in small groups with a text to build on and consolidate comprehension skills.

We are committed to increasing children’s reading fluency and provide dedicated time for children to practice Word Walls in order to increase their bank of words they can read on sight.

Discrete spelling, punctuation and grammar sessions are taught regularly and this is often put into context within the teaching sequence of a unit of work.