English

We believe that a language rich and immersive English curriculum is integral for our children. At Winton, we strive to give children the tools to not just write, but to be writers, understanding the audience and purpose of what they read and write.

To achieve this, we follow Talk for Writing as a whole school, to provide a cumulative and systematic process for the teaching of English.

We follow Bug Club Phonics to provide a firm foundation in phonics. Once children have successfully completed Bug Club Phonics, they move on to Oxford Owl for a systematic approach to spelling. As a whole school, we follow Penpals fo Handwriting for a cursive approach to handwriting.

Caring: Reading and writing is a vital skill to access not just the curriculum whilst at school, but everyday life experiences for the future. We care deeply about our children becoming confident and fluent readers and writers, ensuring they access and excel in every aspect of their lives.

Our English curriculum, exposes children to a wide variety of high-quality literature, transporting them from one world, to another. We support children to empathise with characters, setting and problems they encounter.

Connections: Our curriculum continuously reactivates prior learning, between lessons and across year groups, allowing children to build and strengthen their reading and writing. Children are taught skills in English, which can be transferred into the reading and writing in the wider curriculum. Children are therefore, always making connections between what they are learning and the purpose for the learning.

Communication: Oracy is a huge focus for our children. We believe children need to hear, interalise and be exposed to language multiple times, in engaging ways, to ensure they have a rich bank of vocabulary to support them to be effective communicators. We model and recast language to support children to hear and understand the accurate use of language.

Curiosity: Our language rich English curriculum encourages children to be experimental and imaginative. Children are exposed to a wide variety of genres, text types and rich language. Children build and internalise banks of vocabulary, writing techniques and we encourage children to be confident to experiment with using these in different ways. Our children are resilient and know if an idea or style hasn’t worked the way they hoped, they can always edit and amend to strengthen their writing.

English PolicyEnglish Curriculum Overview

Phonics at WintonProgression of Skills in Guided ReadingParental Workshop: How do we teach Phonics in ReceptionParental Workshop: What is the Year 1 Phonics Screening CheckParental Workshop: How do we teach writing at WintonParental Workshop: The Importance of ReadingBug Club Phonics Progression Chart Decodable Books and Home readersBug Club Phonics Progression Across Phases