English

English

At Underwood West Academy, English is at the centre of our curriculum.  We recognise the importance of language and communication and provide children with rich and varied opportunities to read, write, speak and listen across the curriculum. Children are given opportunities to acquire a wide vocabulary and perform with confidence and enjoyment.

We use a wide range of high-quality texts of all genres and media to promote a love of reading and as a stimulus to develop creative and independent writers. We develop our English by using a variety of stories, poems, songs and non-fiction texts, daily teaching of phonics, weekly spelling, encouraging reading for pleasure, drama, interactive role play and through the use of strategies to enhance language acquisition. We aim to provide high aspirations and this is supported through the books we choose.

We recognise the significance in spoken language for all learners and believe that this underpins the development of reading and writing. Throughout our curriculum, we aim to encourage a lifelong love of reading for all children. We follow a systematic phonics programme with the aim of developing both decoding and comprehension skills. All children are encouraged to become fluent writers, who are able to express their feelings and opinions creatively in a variety of genre both fiction and non-fiction.  Every opportunity is given for the children to base their writing on a memorable experience and write for a specific audience and purpose. Grammar, spelling and handwriting are woven through writing models as well as being explicitly taught.

Our progressive and consistent curriculum gives children the opportunity to build upon their skills and learning year upon year.  

The aims of our English curriculum are:

To develop oracy skills that enable children to join in discussions, express themselves and communicate thoughts, ideas and opinions across the curriculum.

To teach children a wide range of vocabulary

To provide opportunities for children to become fluent readers with a secure understanding of the texts they read

For children to begin to make links between what they read and what they write.

To enable children to plan, draft and edit writing across a range of genres

To enable children to have a solid understanding of spelling, punctuation and grammar and to apply this knowledge to all writing opportunities

To develop a legible fluent handwriting style

To encourage children to be confident speakers, listeners, readers and writers through fun and engaging learning opportunities