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English

Intent

English is central to the curriculum and essential for enabling children to communicate confidently, think critically, and engage fully with all areas of learning.

At Heather Garth, we strive for all our children to develop into articulate and imaginative communicators, who are well-equipped with the basic skills they need to become life-long learners.

Through an enriching text-based curriculum, we aim to ensure that all our children develop a genuine love of language and literature, by immersing them in a diverse range of high-quality books. Where possible, we make strong links between our reading and writing, which we believe allows each child to flourish as an author. We support children’s clear understanding of how widely writing is used in everyday life and therefore how important and useful the skills are that they are learning.

With the National Curriculum at its core, writing is of paramount importance at our school and is supported through a well-mapped out skills and knowledge document that maximise learning for all children at Heather Garth.

We intend for all pupils to become enthusiastic and motivated writers, who have the confidence to write in a wide variety of genres and text types. For children to become fluent spellers and see writing as an interesting and enjoyable process, as well as write with purpose for an audience and take ownership of their writing and creativity.

To meet the National Curriculum objectives, we base our English units on high quality, age-appropriate texts so that children have considerable exposure to the text type, as well as having opportunities to magpie words and phrases while they write. The National Curriculum states that spoken language underpins the development of reading and writing and with oracy being such a high priority for children at Heather Garth Primary Academy, we provide discussion opportunities into every lesson in all year groups.

Implementation

English in the Early Years

At Heather Garth, we teach English in EYFS through a carefully considered approach. Phonics, as well as decoding, fluency and comprehension, are taught through our Systematic Synthetics Programme-Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised. Detailed overviews of the programme content can be found on the website.

We also read age-appropriate texts to the children on a daily basis to encourage reading for pleasure, as well as developing their oral comprehension skills through carefully planned questioning and discussion.

To develop and strengthen early writing skills, we use Greg Bottrill’s Drawing Club in Foundation Stage. Drawing Club is a writing adventure based on a blend of picture books, tales and animations. The children immerse themselves in the world of story, share treasure troves of vocabulary and have the opportunity to be creative, using their imaginations to bring joy to the process of learning to write.

Alongside this, handwriting is taught daily using the newly introduced Little Wandle Handwriting programme for Reception.

Oracy is embedded as a core component throughout the EYFS English curriculum.

Please refer to the FS2 half-termly English Overviews on the class page for a more detailed overview of the texts studied and the writing opportunities that take place.

English in Year 1

At Heather Garth, we teach English in Year 1 through a carefully considered approach. Phonics, as well as decoding, fluency and comprehension, are taught through our Systematic Synthetics Programme-Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised. Detailed overviews of the programme content can be found on the website.

To continue strengthening early writing skills from FS2 through Year 1, we continue the journey from Greg Bottrill’s Drawing Club in Foundation Stage, to Curious Quests in Year 1. Curious Quests is an immersive adventure into story, poetry, make-believe and gives children endless possibilities to invent, imagine and story dream. The children use quests and key characters to provide joy in the learning of SPAG content as well as applying their phonic understanding too.

Oracy is embedded as a core component throughout the Year 1 English curriculum.

Although Spelling and sentence dictation is taught through Little Wandle, we also use Spelling Shed alongside this to ensure delivery of the English National Curriculum statutory and non-statutory spelling targets, rules, and high-frequency words. Children can also access this at home so they can practise throughout the week.

Handwriting is taught daily using the Letterjoin handwriting programme.

Please refer to the Year 1 half-termly English Overviews on the class page for a more detailed overview of the texts studied and the writing opportunities that take place.

English in Year 2

At Heather Garth, we teach English in Year 2 through a carefully considered approach. The Little Wandle Year 2 Spelling Programme is used in the Autumn term. This begins with a Phase 5 review before moving on, supporting children to build the alphabetic code, providing a seamless link from the core Little Wandle Letters and Sounds programme, to learning spelling in Year 2 and above.

Following this, children move to Spelling Shed to ensure delivery of the English National Curriculum statutory and non-statutory spelling targets, rules, and high-frequency words. Children can also access this at home so they can practise throughout the week.

To continue strengthening early writing skills, from September 2025, Year 2 will extend their Curious Quest journey into the autumn term. The children will continue to 'inventure' their way along the quest, writing codes to solve problems. As soon as pupils are confidently secure in their basic writing skills, they are ready to join the whole-school English approach.

Through the use of carefully developed themed units, which draw upon prior learning from the wider curriculum, children secure understanding of key conceptual vocabulary and context. Over the year, these units cover a wide range of age-appropriate, challenging narratives/novels, non-fiction and poetry. These units are used in whole class reading lessons develop pupils’ vocabulary, oracy, fluency, comprehension and to apply the reading skills they have been taught. Staff integrate carefully developed assessment activities into each unit to check that pupils have truly learned the important knowledge they have been taught and can apply this in meaningful contexts. Explicit teaching of speaking and listening also forms part of our English curriculum, while also ensuring that it is integrated into wider learning.

Oracy is embedded as a core component throughout the Year 2 English curriculum.

Handwriting is taught daily using the Letterjoin handwriting programme.

Please refer to the Year 2 half-termly English Overviews on the class page for a more detailed over view of the texts studied and the writing opportunities that take place.

English in KS2

At Heather Garth, we teach English in KS2 through the use of carefully developed themed units. These units are created to draw upon prior learning from the wider curriculum. This is to ensure the children are securing understanding of key conceptual vocabulary and context. Over the year, these units cover a wide range of age-appropriate, challenging narratives/novels, non-fiction and poetry.

These units are used in whole class reading lessons to develop pupils’ vocabulary, oracy, fluency, comprehension and to apply the reading skills they have been taught. Staff integrate carefully developed assessment activities into each unit to check that pupils have truly learned the important knowledge they have been taught and can apply this in meaningful contexts. Explicit teaching of speaking and listening also forms part of our English curriculum, while also ensuring that it is integrated into wider learning.

We also read age-appropriate texts to the children on a daily basis to encourage reading for pleasure.

The English units also provide children with purposeful writing opportunities linked to the texts they have been exploring in their reading lessons. Units teach a full range of writing strategies, including spelling, grammar, sentence structure and composition. Children then apply all the taught and modelled skills to independent writing tasks. Following independent writing, children are encouraged to find and correct errors, using their blue pens to complete their editing.

Spelling Shed is used to teach spelling weekly. It is directly linked to the English National Curriculum, designed to cover all statutory and non-statutory spelling targets, rules, and high-frequency words. Children can also access this at home so they can practise throughout the week.

Handwriting is taught using the Letterjoin handwriting programme.

Please refer to the Year group half-termly English Overviews on the class pages for a more detailed over view of the texts studied and the writing opportunities that take place.

Impact

At Heather Garth, we aim for pupils to develop strong reading, writing, speaking and listening skills. We strive for pupils to become confident readers who understand and enjoy a wide range of texts, and writers who can communicate ideas clearly and accurately.

Consistent teaching across the school supports steady progress in phonics, spelling, grammar and composition. Pupils apply their English skills across the curriculum and are well prepared for the next stage of their education.

High-quality texts and regular discussion promote a love of reading and build vocabulary. All pupils, including those with SEND and disadvantaged pupils, are supported to achieve their full potential.

Click on the picture below to find useful websites which will support your child's writing and GPaS learning: