English

Literacy Tree for Parents/Carers

Throughout the school we use Literacy Tree for our teaching of English. Literacy Tree is used across the UK and globally and is an award-winning educational platform. All of the Literacy Tree resources use high-quality children’s books and for Writing, we follow their Teach Through a Text approach to ensure there is consistency throughout the school.

It also supports to create high levels of engagement as it immerses children in the text whilst covering the objectives fully in the curriculum. The text choices are an important part of this as well – many link to aspects of History and/or encourage deep discussions. We pride ourselves on our diverse choices.

Vision

At Darrick Wood Infant and Nursery School we believe that a quality English curriculum should develop children’s love of reading, writing and discussion. We aim to inspire an appreciation of our rich and varied literary heritage and a habit of reading widely and often. We recognise the importance of nurturing a culture where children take pride in their writing can write clearly and accurately and adapt their language and style for a range of contexts. We want to inspire children to be confident in the art of speaking and listening and who can use discussion to communicate and further their learning.

We believe that children need to develop a secure knowledge-base in English, which follows a clear pathway of progression as they advance through the primary curriculum. We believe that a secure basis in literacy skills is crucial to a high-quality education and will give our children the tools they need to participate fully as a member of society. These aims are embedded across our English curriculum and the wider curriculum.

Intent

Spoken language

At Darrick Wood Infant and Nursery School, we recognise the importance of Spoken Language in children’s development across the whole curriculum – cognitively, socially and linguistically. Spoken language underpins the development of reading and writing. Speaking and listening skills are central to our curriculum. These are developed from Nursery to Year 2.

We enhance children’s speaking and listening skills through a variety of approaches: exploring play, story time, talk partners, drama, PSHE and P4C and collaborative learning across the curriculum. We nurture our children’s speaking and listening skills so they are capable of expressing their own ideas clearly and confidently in an environment where everybody’s views are valued and respected. A language rich environment is provided across the school.

Reading

At Darrick Wood Infant and Nursery School, we believe that reading is an essential life skill and we are committed to enabling our children to become lifelong, motivated readers. At the heart of our strategy is our drive to foster a love of reading. Ensuring our children become fluent and engaged readers is our priority and our teachers are role models. We believe what makes a good reader is the ability to decode, understand, respond and develop a positive attitude, enabling children to visualise the text that they are reading. When children learn to read, they develop a greater general knowledge, wide range of vocabulary and strong oral and literacy skills, which helps them to thrive. We recognise that the ability to read is fundamental to pupil’s development and progress across the curriculum. Early reading also ignites creativity, sparks curiosity, and stimulates imagination. Starting from Nursery, children are encouraged to become early readers. We are determined that every pupil will learn to read, regardless of their background, needs or ability. We aim for all pupils to make sufficient progress to meet or exceed age-related expectations. We are committed to sharing high quality and vocabulary rich texts across the curriculum so that children may develop knowledge of themselves and the world in which they live.

Writing

At Darrick Wood Infant and Nursery School, our aim is to develop children who are confident and creative writers, who are able to write clearly and accurately for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences. We want their writing experiences to be relevant and meaningful and we provide our pupils with engaging stimulus to inspire them, which is delivered through a text-based approach of high quality and diverse texts. Teachers model a love of language and the written word, where the creative writing process is shared. We aim for our children to be secure in their knowledge of the core writing skills of transcription, grammar, vocabulary, punctuation and composition. We aim for our children to develop good handwriting and excellent presentation skills, where they take pride in their written work, enabling them to edit and make improvements. We know that by drawing on a child’s love of reading, this will inform their vocabulary and grammar choices within their writing. Children are provided with many opportunities to develop and apply their writing skills across the curriculum too. Writing starts in our Early Years, where writing is encouraged through mark making opportunities, both indoors and outdoors, and each classroom has designated writing areas.

We recognise that a secure basis in literacy skills is crucial to a high-quality education and will give our children the tools to equip them for the future.