English

Welcome to our English curriculum page where you will find a range of information about English at Endeavour Academy.  Our subject leader for English is Mrs. Cantrell and our Early Reading and Phonics Lead is Mr Johnson.

 

INTENT

As readers and writers at Endeavour Academy, we want our learners to read and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others. To know  how to acquire knowledge and build on what they already know and develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually through reading and writing. To acquire all the essential skills of language to enable them to participate fully as a member of society.

Characteristics of a Reader at Endeavour Academy:

• Excellent phonic knowledge and skills.
• Fluency and accuracy in reading across a wide range of contexts throughout the curriculum.
• Knowledge of an extensive and rich vocabulary.
• An excellent comprehension of texts.
• The motivation to read for both study and for pleasure.
• Extensive knowledge through having read a rich and varied range of texts.

Characteristics of a writer at Endeavour Academy:

• The ability to write fluently and with interesting detail on a number of topics throughout the curriculum.
• A vivid imagination which makes readers engage with and enjoy their writing.
• A highly developed vocabulary and an excellent knowledge of writing techniques to extend details or description.
• Well-organised and structured writing, which includes a variety of sentence structures.
• Excellent transcription skills that ensure their writing is well presented and punctuated, spelled correctly and neat.
• A love of writing and an appreciation of its educational, cultural and entertainment values

 

IMPLEMENTATION

English is a means of communication, be it verbal, written or read. It connects all areas of learning and is taught and modelled daily at Endeavour from EYFS to Y6.  We ensure our learners are exposed to quality literature by using Power of Reading recommended texts to create sequences of lessons following our two-week construct.  This construct enables our learners to develop their reading comprehension skills, grow their vocabulary, develop grammar knowledge and spelling skills and produce quality pieces of writing as a result.

English Construct

Teaching and learning in English is organised around school identified key concepts that we refer to as ‘big ideas’.  These big ideas enable us to focus our attention on the most meaningful content which for English we have identified as:

• Phonics
• Sentence structure
• Text structure
• Composition
• Comprehension
• Vocabulary development

Knowledge, skills and understanding in English is developed around these same ideas and built progressively year on year enabling staff to make links with prior learning in turn supporting pupils to know more and remember more on their journey through school.  Our school progression documents illustrate how this is mapped out across school.

English Progression

Experiential learning such as visits by theatre groups, authors, poets and illustrators is also used to further enhance learning and to create a shared starting point for our children on which to build further knowledge.  As a school we participate in national events such as National Poetry Day, World Book Day & Roald Dahl Day to further enhance our English provision.

 

Phonics and Reading

At Endeavour Academy we use Floppy Phonics from Oxford Reading Tree to deliver daily phonics teaching in the EYFS and KS1. Phonics is taught in a structured whole class session in which children revisit sounds they already know, learn new sounds, practise using those sounds and then apply them in reading and writing.  The phonic content is mapped across the year for Nursery, Reception and Year 1 and is then broken down into half termly blocks showing the sounds that the children will be learning week by week.  The half-termly phonic blocks are also used to map out the reading books that children will take home; these books have been carefully selected to match the phonics sounds that have been taught. 

Opportunities for teaching reading are planned throughout the school day allowing our children regular occasions to share their responses and opinions about what has been read . These include exploration of whole class texts in English lessons, daily whole class guided reading (using the reading gems approach by One Education to teach the key reading skills of word meaning, retrieval, inference, prediction, explanation and summarising), reading across the wider curriculum through afternoon lessons and opportunities for independent reading. We also recognise the benefits of children listening to books read well and have timetabled sessions in all classes each week to listen to class novels expertly read by our teachers. Children are provided with a school reading book from the Oxford Reading Tree scheme and have ready access to class reading areas stocked with a wide variety of high quality picture books, poetry, novels and non-fiction texts.

In addition to help foster a love of reading and make reading an activity sought out by our children, pupils also have access to our ‘Endeavour Reads’.  This is a reading spine of age appropriate quality books (i.e. those with depth and interest in story, character, illustration, vocabulary, structure and subject matter) for children to read each year at their leisure on their journey through school.  Each text has been carefully selected to ensure its quality from the books listed for prestigious book awards such as the Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals.  These have been well received by our pupils and some of their thoughts can be seen below:

English Examples

At Endeavour Academy we are committed to using opportunities within English to educate our pupils to be the best versions of themselves in order to become valuable and fully rounded members of society. Our English curriculum is designed to encompass meaningful SMSC (spiritual, moral, social and cultural) development and promote British Values through a variety of engaging learning experiences. You can read more about our English curriculum’s contribution to children’s personal development below:

English Development

 

IMPACT

The English subject leader, supported by the Phonics and Early Reading Lead, Headteacher and Senior Leaders, takes responsibility for ensuring children are progressing as expected in English.  They regularly monitor lessons, planning and children’s work to evaluate curriculum delivery and standards. Teachers complete English assessments termly and this data is moderated and validated in school and across the Trust and used by the English leader to inform further curriculum developments. 

 

ASPIRATIONS

As part of our commitment to raising aspirations for all pupils at Endeavour, we want to develop an understanding in our pupils of how learning English can be useful to them in their everyday lives or in their future careers.  Here are some jobs pupils can aspire to:

• Author
• Illustrator
• Journalist
• Songwriter
• Hotel manager
• Entertainments manager
• Weather Presenter
• Editor
• Website administrator
• Teacher
• Marketing director
• Games Creator

More ideas can be found at https://www.firstcareers.co.uk/

 

HOW TO HELP WITH ENGLISH AT HOME

There are lots of ways you can help your child with reading and writing at home. Here are our top ideas.

Read to your child

• While children do learn new language and ideas from speaking and listening, the type of language we use in writing is often very different from that in speech. Reading regularly to your child, especially longer chapter books that they might not be able to yet read independently, is a great way to support their writing. 
• While your child will have some favourite books and types of book that they’ll want to listen to again and again, try to make sure they get to hear a range of different types of books, including fiction and non-fiction. This is useful for their writing because it models lots of language styles.

Tell stories aloud

• Giving your child the opportunity to tell stories orally is a great way to get them used to structuring their ideas and using adventurous language. If they’re not sure where to start, see if they can retell a story that they already know well, like Little Red Riding Hood or Three Little Pigs.
• You can find fun story ideas anywhere! Why not raid your kitchen cupboards or hunt through the attic to find lost treasures? Anything from an old hat to a telescope will do the trick. What could the object be used for? Who might be looking for it? What secrets could it hold?
• Real-world facts can also be a great source of inspiration. For example, did you know a jumping flea can accelerate faster than a space rocket taking off into orbit? What crazy story can your child make out of this fact? Newspapers and news websites can be great for finding these sorts of ideas.

Create a book

• Give your child the chance to make their very own book! Fold a few sheets of paper in half and staple down the length of the fold. Suggest that they fill it with their own story and pictures. It could be based on one of their favourite stories or alternatively, they could make a non-fiction book about something they are interested in or somewhere thay have been, using photos if they don’t like drawing. If this seems daunting, suggest they make a scrap book and write labels and notes next to the things they collect.
• Some children might enjoy drawing their own comics. This is great practice – it stretches your child’s creativity, gets them thinking about plot, character, and dialogue, and is a big confidence boost once they’ve finished and have an amazing story to look back on.

Develop and improve handwriting by getting crafty

• Continue to encourage your child to draw, colour, paint, and do crafting activities at home using a range of different materials. These activities all provide opportunities to develop control, fine motor skills, and hand-eye coordination.

Make time to write

• Writing for a real purpose can be a great way to fit in some practice. Writing cards, shopping lists, or letters/emails to relatives can be motivating real life reasons for writing, and can show children how useful it is to be able to write well.
• Encourage your child to keep a diary, writing a sentence or two for every day. They might feel more enthusiastic about this idea if you let them decorate and personalise a plain notebook to make it their own.