English

The Beacon English curriculum is built around our Inspire Curriculum, enriched to reflect our children and our local community.The overarching aim for English is to promote the high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written word, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment, drawing upon the wider curriculum. This, in turn, helps build a rich curriculum where intent and implementation leads to the impact and improved outcomes for children.

As part of the English curriculum, children develop their skills in Speaking and Listening, Reading and Writing, which also includes spelling and handwriting. English is taught explicitly through daily lessons and is built upon throughout the wider curriculum. In addition, we have 30-minute daily reading sessions which focus on teaching the key reading skills linked to the content domain areas.

At The Beacon, we work hard to make sure that children have a love of books and literature and we're very proud that so many of our children enjoy reading. Each class, from Reception to Year 6, will study a different class text each half-term and this is supported by the Read to Write English programme. They are used throughout our English lessons and, where possible, link to other curriculum areas.

Read to Write (Literacy Counts) provides high-quality teaching of writing through high-quality literature. From Reception to Year 6, these detailed units of work centre on engaging, vocabulary-rich texts, with a wealth of writing opportunities within and across the curriculum. They also provide clear, sequential episodes of learning; contextualised spelling, grammar and punctuation; wider reading for the wider curriculum; curriculum enrichments for all year groups; model texts linked to writing outcomes and a wealth of supporting resources. Our current class texts are:

Reception - The Something

Year 1 - Paper Planes

Year 2 - A River

Year 3 - Egyptology

Year 4 – The Whale

Year 5 - Henry's Freedom Box 

Year 6 - Rose Blanche 

Reading and Phonics

We believe that high quality teaching of phonics is the key to developing independent readers and this is given the highest priority. We want ‘every child to be a fluent and confident reader’ and we implement a rigorous and sequential approach to developing speaking and listening and teaching reading, writing and spelling through phonics. 

Reading in EYFS and KS1 is taught using the Read Write Inc. Phonics developed by Ruth Miskin. During the Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 children develop their phonic knowledge and skills and apply these in both reading and writing. The Phonics programme teaches children to read accurately and fluently with good comprehension. Children learn to form each letter, spell correctly, and compose their ideas step by step.

Click on the link below to see how you can support your child at home:

RWI Parent Information

English Websites for children and parents

BBC English for Key Stage 1 

BBC English for Key Stage 2 

Reading Eggs 

Online Dictionary 

Click here to find a book using Accelerated Reader Book Finder 

https://childrens.poetryarchive.org 

Word Grammar 

Basic Grammar with 6 Minute Grammar

KS1 English 

KS2 English 

Files to Download

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