English

English Curriculum

At Poplar Farm School, we want every child to leave school with a love and respect for books. Our aim is for every child to become a fluent and expressive reader, who access books regularly for both pleasure and to acquire new knowledge. We want all children to use their experiences of books, to become competent, confident and creative writers. Our aim is for all children to reach age related expectations or make accelerated progress from their starting point. We hope that the children’s enthusiasm for reading and writing continues beyond their time at Poplar Farm School, and throughout their life.

Reading Intent

The aims of teaching reading in our school are to develop pupils who:

• Have the phonetic knowledge and skills to be able to read systematically and with fluency.
• Be enthusiastic and ambitious readers, who read for pleasure both at home and in school on a regular basis.
• Read often from a range of genres and authors – including classic and contemporary literature - and discover their own favourite authors and books.
• Show respect and care for books.
• Enhance their vocabulary through reading and apply it within their writing.
• Develop their reading in all subjects across the curriculum to support their acquisition of knowledge.
• Have a love of reading and discuss what they have read with others.
• Develop their skills in comprehension.
• Find inspiration from books and use them to influence their writing.
• Feel part of the wider school community, who share a common passion and love of reading.

Writing Intent

At Poplar Farm School, we believe that English skills are vital to our children’s development and future. Our broad and balanced English programme uses objectives from the National Curriculum, determining the skills that each year group and Key Stage must cover. Our writing curriculum aims to develop ambitious and articulate authors through the promotion of a range of authorial styles and genres.  

The aims of teaching writing in our school are to develop pupils who:

• Show high levels of achievement, the ability to problem solve, and exhibit positive attitudes towards writing.
• Show their open-mindedness and curiosity by using and understanding the English language as speakers, readers and writers.
• Develop their resilience, confidence and independence when using a range of vocabulary in their writing.
• Have an awareness of different audiences and purposes for writing, including writing to inform, writing to discuss, writing to entertain and writing to persuade.
• Apply their grammatical knowledge in their writing.
• Apply their phonetical and spelling knowledge in their writing.
• Apply these writing skills in all areas of the curriculum.
• Have high standards of presentation in their writing, in accordance with the school’s handwriting policy.