English at Larkspur

Welcome to our English home page.  This section is designed to keep our pupils, parents and Larkspur Community up to date with the current key priorities within English, our exciting plans for the forthcoming academic year and how you can work with us to achieve these goals.

Primary English Intent, Implement, Impact Statement

Intent

At Larkspur Community Primary School, our English curriculum is designed to develop a lifelong love of reading, writing, and spoken language. We aim to ensure that all children:

• Develop fluency and confidence in reading with strong comprehension skills.
• Acquire a rich and varied vocabulary and a secure understanding of grammar and spelling.
• Write clearly, creatively, and coherently for a range of purposes and audiences.
• Develop effective communication skills, including confident speaking and active listening.
• Experience a diverse range of literature, including classic and contemporary works from various cultures and backgrounds.

We believe that English is the foundation for learning across the curriculum and essential for academic success and personal growth.

Implementation

To achieve our intent, we deliver a well-structured and inclusive English curriculum through:

• Systematic phonics teaching (e.g. using schemes like Little Wandle) in Early Years and KS1 to develop early reading skills.
• EYFS Drawing Club implemented in order to establish progression within writing within the EYFS provision and to prepare children onto the national curriculum in year 1.
• Staff CPD on new phonics scheme (Little Wandle) and resources to be organised.
• Ready Steady Write scheme embedded to support teaching and learning and children’s progression in writing across all year groups.
• Ready Steady Write scheme uses daily sentence accuracy practice to embed grammar and punctuation from the national curriculum within each year group from years 1-6.
• Ready Steady Spell scheme embedded to support progression in spelling.
• A rich diet of high-quality texts used across all year groups to inspire reading and writing.
• Daily guided and independent reading sessions, including whole-class reading for fluency and comprehension.
• Explicit teaching of writing, including modelling, shared writing, and guided practice.
• A focus on the writing process: planning, drafting, editing, and publishing.
• Regular opportunities for pupils to write for real audiences and purposes across the curriculum.
• Grammar, punctuation, and spelling (GPS) taught both discretely and in context.
• Speaking and listening embedded through drama, discussion, presentations, and debate.
• Support and challenge tailored for all learners, including those with SEND and EAL.

Impact

The impact of our English curriculum is measured by:

• Children becoming fluent, enthusiastic, and thoughtful readers who enjoy books and read widely.
• Children writing with confidence, accuracy, and creativity, using a wide vocabulary and solid understanding of grammar and spelling.
• Children being able to communicate effectively in both written and spoken forms.
• Assessment data from teacher judgements, statutory assessments (e.g. Phonics Screening, yearly assessment & KS2 SATs), and regular internal moderation.
• Progress evident in English books, reading journals, and through pupil voice interviews.
• Children leaving primary school with the language and literacy skills they need to succeed in secondary education and beyond.

Our pupils see themselves as readers and writers and take pride in their English work. They are equipped to access the full curriculum and to express themselves confidently and imaginatively.

Handwriting at Larkspur

Here at Larkspur Primary we are very proud of our pupil’s handwriting and take particular care in our cursive/joined-up handwriting style. We use Letter-join as the basis of our handwriting policy that covers all the requirements of the 2014 National Curriculum.

Handwriting is a basic skill that influences the quality of work throughout the curriculum. At the end of Key Stage 2 all pupils should have the ability to produce fluent, legible and, eventually, speedy joined-up handwriting, and to understand the different forms of handwriting used for different purposes. 

See below for our cursive handwriting style.

Keep your eyes peeled for upcoming events in English at Larkspur!

Current Developments in English:

• A number of our pupils have been lucky enough to have their Sense and Emotions Poems selected to be published!  All pupils received a sticker and bookmark to praise them for their fantastic poetry writing skills.  Well done!