English has a pre-eminent place in education and in society. A high-quality education in English will teach pupils to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others and through their reading and listening, others can communicate with them. At Westover Primary School we are determined that all children will become highly competent readers and writers.
As a school, we are dedicated to encouraging children to be passionate about reading and writing and to offering opportunities for children to respond to their experiences both inside and outside of the classroom, making sure that the English curriculum is relevant and of interest to them. Although the skills of a reader and writer need to be taught, it is also important that the children are taught to appreciate these skills in order to enhance reading and writing for pleasure.
We recognise that competent reading and writing skills are crucial to enable pupils’ to demonstrate their learning across the curriculum. Our cross-curricular approach reinforces skills beyond English lessons, allowing children to practise their skills and apply them in all subjects. We strive to promote a love of reading and writing through a number of ways using text based learning from high quality rich texts. In writing, pupils learn that purpose and audience lie at the heart of writing which in turn informs choice about vocabulary, language and text structure. In reading, we want them to see books as the source of a wealth of knowledge. To this end we seek to support pupils in their reading choices, to respond to their experiences outside of the classroom and to make sure that the reading curriculum is relevant to them.
Equally, the wider curriculum is an essential opportunity for teaching these skills so that their importance is established. We balance a systematic but flexible plan to achieve this. Our approach to teaching reading and writing is persistent and consistent.