English
“There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they'll take you.”
Beatrix Potter
English Curriculum at Padiham Green
Writing
At Padiham Green, through our high-quality English curriculum, we want all children to be able to confidently and effectively communicate their knowledge, ideas and emotions through their writing. Through our text-based approach, we aim to ensure all of our children develop a genuine love of language and the written word; this also ensures our children at Padiham Green are exposed to a wide variety of literature, genres and authors. We ensure that our children develop an understanding of how widely writing is used in everyday life and, therefore, how important and useful the skills are that they are learning. We aim to nurture a culture where children take pride in their writing and can write clearly, imaginatively and accurately, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences.
Reading
At Padiham Green, we aim for every child to see themselves as a confident reader, and to develop a love of reading that will last for a lifetime. Our children are exposed to a wide variety of literature, genres and authors and are encouraged to read as often as possible, both at school and at home.
Our reading curriculum begins with early phonics, as we follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds synthetic phonics programme. The children quickly learn the sounds and how to blend them together in order to decode unfamiliar words. Reading at home is supported by ability appropriate books from school, and children have many opportunities to read with adults at school through 1:1 reading, guided group reading and whole class shared reading activities.
Through our English curriculum, our children have many opportunities to explore a range of texts and discuss characters and main events and also develop comprehension and inference skills. We believe that this teaching of reading is integral to a child’s understanding and appreciation of the world and will enable them to access life long learning.