Lowton West Primary SchoolLiteracy
English Curriculum Statement
Aiming High Together
At Lowton West, we believe that English is the key to unlocking learning across the curriculum and empowering children to become confident, articulate and thoughtful individuals. Our English curriculum allows children to communicate effectively, think critically and participate fully in society. We are committed to developing confident readers, writers and speakers through a rich, engaging and carefully sequenced curriculum.
Our English curriculum is designed to provide children with rich and varied opportunities to speak, listen, read and write for a range of purposes and audiences. We place a strong emphasis on developing vocabulary, language comprehension and effective communication skills, recognising that spoken language underpins success in reading and writing.
Reading is at the heart of our curriculum. In Early Years and Key Stage 1, children develop their early reading skills through the Read Write Inc. (RWI) phonics programme, which provides a structured and systematic approach to teaching phonics and early reading. This is enriched through additional class readers, carefully selected poetry and high-quality class novels that promote a love of reading and broaden children's vocabulary and understanding. Children also benefit from additional 1:1 reading opportunities with teachers and teaching assistants, providing targeted support, developing fluency and comprehension, and helping to build confidence and enjoyment in reading.
Through high-quality phonics teaching, carefully selected class novels, classic literature and poetry, we enrich the reading curriculum, broadening children's cultural capital and fostering a genuine enjoyment of reading. Children are encouraged to explore a diverse range of literature that reflects different cultures, experiences and perspectives, helping them develop empathy, curiosity and a deeper understanding of the world around them.
To further develop comprehension skills, we provide engaging and challenging texts alongside carefully planned comprehension activities. These support children in developing the key reading skills of retrieval, inference, prediction, summarising, vocabulary development and authorial intent, enabling them to become thoughtful and reflective readers. we aim to foster fluent, confident readers who read for both pleasure and purpose.
Writing is taught through high-quality texts and meaningful contexts. Our writing curriculum is carefully planned to ensure progression in knowledge and skills across each year group and key stage. Long-term plans include a broad range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry genres, providing regular opportunities for children to revisit, practise and consolidate previously taught skills whilst applying new learning in different contexts.
In writing, we inspire children to become confident authors who can communicate their ideas effectively. Our approach develops strong foundations in transcription, spelling and handwriting while nurturing creativity, resilience and independence. Children learn to plan, draft, edit and improve their work, applying their writing skills across all areas of the curriculum. At Lowton West we value the importance of connecting spoken language with writing, helping pupils to rehearse and refine their ideas before writing.
The writing curriculum is supported by a clear progression of skills, ensuring that knowledge builds cumulatively from year to year. Teachers carefully plan opportunities for children to write for a range of purposes and audiences, developing their ability to communicate clearly, creatively and effectively.
Grammar, punctuation and spelling (GPS) are taught through a combination of discrete lessons and purposeful application within writing. Whilst some aspects of GPS are explicitly taught, the majority are woven throughout the writing curriculum to ensure children revisit, overlearn and embed key concepts over time. This approach enables pupils to understand grammar in context and apply it effectively to improve the quality of their writing.
Handwriting is taught through the Read Write Inc. Handwriting programme in Key Stage 1, enabling children to develop correct letter formation and fluent handwriting habits from an early age through explicit teacher modelling of letter formation. In Key Stage 2, pupils continue to refine and develop their handwriting through the Letter-join programme, supporting fluent, joined and legible handwriting across the curriculum.
Through our English curriculum, we aim to nurture enthusiastic readers, confident writers and effective communicators who are well prepared for the next stage of their education and equipped with the literacy skills needed for lifelong success.
As a result of the carefully planned English curriculum, we have a community of enthusiastic writers and fluent readers who enjoy showcasing their developing Literacy skills. They are confident to take risks in their reading and writing, and love to discuss and share their ideas.