English

Writing

At Ryedene, our English curriculum is designed to equip and develop children’s love of reading, writing and creativity. We strive to provide children with vocabulary rich texts that will spark their curiosity and enable them to communicate effectively through their writing. Our progression of skills across the school has been adapted to enable children to explore a range of different authors, cultures and texts to inspire children and expose them to a range of genres.   

Across EYFS, KS1 and KS2 we aim to:  

• Develop a passion for reading where children can read fluently and comprehend a range of texts  
• Expose children to vocabulary rich environments that improve linguistic skills   
• Gradually build on and embed skills throughout the school so that children leave KS2 as confident, innovative writers   
• Encourage children to write clearly and coherently for a range of different purposes and audiences   
• Develop speaking and listening skills to allow children to express their opinions and ideas with confidence  

Ultimately, we aim to inspire and enrich the lives of our pupils through the creation of a bespoke English curriculum that supports and represents all children. 

Reading 

At Ryedene, we believe that all of our children can become fluent readers and writers. Reading is the key to success. This is why we teach reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme. We start teaching phonics in Reception and carefully follow the progression of skills to help children to build on their knowledge of the alphabetic code.  

This scheme supports our pupils to decode words as they read and by the end of the teaching sequence, children will be able to read clearly and fluently. We know that children who can read well can then begin to read for knowledge and pleasure, aiding them to gain a rich understanding of the world. 

Our carefully selected Collins Big Cat decodable books support children to embed the skills they have been exposed to during their phonics sessions, aiding them to master the code of reading. Through the use of careful assessment, we can be sure that children are reading texts that are challenging yet achievable, making learners of all abilities feel successful.   

As a school we believe that no child should ever be left behind and we stand by our strong ethos that all children can and will succeed. Our skilled Reading Mentors and Learning Support Assistants support children to make accelerated progress, ensuring no child is ever left behind.  

“Reading is important, because if you can read, you can learn anything about everything and everything about anything” – Tomie dePaola