English Curriculum at Banwell Primary School
At Banwell Primary School, our English curriculum is designed to inspire a lifelong love of reading, writing, and effective communication. We nurture creativity, critical thinking, and confidence by developing core literacy skills in a supportive and engaging environment. Through high quality texts, meaningful writing opportunities, and rich language experiences, we empower every child to express themselves, understand others, and thrive academically and personally. Our aim is to ensure all children become enthusiastic, capable, and confident users of the English language, ready to succeed in the next stage of their learning journey.
At Banwell Primary School reading is at the centre of our curriculum. We understand that reading is the key that opens up learning and unlocks opportunities. Our aim is to support all children to become confident readers and enjoy reading for pleasure.
Our whole school approach emphasises the importance of reading through:
- A well-resourced library offering a diverse range of books, providing children with opportunities to explore different genres, cultures and perspectives.
- High-quality texts are carefully selected to engage children and inspire curiosity across all year groups.
- Daily storytelling for all children. Teachers bring stories to life through daily storytelling sessions, sparking imagination, and creating a shared love of literature.
- Working with parents to ensure they have the knowledge needed to support their children to learn to read. As well as offering phonics workshops for parents, we value and celebrate reading at home by using Reading Records in EYFS and KS1 and facilitating book swaps organised by our PTA.
- We deliver systematic, high-quality phonics instruction enabling children to develop phonemic awareness as soon as they start school.
- School book bag and a high quality picture book, both funded by the PTA, gifted to each child before they start in Reception.
- Small group guided reading sessions ensure personalised support, helping children develop comprehension skill, fluency and confidence in their reading journey.
- Reading Buddy opportunities for our Year 6 children to inspire and engage our youngest learners in school.
Together, these elements create a literacy rich environment where every child can discover the joy of reading and build the skills needed to succeed academically and beyond.
Reading at Banwell Primary School
Early Reading for Reception and KS1
Stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems are carefully selected so that children are exposed to a variety of texts enabling them opportunities to broaden and deepen their vocabulary. The aim is that all children listen to and have opportunity to talk about five stories, non-fiction, rhymes or poems daily in small groups or as a whole class.
Adults model reading focusing on:
- Concepts of print: how a text conveys a message; how a book works; the idea of directionality (that English books are read from left to right, top to bottom); and other mechanical features (spacing, punctuation, the difference between letters, numerals, and other symbols)
- Three ways to enjoy quality children’s picture books: tell the pictures; retell the story; read the words
- Fluency and prosody
- High quality conversation about books
Children are introduced to Guided Reading: in small groups, children are supported to independently tell the pictures or retell the story in a quality children’s literature. When children are ready, decodable reading scheme books that are closely matched to their phonics attainment (instructional level) are used in small groups to teach and develop fluency and prosody.
The learning environment both the EYFS/Y1 and Y1/2 classes is set up to provide the opportunity for children to enjoy quality children’s picture books every day.
Guided Reading for Key Stage 2
Guided reading takes place daily in KS2 and lasts for 30 minutes. Children are grouped according to prior attainment and have 5 different reading tasks throughout the week which build upon and develop further a range of reading skills.
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Guided reading Skills and comprehension strategies
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- Making inferences |
Reading between the lines and looking for clues beyond the literal word. |
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- Predicting |
Consider what might happen next based on evidence or prior |
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- Activating prior knowledge |
Using the information that we know about the, author, genre and text type to help understand what is being read |
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- Summarising what we have been reading |
Identifying the key information and verbalising or re writing it in a concise way. |
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- Investigating new language and exploring vocabulary choices |
Understanding the meaning of words in the context of the text being read and identify why authors have made certain vocabulary choices and their impact on the reader. |
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- Being curious |
Asking questions to deepen our understanding when discussing themes, characters and settings. |
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- Reading for sense/meaning |
Understand what we have read and check for meaning. |
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- Visualising what makes sense |
Being able to picture a scene, event character or situation in a book to aid comprehension. |
Each group will complete all 5 sessions in a week therefore every child will work with the teacher once a week.
Three sessions a week will be linked to the book the children in each group are reading. One session is an independent unseen comprehension and the final session allows children to read a text of their choice where they will be able to independently use the reading skills and strategies they have been learning.
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Session 1 |
Pre task |
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Session 2 |
Instructional reading session |
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Session 3 |
Post task |
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Session 4 |
Independent Comprehension |
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Session 5 |
Independent reading for pleasure |
Quality reading texts are selected for Guided Reading sessions which gives children access to a rich and varied reading diet. These quality texts also ensure children continue to be introduced to new vocabulary across the humanities curriculum and in English lessons.
Writing at Banwell Primary School
Our writing curriculum aims to nurture creativity, clarity and confidence in written communication. We provide children with the tools to express their ideas effectively across a variety of purposes and audiences. By focusing on key skills such a grammar, punctuation, spelling and handwriting, we ensure a strong foundation for academic and personal success. Through inspiring lessons and meaningful writing opportunities, we empower every child to develop their voice, refine their craft, and take pride in their ability to communicate through the written word.
Reception and Key Stage 1
Currently being updated.
Key Stage 2
Writing is taught daily Key Stage 2.
Once children are ready to move on from the Early Reading and Writing programmes, we use the National Curriculum to support the progression of learning in Writing. There are many opportunities for Writing across the Wider Curriculum with appropriate links made. We ensure that these links support the independence of Writing and the other subjects, so that the core learning of each is covered. We do not link Writing to the Wider Curriculum where it is inappropriate.
From September 2023, children in Years 3-5 will complete a significant amount of written work when learning the Opening Worlds curriculum. This writing will be of a high quality, with an expectation of meeting the Every Time I Write criteria as well as the expectations of a high quality explanation text.
Each class has a book which is read daily by the teacher to children. These are a combination of fiction and non-fiction books. Books are not always linked to the project, to ensure that we are able to use quality age-appropriate texts that do not fit with the projects that we study.
The Writing Process
Throughout the school we have a clear Writing process that we follow when planning and teaching units of learning. This ensures a consistency across the school. For each unit of learning, children:
(1) Start with a Cold Write to show what they already understand about a genre
(2) Look at a good example of a text (a WAGOLL)
(3) Learn the Success Criteria for the genre
(4) Fill in any gaps in understanding
(5) Write a second draft
(6) Fill in any further gaps in understanding
(7) Complete a best draft
(8) At least once a term, 'publish' a best piece of writing
