Ebchester CE Primary School
English
English is at the heart of all children’s learning. It enables children both to communicate with others effectively for a variety of purposes and to examine their own and others’ experiences, feelings and ideas, giving these order and meaning. At Ebchester CE Primary School, we will help children nurture the skills and knowledge that will enable them to communicate effectively and creatively through spoken and written language and equip them with the skills and resilience to grow into lifelong learners.
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Our core values can be seen throughout the subject where we use texts to reinforce compassion, respect, thankfulness, courage, friendship and humility.
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Writing
From early on in their learning journey, children explore a range of genres, see adults writing and experiment themselves through mark marking, symbols and conventional script. We aim for all of our children to be able to write independently in a variety of genres and for a range of purposes with fluency, accuracy and enjoyment. We believe children should understand from an early age that their writing needs to be accurate, legible and set out in an appropriate way.
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As they move through the school, children develop an understanding that writing is essential to thinking and learning but also enjoyable in its own right. Powerful teaching techniques such as shared and guided writing mean children are exposed to high quality demonstration, exploration and discussion of the choices writers make. Children use the planning, drafting and editing process to improve their work and alongside effective feedback marking, are encouraged to become reflective, resilient learners.
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We strongly believe in giving children first hand experiences to draw on information and emotions to enhance their learning and consequently make use of our local community regularly.
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Reading
“Reading for pleasure is the single most important indicator of a child’s future success” OECD, 2002
Central to learning is creating a life-long love of reading and books. At Ebchester CE Primary School, we firmly believe that reading feeds children’s imaginations and opens doors to all kinds of new worlds. Through reading, children have the opportunity to grow and succeed- developing culturally, socially and emotionally as well as reaping the benefits academically. It is our aim that every pupil leaves Ebchester CE Primary School with the skills and strategies needed to be a resilient, confident and independent reader.
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For further information, please see Reading and Phonics section of our website.
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Speaking and Listening
Opportunities to develop and hone children’s oracy skills are embedded not only in the English curriculum but also across the wider curriculum at Ebchester CE Primary School. Teachers are resourceful in their planning of topics and look to include learning end points involving speaking and listening wherever possible such as through discussions, debates, performances and presentations. Children practise speaking for a variety of purposes and audiences, adapting their language appropriately as well as their intonation, tone, volume and actions, and are able to work individually or in small or larger groups with peers or older or younger children.
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At Ebchester, we firmly believe that the teaching of the English curriculum should be inclusive to all children, inspiring them to succeed through an outstanding learning experience, which will enable them to make good progress and leave us as successful, responsible, happy citizens with hopefully a love of English.
