English is taught every day at Chapter House School, from Early Years to Key Stage Two

Each year, children build on their foundations by developing their skills in phonics, reading, writing, handwriting, spelling and grammar. A consistent approach, including the use of writing journeys and working walls in all classrooms, supports children with their learning and helps to develop their growing independence as learners.

Early Years Foundation Stage

Teaching phonics, listening to sounds and writing letters begins as soon as your child starts at Chapter House. Short, focused sessions teach children phonics and handwriting while incorporating play into learning.

Curiosity and a love of learning inspire the teaching of English, with play used as an important part of learning and helping children to develop their communication and literacy skills.

Key Stage One

In Key Stage One, children practise phonics every day and take part in regular reading sessions throughout the week. Reading plays a significant role in children's learning and helps to build their confidence, which is why we have introduced ‘Reading with Carson’ sessions. Carson is our lovable reading dog who adores listening to children read.

When developing their writing skills, children are given plenty of opportunities to verbalise their ideas, helping them to structure sentences correctly. Colourful Semantics is also used as a tool to support children in developing their understanding of what a sentence is and how to construct one.

English lessons are often based around current topic learning. For example, in Year 1, children learn how to write descriptive sentences about animals while exploring the savannahs of Kenya as part of their ‘Home and Away’ topic. In Year 2, children explore different types of sentences and use these to write a diary entry linked to their topic on The Great Fire of London.
 

Key Stage Two

When children reach Key Stage Two, English lessons become more advanced, building on their reading and writing skills. They are introduced to more complex learning while continuing to strengthen their understanding of the essential skills they have developed.

Reading is taught using a range of fiction and non-fiction texts to inspire children, while reading fluency is developed through a range of strategies, including teacher modelling, choral reading, echo reading and reading with a partner.

When writing, Year 3 children learn how to structure paragraphs and are challenged to create more complex and varied sentences. In Year 4, children explore when and how to start a new paragraph and develop their understanding of writing techniques such as ‘show, not tell’. By Year 5, children think carefully about the audience and purpose of their writing and learn how to create cohesion between and within their paragraphs.

As in Key Stage One, English lessons are often linked to current topic learning, giving children opportunities to apply their reading and writing skills across the curriculum.

The teaching of grammar and punctuation is integrated into writing sessions, and spelling is taught using Spelling Shed, which builds on the children’s phonics learning in Key Stage One.