Our Literacy lead is Mr Hilton

The purpose of English in the National Curriculum is to teach pupils to write and speak fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others and through their reading and listening, others can communicate with them. Our curriculum aims promote high standards of literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written word and to develop a love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment.

At Norham  English is taught as an integral part of our topic based curriculum.  Through these topics, pupils will learn to read and write through a variety of fiction, non-fiction and poetry texts. Phonics, spelling, punctuation, grammar and handwriting, as well being part of every lesson, will be taught discretely at specific times each week.  English teaching is supported by a directed focus on language even for older pupils although teachers tailor lessons to the children’s interests, abilities and the topics that they are working on.

We strongly focus on developing our pupils into confident, fluent and independent readers. Our school reading scheme, the core of which is Oxford Reading Tree, draws from a range of other schemes to capture the range of abilities and interests of our pupils. Our reading scheme and library encourages pupils’ independence in choosing the texts that they wish to read at their ability levels. Weekly guided reading and writing sessions target small groups with specific objectives to ensure good progress of all pupils.

English teaching is detailed in our half termly curriculum maps.

Click here to view the full National Curriculum Programme of Study that we follow for English.