English

At Boorley Park, we are committed to developing our children’s speaking & listening, reading and writing skills and knowledge so that they are confidently literate. We also want to encourage a passion for reading so that our children enjoy immersing themselves in high quality literature. This enjoyment will in turn help to inspire their writing and give them the tools to become independent learners.

Reading and writing are at the heart of the school day. The majority of our written work is cross-curricular and teachers create meaningful links between topics to ensure writing lessons are engaging. Emphasis is placed on using high quality literature as a stimulus for writing and teachers consider the importance of finding meaningful purposes for writing that inspire the children.

Reading

We want children to develop a passion for reading that will last a lifetime. Children are encouraged to read for pleasure and to read across the curriculum to support their knowledge and understanding in all core and foundation subjects. Reading lessons are taught consistently as part of the weekly teaching and learning sequence of English lessons so that children are taught the skills necessary for interrogating texts. We also allocate daily time to teach reading:

In the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) we promote a love of reading by sharing stories on a daily basis. We are committed to doing this all through your child’s journey through the school. In the EYFS, children are encouraged to re-tell familiar stories, rhymes and songs using props, actions and role-play. We develop phonetical awareness using ‘letters and sounds ‘

In Key Stage 1, children continue to learn phonics systematically through ‘Success For All’.  Guided reading is used to ensure that all children have a daily reading focus with an adult to teach & support them to develop their fluency and comprehension, and is 'Roots for Reading,' linked to the Success For All programme. 

In KS2, we l use a range of approaches including whole class reading and targeted guided reading to enable all children to make progress. Children are introduced to rich and challenging texts and linked tasks  focus on specific reading skills such as predicting, inferring characters feelings or retrieving information using evidence from the text. Teachers  choose high quality texts that enable children to develop their reading skills and encourage reading for pleasure. Where possible, teachers will choose texts that relate to class topics.

Writing

Our English units are offered to all pupils within each year group and are designed to meet the variety of need. Learning journeys are linked to a high quality stimulus such as a text, image or video. This may not be revealed immediately within a unit, to allow children opportunities to explore, predict, investigate and reason. All units hinge on an overarching enquiry question that provides scope for child-led analysis and deeper thinking, into which appropriate National Curriculum objectives (i.e. spelling, grammar, punctuation) are weaved. For example, “How does the poet create a sense of drama that hooks the reader?” Units will be further directed by a series of linked radial questions that guide children towards a desired goal.

Speaking and Listening

Our intention is for children to:

• Express their opinions, articulate feelings and listen to and respond appropriately in a range of situations;
• Participate with different groups of children to present ideas with confidence, valuing the views of others;
• Speak audibly and confidently before an audience (for example when leading class and whole-school worship; when performing in school plays).

Approaches to teaching and learning encourage pupils to voice their ideas in small group and class discussions, as we recognise that sharing and explaining concepts with peers enhances learning. Staff model the use of higher level vocabulary within their speech and expanding children’s vocabulary is a key focus from EYFS onwards. Subject specific vocabulary is embedded across the curriculum, through teacher modelling, in context. Contextual learning helps children to understand new words and supports them in including them in their work.

Guided Reading sessions encourage pupils to explore unfamiliar vocabulary and expand their knowledge of words. Staff model correct grammar in speech and encourage children to reflect this in their use of spoken and written language. Children are given the chance to orally rehearse ideas for writing regularly.

Drama is used across the curriculum to explore and engage children in their learning. This gives children the chance to embed vocabulary in shared activities. 

Let's Think in English 
In September 2025, we began our full programme of Let's Think in English.  Let’s Think in English (LTE) is a teaching programme which helps pupils develop the higher-order skills needed for success in English.
These include inference, deduction and analysis together with confidence and resilience when responding to unfamiliar texts. Let’s Think in English draws on research by Piaget and Vygotsky that young people learn best when exploring ideas together. The lessons are based on structured challenge and include the development of understanding through discussion (social construction), problem-solving (cognitive challenge) and structured reflection (metacognition) which makes pupils more aware of their thinking processes and how they think most effectively.