English

At Willow Tree, our English curriculum is centred around the in-depth study of engrossing and high-quality texts. Through our “Novel Study” approach, children in every year group spend extended periods of time immersed in the text that they are reading, allowing the core English skills (oracy, reading, writing, grammar, punctuation, and spelling) to emerge naturally and holistically within each lesson. This approach also ensures that children experience the entire story, from start to finish.

The texts that children study have been carefully selected to ensure that a diverse range of authors, genres, cultures, characters, time periods, themes, and narrative structures are represented across the English curriculum. Our approach to teaching English inspires children to engage with high-quality texts in a thoughtful and analytical manner; building their confidence and ability to make conscious choices as developing writers and authors.

By focusing on one picture book, novel, or non-fiction text for a prolonged period, children have ample opportunity to develop a deep understanding of the text through classroom practices including collaborative reading, prediction, drama activities (such as hot-seating and freeze-framing), discussion, and in-depth analysis of the language and authorial intent. The writing outcomes that children complete whilst studying each text are carefully planned, so that they emerge from meaningful and relevant points in the text. Each writing unit will equip children with an understanding of the genre-specific features they are required to use in their own compositions, before beginning the writing process of planning, writing, and editing.

Reading

At Willow Tree our vision is to ensure that children read widely across both fiction and non-fiction texts to develop the ability to read fluently, with prosody and confidence.  By providing a rich reading curriculum using a novel based approach children will be exposed to a wide range of diverse texts and authors so children will have a better understanding about the world that we live in.

Through reading such materials, we aim to develop and enrich the level of vocabulary used by the children and encourage them to become inquisitive and independent readers.

Through our Novel Study approach, teachers read a class novel with children in lessons and children complete activities to enhance their reading skills such as: para reading; independent reading; paired tasks and drama to become familiar with the text. This approach has a number of benefits and promotes a love of reading;  exposure to more advanced vocabulary than children would normally get and an engaging vehicle for other learning.

Assessment

Children are assessed regularly throughout the school year to make sure they are on track. We have an expectation of 90 words per minute by the end of year 2 with an accuracy of 95%. Alongside this children answer questions to ensure they have the comprehension and inference skills before moving onto the next level.

Reading at Home

We provide a great scheme of books for children to follow when reading at home. The ‘Big Cat’ reading scheme offers children levelled books that is matched to their current reading level. There are a many texts and genres for children to explore and read at home. Children can change their books when they are ready each week. Alongside the levelled books children can choose their own book from the class library each week.

Assemblies

Once a week we enjoy reading assemblies with each key stage. This is an inviting time where we can bring stories to life and engage with the children. We offer opportunities for children to predict what might happen, discuss vocabulary and provide changes for children to show their understanding and inference skills through discussion.

Book Club

Book Club is a weekly, reading for pleasure session for children to explore reading in creative ways. This gives children the opportunity for extended reading, either with an adult, group, partner or independently. 

Class Libraries

Class Libraries provide a warm, welcoming area for children to explore and read at their own pleasure. Libraries offer varied, appropriate books that are changed regularly. Class libraries not only provided children with additional books to take but is an opportunity for children to enjoy being in a positive reading environment; to research topic related subjects; to develop library skills; and to share book recommendations and thoughts with peers.

Class Reading

In addition to our Novel Studies we read daily with the children to promote a love for reading. It is important children hear how a story is read so they can hear the prosody and expression and become immersed in the story. Each year group has recommended reads that they should have read by the end of the school year.