English

At Greenhill Primary School, we believe that reading and writing are at the heart of developing children as confident learners and communicators. These essential skills enable our pupils to share their thoughts, feelings, and beliefs while opening doors to the wider curriculum. Through reading and writing, children can express their ideas, understand the world around them, and even begin to shape it for themselves.

Our approach encourages every child to see themselves as an author, a storyteller, and a thinker. We nurture creativity and experimentation with words and language, helping pupils grow into well-rounded individuals.

Our Reading and Writing Journey

Early Years Foundation Stage

In EYFS, we focus on building foundational skills such as word and language acquisition, alongside developing fine and gross motor skills. This stage lays the groundwork for confident communication.

Key Stage 1

As children progress to KS1, they develop basic skills, including oracy, reading fluency, and writing simple sentences. Pupils learn to communicate for various purposes, setting the stage for more complex skills.

Key Stage 2

In KS2, pupils build on their earlier learning, engaging with diverse texts and writing for a range of purposes. This stage fosters critical thinking and creativity, preparing children to be articulate and thoughtful communicators.

Reading at Greenhill

Our reading curriculum is designed to inspire a love of literature and lifelong learning. Pupils are exposed to high-quality, diverse texts, including novels, poems, traditional tales, graphic novels, videos, and audiobooks. Real-life experiences, such as class trips and visits from authors and community members from a range of cultural and religious backgrounds, further enrich their learning. Reading skills such as retrieval, inference, and summarising are developed through exposure to meaningful, high-quality texts.

We build a culture of reading for pleasure through:

Special events like World Book Day and our EYFS Bedtime Story Event.
Engaging spaces, such as cosy classroom book corners and an inspiring school library.
Topic-themed book collections linked to our history and geography themes.

Writing at Greenhill

Writing is taught through a structured process that encourages creativity and clarity:

Inspiration: Units often begin with an inspiring text, real-world experience, or visual stimulus.
Planning and Research: Pupils gather their ideas and organise them effectively.
Drafting and Revising: Children draft their writing and refine their work.
Editing and Publishing: Finished pieces are celebrated and shared with the intended audience through displays, read-aloud sessions, assemblies, videos, and more.

Pupils write for a wide range of purposes, including:

To inspire
To entertain
To instruct
To inform
To recount
To persuade
To explain
To discuss

Essential writing skills are revisited regularly through our spiral curriculum, ensuring sustained progress. Vocabulary development is a core part of lessons, alongside explicit teaching of spelling and handwriting, which is applied in writing activities every day. Ongoing assessment and feedback allow teachers to monitor progress effectively and target areas for support.

Supporting Every Child

We are committed to ensuring that every child thrives in reading and writing. To support this:

Pupils receive targeted help with oracy skills, motor skills, and phonics/spelling interventions.
We focus on high-quality texts and real-life experiences which enrich vocabulary and understanding.
Adaptations are made by skilled staff to meet individual needs, empowering every child to communicate their ideas effectively.

At Greenhill Primary, we inspire our pupils to read and write with confidence and creativity, fostering skills that will serve them throughout their lives.