At IQRA, we believe English is at the heart of the curriculum. Our engaging curriculum ensures we inspire and support learners to develop high quality oracy skills and learn to communicate their ideas through reading and writing fluently. Through our well-planned curriculum, we ensure children are exposed to a wide range of high-quality texts and use these to drive our writing units. We strongly believe in promoting English skills across the curriculum and provide children with a vocabulary-rich learning environment. Our challenging and inspiring English curriculum nurtures children’s creative thinking whilst promoting independence, whilst allowing children to apply their knowledge and skills to a range of age-appropriate texts.
Intent: At IQRA, we aim for all children to have opportunities to write for pleasure and to understand the purpose and audience for their writing. Our curriculum is driven by high-quality texts which encourage children to communicate and express their ideas and imagination through a range of writing genres. Language is at the forefront of our curriculum, developing children’s use of rich and varied vocabulary alongside clear progression in writing skills throughout the school.
Implementation: At IQRA, English lessons are taught daily and focus on developing a range of reading, writing, speaking and listening skills through the use of the CLPE approach. This creates a coherent link between reading and writing by using high-quality texts to drive each unit of work and provide meaningful opportunities for children to write for a range of purposes and audiences. Each unit begins by immersing children in the text through discussion, prediction and exploration activities designed to engage and inspire their writing.
Across the school, staff promote high expectations to ensure that the English curriculum is both challenging and engaging. Grammar and punctuation are taught progressively and embedded within English lessons, with clear expectations that these skills are applied across the wider curriculum. Assessment and pupil targets are used to inform planning and ensure learning is responsive to the needs of the children.
LetterJoin is used to teach handwriting across the school to support the development of legibility, fluency and presentation. In the Early Years, children are taught correct letter formation and begin to develop pre-cursive handwriting skills. Throughout Key Stage 1, pupils continue to practise letter formation and become secure in pre-cursive writing before progressing to cursive handwriting.
The writing curriculum is carefully sequenced to ensure progression in knowledge, skills and genre coverage across all year groups. Opportunities to apply writing skills are promoted across the wider curriculum, enabling children to write for a range of contexts and purposes.
Impact: As a result of our writing curriculum, pupils at IQRA develop confidence and independence as writers who can communicate effectively for a range of purposes and audiences. Children are able to apply their grammatical knowledge, vocabulary and writing skills across the curriculum with increasing accuracy and fluency.
Through exposure to high-quality texts and regular opportunities for discussion and writing, pupils develop creativity, stamina and pride in their work. They demonstrate progression in handwriting, presentation and written composition throughout their time at school.
By the end of Key Stage 2, pupils are equipped with the skills to write clearly, coherently and imaginatively across a range of genres and are prepared for the next stage of their education.