Please read on for what English looks like at Peel Common junior School!

“Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.” Maya Angelou, American Memoirist

Here at Peel Common Junior School, we strive to provide an inspirational English curriculum, which will develop our children’s love of reading, writing and oral discussion. This will equip our children for their future lives as confident and creative readers, writers and communicators in the wider world.

At the heart of our intention is to instil the love of reading for all of our pupils. Our aim is to provide our children with a rich ‘reading diet’, where all staff model the love of reading. We have Year 6 ‘reading champions’ – a group of hand-picked children who promote the joy of reading across the school, who take responsibility for running library sessions and as a mentor and role-model for their peers. ‘Chatterbox’ allows children to explore a wide variety of texts in an engaging and fun rotation promoting the value of books. Our class book corners, library, class reader texts give children further access to books that they can enjoy.

Our English lessons are planned around high-quality key text drivers that are carefully chosen to enrich both the reading and writing elements of our English lessons. Lessons are tailored to the needs of the children and aim to build on each individual’s starting points in an engaging and challenging way. Having a well-planned, carefully structured progression of skills that builds from Year 3 to Year 6 allows us to have high expectations of all children in their English journey whilst at Peel Common Junior School. Our English curriculum closely follows the aims of the National Curriculum for English to enable all children to:

• Read easily, fluently and with good understanding
• Develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information
• Acquire a wide vocabulary, and understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language
• Write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences
• Use verbal discussion in order to learn, explain and elaborate their ideas and challenge others in a respectful manner

These aims underpin our English lessons and the wider curriculum. Assessment and review will ensure that we are able to provide targeted support so all of our children experience success in English.

"Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become." C.S Lewis, British Writer and lay theologian