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English
At Byron Primary School, we provide children with the opportunity to learn key English skills based on exciting and interesting books. This allows children to enjoy reading a variety of different text types as well as see good examples for their own writing. Our children are immersed through a variety of texts, film clip posters, books, visits and visitors.
As the majority of our children have English as an additional language we ensure our curriculum is language rich and promotes oracy. We want children to discuss their learning and communicate their enjoyment. We see opportunities to read and write across all subjects within a broad curriculum. We develop core skills to ensure children's writing is of the same standard across all subjects, publishing their work to gain a sense of pride in their presentation.
Phonics and reading
Shared Reading at Byron Primary
Our shared reading curriculum is built around a carefully sequenced range of high-quality, age-appropriate texts using Literacy Counts’ Ready Steady Read Together units of learning. This resource provides dynamic and inclusive lessons that incorporate metacognitive strategies and showcase diverse literature from a range of exceptional authors. It aims to inspire children and their families to develop a lifelong love of reading for pleasure, knowledge and information. We intend that all pupils from Year 2 to Year 6, regardless of need, ability or background, have the opportunity to meet and where possible exceed the National Curriculum expectations for reading comprehension. Ready Steady Read Together ensures that every pupil has access to high-quality texts, enabling them to experience rich literature that develops fluency, vocabulary and deep understanding. Through explicit teacher modelling of expression, pace, intonation and prosody, children learn how skilled readers bring meaning to a text and how these features support comprehension. Shared reading also provides regular opportunities for discussion, questioning, drama and exploration of language. These approaches deepen comprehension while strengthening oracy skills. Crucially, our shared reading curriculum ensures that every child, regardless of their decoding ability, can access ambitious texts, engage meaningfully with literature and develop the habit of reading widely and often for both pleasure and learning.
Year-2-Reading.pdfYear-3-Reading.pdfYear-4-Reading.pdfYear-5-Reading.pdfYear-6-Reading.pdf
Writing
Writing at Byron Primary
Our writing curriculum is designed to provide a broad and balanced education that meets the needs of all children. We follow the award-winning Ready Steady Write from Literacy Counts to develop confident, independent and successful writers with high aspirations. Our writing curriculum is research-informed and impact-proven, carefully designed to support all children to master the foundational skills and write for a clear audience and purpose. Through the use of high-quality, vocabulary-rich texts, we provide exciting and meaningful reasons to write. Children are immersed in literature and taught to craft their writing with precision, using a range of pedagogical approaches, including sentence accuracy, modelled writing and shared writing, as well as regular opportunities for editing. We value spoken language as a foundation for writing. Through structured talk, drama and vocabulary exploration, children learn how to organise and express their ideas clearly before writing them down. Our aim is for every child – regardless of need – to write fluently and take pride in their work. We want our pupils to leave primary school as enthusiastic writers, ready for the next stage of their education.
Spelling
Spelling at Byron Primary
Our spelling curriculum is designed to provide a broad and balanced education that meets the needs of all children. We follow the award-recognised Ready Steady Spell by Literacy Counts to ensure that all pupils become fluent, accurate spellers. Our spelling curriculum is research-informed and impact-proven, helping children secure the essential skills and strategies they need to spell confidently across the curriculum. Through engaging activities, consistent teaching routines and regular opportunities to revisit prior learning, we help children move spelling knowledge into their long-term memory. Our aim is to build confident writers who are equipped with the tools they need to communicate clearly and effectively. Spelling is taught in a clear and systematic way, with regular reviews and assessments.
Speaking and Listening
At Byron, children are given opportunities to develop their speaking and listening skills through Dialogic Talk activities including but not limited to group discussions, presenting, debates, speaking and listening tasks.
Promoting a Love of Reading
Things we do to promote the love of reading:
- High quality reading areas well stocked with a variety of quality texts-supplemented by the Library Loans Service
- Dedicated reading for enjoyment sessions
- Recommended reading lists
- Peer Reading Buddies and Adult Reading Volunteers
- Discrete reading skills lessons
- Access to reading across all curriculum areas
- Weekly library visits
- Reading competitions and reading events
- Visiting authors and reading workshops
- Parent workshops and partnership learning sessions