Our English Curriculum is designed to ensure that pupils at Harbertonford secure the foundational knowledge that allows them to read and write automatically. As a result, pupils will be able to access the full curriculum and effectively communicate their thinking from an early age.
The journey begins in our Early Years Foundation Stage where pupils learn to crack the phonetic code, where teachers use Bug Club to guide the pupils' learning. At the same time, pupils begin to form letters accurately and quickly. This focus on transforming phonic awareness into a fluency in decoding whilst securing the basics of simple sentence structure and punctuation is our number one priority across Key Stage One.
The next stage of their English journey builds on these foundational skills: pupils become competent, creative writers in a range of genres. Throughout this process, they continue to develop their transcription skills so that fluent, joined handwriting and accurate spelling become automatic.
At Harbertonford, we use the principles of Talk for Writing and BookWrites teaching sequences to support our writing curriculum and we use the 'Letter-join' programme to support pupils to develop a cursive handwriting style.
Once pupils are more confident 'independent' readers, they access our Accelerated Reader (AR) programme. AR is a computer program that helps pupils and teachers select books appropriate to their individual reading development stage. When they have finished their book, they take a short quiz on the computer through their own, individual portal. AR gives both children and teachers feedback based on the quiz results.
Reading for pleasure is celebrated across the school with dedicated curriculum time given to independent 'quiet reading' and to teacher-led novels shared with the class. We want all our pupils to leave school with the ability and desire to read widely and often.
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