Welcome to Highfields School English page

An introduction to English

At Highfields, we aim to provide a language rich environment that promotes a culture of reading and a love of books and literature that will support pupils in their learning across the curriculum and enrich their lives. We value and use books as a basis for learning, pleasure, talk and play. We place a strong emphasis on our children becoming fluent readers, readers who are able to comprehend a wide variety of texts and who can then deepen their knowledge and understanding of the world in which they live. We are rigorous in our determination for all pupils to read with confidence by the time they leave primary school so they can begin their secondary education and access reading material across a range of subjects. We strive to address potential barriers to reading with early intervention and we are committed to a ‘no ceiling’ approach with every child. We understand the important role that parents and carers have in supporting their children to develop both word reading and comprehension skills. We strongly encourage a home school partnership that enables parents and carers to understand how they can support their child in developing the skills we teach in school.

We aim to promote positive attitudes towards all aspects of English by embedding a reading culture that nourishes the language-rich environment, that then feeds the skills necessary to move forward in all writing activities across the curriculum. Our writing curriculum is carefully designed to develop the progression of skills and knowledge, to promote pupils’ effective communication, the competence to produce high quality written work. Persistence, resilience and stamina are developed through expressing opinions and the exploration of language across different text types and daily guided reading.  

What do children at Highfields think about English?

Read Write Inc.

At Highfields Primary we follow 'The Read Write Inc' phonics scheme. At the core of 'Read Write Inc' phonics is the lively and vigorous teaching of synthetic phonics. Children learn the 44 common sounds in the English language and how to sound-blend words for reading (decoding) at the same time as developing handwriting skills and spelling (encoding). They read lively Storybooks and Non-fiction books with words they can decode, so they achieve early success in reading. The more sounds they know the greater the range of texts they can read.

In Foundation Stage, children read from the first stage ‘Read Write Inc’ books and then progress through each level until they have completed the books (usually at the end of the Autumn Term in Year 2). As their skills progress, they then transfer to a range of other books, matched to their reading ability, where they have access to a wide range of fiction and non-fiction books colour coded for the level of decoding skill and comprehension required.

Examples of Displays across the school which support childrens learning

Take a look at the wonderful dream jars children made to celebrate Roald Dahl Day

A Journey of English through the school

English plays an integral role in our day to day work at Highfields. We teach lessons every day, using a range of teaching techniques and resources to meet the requirements of the new curriculum. Below you'll find examples of work from across the school; from phonics and writing in the Foundation Stage to the writing books of our Year 6 children. Although these samples are taken from our English books, we expect our children to apply their reading, spelling and writing skills across all subjects.

Special Educational Needs Disability (SEND) / Pupil Premium / Higher Attainers

All children receive Quality First Teaching. Any child with identified SEND or who is pupil premium may have work additional to and different from their peers in order to access the curriculum dependent upon their needs. As well as this, our school offers a range of opportunities for all children to reach and achieve their full potential.

Spelling, punctuation and grammar

As part of the National Curriculum all classes are taught aspects of Spelling, punctuation and grammar. Click on the links below to see a glossary that should help you with any unfamiliar terms .