English

During the term our English is taught in ‘units of work’ inspired by and based on the following quality children’s texts.

AUTUMN 1

The Wild Robot (Peter Brown): 7 weeks

 When robot Roz opens her eyes for the first time, she discovers that she is alone on a remote, wild island. She has no idea how she got there or what her purpose is - but she knows she needs to survive. But as Roz slowly befriends the animals, the island starts to feel like home - until, one day, her mysterious past comes back to haunt her. 

The key learning aims during the unit are:

• To engage the children with a story with which they will empathise
• To enjoy an exciting story with memorable characters
• To draw inferences about characters' feelings, thoughts and motives for their actions
• To explore themes and issues, and develop and sustain ideas through discussion
• To develop creative responses to the text through drama, storytelling and artwork
• To write in role in order to explore and develop empathy for characters
• To write with confidence for real purposes and audiences
• To write a sequel narrative based on a familiar story world, events and characters

The main writing / speaking and listening outcomes of the unit are:

• Increase familiarity with a range of books
• Identify themes and conventions
• Prepare play scripts to read aloud
• Show understanding through intonation, tone, volume and action
• Discuss words and phrases that capture readers' interest and imaginations
• Draw inferences about characters' feelings, thoughts, emotions and actions
• Plan writing by discussion writing similar to that which they are planning to write, learning from its structure, vocabulary and grammar
• Draft and write by composing and rehearsing sentences orally
• In narrative create settings, characters and plots
• Develop creative and imaginative writing by adopting, creating and sustaining a range of roles

AUTUMN 2

The Lion and The Unicorn and Other Hairy Tales (Jane Ray): 7 weeks

In this exquisite collection of beastly tales Jane Ray has inhabited and interpreted several stories and expressed the retellings in words and pictures. The pictures are two-tone or black and white, delicately etched and cross-hatched, and carefully matched to each story. The human invention and feelings behind the tales are very present. There is a range of mood and tone throughout the collection and humour is not neglected and can especially be found in some of the poems

The key learning aims during the unit are:

• To engage children with stories with which they will empathise.

• To explore themes and issues, and develop and sustain ideas through discussion.

• To develop creative responses to the text through drama, storytelling and artwork.

• To write in role in order to explore and develop empathy for characters.

• To develop reader response by exploring interpretations of themes, plots and characters’ actions and motivations through discussion and debate

The main writing / speaking and listening outcomes of the unit are:

• Listening to and discussing a wide range of fiction
• Reading books that are structured in different ways and reading for a range of purposes
• Increasing their familiarity with a wide range of books, including fairy stories, myths and legends, and retelling some of these orally
• Identifying themes and conventions in a wide range of books
• Preparing poems to read aloud and to perform, showing understanding through intonation, tone, volume and action
• Discussing words and phrases that capture the reader’s interest and imagination
• Discussing writing similar to that which they are planning to write in order to understand and learn from its structure, vocabulary and grammar
• Discussing and recording ideas
• Composing and rehearsing sentences orally (including dialogue), progressively building a varied and rich vocabulary and an increasing range of sentence structures (English Appendix 2)
• Organising paragraphs around a theme in narratives, creating settings, characters and plot

SPAG learning is incorporated into each lesson. In addition to this the children will also have a 15 minute session every Monday to look at key features of grammar.