English - when we learn to speak, read and write fluently
English Vision
At Westminster CofE Primary Academy, we want our children to be able to speak, read and write fluently so that they are confidently literate, having learned the skills and knowledge to progress to the next stage in their education journey and beyond.
At Westminster CofE Primary Academy, our aim is that our children become lifelong readers who enjoy reading for its own intrinsic value but also as a mechanism for learning and life skills. Our children will experience a text-rich environment, with high-quality texts from a diverse selection of authors and from a wide range of genres. The texts will reflect the experiences of our children, as well as provide a window into other cultures and communities so that children know about their own heritage and the world around them. In the early stages of reading, all children are systematically taught phonics enabling them to decode the written word whilst developing comprehension skills. At Westminster CofE Primary Academy, children will leave Year 6 as confident, skilled readers able to access information, ideas and knowledge, ready for secondary school.
It is our vision that children will be well-equipped with the key skills and knowledge to produce creative and purposeful writing. Children will have experience of different writers and explore the choices writers make. We believe children should understand from an early age that their writing needs to be accurate, legible, and set out in an appropriate way. Children learn to plan, draft, revise, edit and present their work, before evaluating the success of their writing. Through explicit teaching of vocabulary, we aim to enrich the word-knowledge of our children and close the word gap, developing their knowledge across the curriculum and preparing them for the wider world.