English

Our vision: At Cannon Lane, English is at the heart of everything we do. We want to encourage children to be passionate about reading and have a love for language so they can be highly effective in communication skills whilst developing their creativity. 

English at Cannon Lane Primary School

Early Reading and Phonics

We teach phonics daily using the Little Wandle scheme of work. Phonics teaching starts in Reception and continues until the children are secure in applying their skills to reading. Each day the children are taught a different phonics skill, letter sound or blend. They take part in different activities to practice and consolidate the sounds they have learnt.

Reading and Comprehension

We understand that the teaching of reading needs to be delivered in a consistent and rigorous way and we balance our teaching of reading to include explicit teaching of both decoding and comprehension through our delivery of ‘Big Reading.’ Children are taught specific reading skills during weekly, whole class ‘Big Reading’ lessons. These sessions are structured consistently throughout the school in order to teach the children the five key skills of reading (decoding, retrieving, exploring, analysing and deducing and inferring.)

We use a wide variety of banded reading books throughout the school. Each reading scheme comprises of both fiction and non-fiction texts, as well as poetry. Our libraries and class reading corners have a wide range of books that are available for the children to read in school and at home.

Talk

Talk is a key part of our curricular experiences and we encourage children to use language and communication in a purposeful and clear way, appropriate for different occasions and which invites responsive listening. Talk partners are used throughout our lessons and children practise their speaking and listening skills through drama and role play as well. Children have many opportunities to listen carefully to stories, discuss their understanding and respond in a variety of different ways. We foster a culture of respecting and responding to the views of other children and adults in an appropriate way.

Vocabulary

Developing vocabulary is a key part of our lessons. The focus on talk, high quality class books and interactive displays supports the development of vocabulary. Word webs and class dictionary displays ensure children are given the opportunity to understand and use more ambitious language. 

Writing

All children are encouraged to write creatively and in a variety of different genres for specific purposes. Writing is cross curricular so children develop their understanding of purpose and can make connections within different topics.   Spelling, handwriting, punctuation and grammar are taught discretely during all writing opportunities. In Reception and KS1, creative writing and shared writing opportunities are promoted whereby children become keen emergent writers. In Key Stage 2, writing is more formalised whereby children’s opportunities for extended writing are planned for 'Big Writing'’ Samples of these extended writing outcomes are then used for assessment purposes.

Curriculum Overview

World Book Day 2022

For World Book Day 2022, we celebrated with a variety of events across the week.

On Monday, we enjoyed assemblies across the school with staff reading extracts from their favourite books. We heard some Revolting Rhymes from Roald Dahl, the Wonkey Donkey and an alternative version of Goldilocks that included dinosaurs!

Wednesday saw the return of The Masked Reader! Every class watched as staff read poems and classes got the chance to guess who they thought it was before the big reveal.

On Thursday, pupils and staff came to school dressed as a book character. A huge thank you to all parents and carers for going to so much trouble with the costumes. They were truly spectacular!

Our catering provider, Radish, joined in the fun and children found themed salad bars at lunch on Thursday. Children were given the opportunity to find a Golden ticket and win a prize.

Throughout the week, staff have shared their favourite books to different classes and children have been given the opportunity to read with friends from different year groups and share their love of reading. English lessons have been given the theme of Instructions. Children in the Early Phase focused on following instructions using the book ‘Press Here’ by Herve Tullet. Middle Phase had an amazing time creating sandwiches and games for their instructional writing whilst Upper Phase enjoyed cracking codes and creating revolting recipes.