English
English Intent
At Moor Hall Primary School, we recognise the vital role of English in developing confident, articulate, and literate learners. Our intent is to cultivate high standards in reading, writing, and spoken language, equipping pupils with the skills to communicate effectively and engage with literature with curiosity and enjoyment. English at Moor Hall reflects our school values for the Moor Hall Child—Responsible, Achieving, Healthy, and Confident—fostering creativity, resilience, independence, and ambition in every child.
We select texts carefully to reflect our values, celebrate diversity, and inspire curiosity. Through literature, pupils explore moral choices, empathy, and courage, developing as thoughtful, reflective members of our community. Reading and writing are embedded across the curriculum, enabling pupils to access and communicate disciplinary knowledge in science, history, geography, and the arts, supporting subject-specific vocabulary and writing conventions.
Our approach ensures that every child can progress in English, whatever their starting point. Lessons provide challenge and support, encouraging perseverance, independence, and a love of learning. Speaking and listening underpin our English curriculum, creating opportunities for meaningful discussion, collaborative learning, and confident self-expression.
Implementation
Speaking and Listening
Pupils develop oral skills through a range of language-rich activities, including:
- Engaging with stories, poems, and performance texts.
- Participating in discussions, debates, and presentations.
- Drama and role-play activities to explore characters, ideas, and perspectives.
- Reflection on learning and sharing insights across the curriculum.
Writing
Writing is taught in line with the National Curriculum (2014), covering transcription, composition, and grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Pupils write across genres, progressively developing skills in narrative, non-fiction, and poetry. Handwriting is taught through the Nelson pre-cursive scheme, and spelling is supported via online tools aligned with curriculum expectations. Writing is integrated across subjects, allowing pupils to communicate ideas in science, history, geography, and the arts, strengthening disciplinary literacy.
Phonics
We follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds programme. Phonics is systematically taught to develop confident decoding and encoding skills. Lessons follow a consistent structure: revisiting prior learning, teaching new graphemes, and practising through reading and writing. Pupils then apply these skills across English and wider curriculum texts, strengthening their reading and spelling abilities.
Reading
Pupils engage in whole-class reading sessions, exploring a range of texts chosen for enjoyment, cultural enrichment, and subject knowledge. Reading is embedded across the curriculum, enabling pupils to access and interpret complex texts in all subjects. Pupils are supported to build the background knowledge needed to understand texts, connecting new learning to what they already know. These sessions focus on vocabulary, comprehension, fluency, and expression, supporting pupils to “read to learn” as well as “learn to read.”
Reading for Pleasure
A love of reading is central to our ethos. Pupils are encouraged to explore diverse texts across genres, share stories, and discuss ideas. Classrooms provide inviting book areas, and pupils also have access to our well-stocked school library. Regular story times, author study, and school-wide events such as Book Week and literary celebrations nurture curiosity, empathy, imagination, and confidence in expressing ideas.
Assessment and Progression
Assessment informs teaching to ensure all pupils make progress and develop the skills and confidence to engage with increasingly complex texts and writing tasks. Teachers use a combination of formative strategies—such as questioning, peer and self-assessment, observation, and feedback during lessons—and summative assessments, including termly writing tasks, reading assessments, and phonics checks. These approaches enable pupils to become Responsible, Achieving, Healthy, and Confident learners while ensuring teaching is targeted to meet individual needs.