English
Our curriculum intent
At Horniman, we promote high standards of literacy and language through quality teaching and enriching experiences so that all children can read, write and express themselves with fluency and confidence.
We see reading as not only an essential life skill, but a doorway to enquiry, purpose and pleasure. From our teaching of early reading in EYFS & KS1 to whole class reading in KS2, we aim to instil a life-long passion for reading in all children and offer every opportunity to experience engaging, diverse and quality texts.
Our writing curriculum, adapted from Talk for Writing pedagogy, immerses children in our core texts and embeds the key knowledge and skills for writing effectively within the creative process. It equips them to be proficient writers across different purposes and offers learning opportunities across reading, writing, drama, poetry and performance.
Reading
Our curriculum is designed to promote a life-long love of reading.
We recognise the fundamental skill of fluency to achieve this. In EYFS and KS1, we teach daily Systematic Synthetic Phonics and reading lessons through the Read Write Inc scheme, giving children the skills they need to read. We place literature at the centre of our learning, using our core texts, shared reading and 1:1 reading with adults to foster a love of books from an early age.
In KS2, we teach reading through whole class sessions that further build our reading fluency and comprehension through discussion, enquiry and response. We use our core texts and other quality texts to complement the purpose, genre or outcome of our writing learning journey to deepen our understanding and further develop our vocabulary and knowledge through high-quality models.
Our texts are carefully chosen to offer a wide and diverse reading diet that represents and engages all of our children.
Writing
At Horniman, we encourage children to develop their imagination and widen their vocabulary through discussion, drama, debate and role play which equips them to produce engaging pieces of writing. By supporting children to master and demonstrate the skills needed to write clearly, accurately and effectively, we encourage them to write confidently in a range of styles, for a variety of purposes and across genres. We believe that children should be exposed to high-quality texts as a model for their own writing; children are immersed in the text - through role play, art, drama, experiences and activities - which hook their interest.
Our Curriculum
Below is a summary of the core texts and writing purpose and outcomes for each half term.
Although our key knowledge and skills stay the same, we may at times adapt our core texts to reflect the needs and interests of individual classes and of course to be able to study, share and enjoy new books which are released each year.
Writing assessment
Writing is teacher assessed regularly throughout the year to help us plan and tailor the curriculum and our teaching to meet the individual needs of our children. Below are links to the assessment documents we use at Horniman.