At The Elms Primary School, we believe that our English curriculum should develop children’s love of reading, writing and discussion. Our curriculum is built around early language acquisition and supporting our young learners to have the vocabulary they need to access the curriculum and to communicate effectively.

We seek to develop children’s love of reading through exposure to quality texts and offering rich and varied experiences of being read with, read to and reading for themselves. We are committed to a rigorous programme of phonics teaching which allows children to develop their skills in decoding text and using phonic knowledge to communicate their ideas in writing.  

We recognise the importance of nurturing a culture where children have positive attitudes to writing, inspired by interesting starting points, high quality models for writing and giving purpose where possible. We aim for children to take pride in recording their ideas, writing clearly and their developing accuracy. Spelling, punctuation and grammar is embedded in our writing cycle giving our pupils the confidence to express themselves as writers.

We want to inspire children to be confident in the art of speaking and listening and who can use discussion to communicate and further their learning. We firmly believe that a secure foundation of early literacy development is crucial to a high-quality education across the curriculum and will give our children the tools they need to participate fully as a member of society.