Statement of Intent

At Rednal Hill we passionately believe that children need firm foundations as a secure base to build life-time learning.  The different aspects of our English curriculum ensure that children gain the essential skills, knowledge, self-belief and resilience to move onto the next phase of their journey.

Through our school vision of “Be the very best you can be” individual learning journeys are planned for and celebrated, taking into account children’s starting points and family contexts.

Staff at Rednal Hill Infant school aim for children to:

• To develop a life-long love of books and stories.
• To become confident speakers to share their ideas and opinions; communicating effectively in a range of situations.
• To have a thirst to learn and use the meaning of new vocabulary.
• Be able to use their reading skills to read and respond to an extensive range of texts (including stories from different times and cultures, information and reference texts), thinking critically creatively.
• Become increasingly fluent and accurate in expressing their thoughts and emotions, imagination and creatively.
• To communicate their thoughts, ideas and knowledge through different writing styles, understanding the purpose for themselves and their audience.
• Become increasingly fluent and accurate with a secure phoneme/ grapheme knowledge.
• Be reflective learners, who are always looking for ways to improve their literacy skills.
• To have the resilience to bounce back when things are difficult and to persevere until they are happy with the outcome.
• Be collaborative learners, who maintain high levels of engagement. 

Statutory requirements

Our curriculum meets the requirements of the EYFS Statutory Framework and the National Curriculum (2014). We aim to provide a firm foundation of the essential key skills required for a successful future, as detailed in these documents. This is supplemented by the work of Chris Quigley- providing a wider breath of study and appropriate progression within the Key Stage 1 curriculum.

Teaching and Learning: our approach

As detailed in our phonics policy, phonics is the main bridge which gives the main structure to many aspects of reading and writing.  However, we fundamentally believe that children also need to be fully immersed in the world of reading and writing to feel the purpose and link to real life contexts.

At Rednal Hill Infant school:

• We believe that our children deserve the opportunity to explore and enjoy a wide range of genres and texts in a safe, secure environment where they are not afraid to experiment and make mistakes. 
• We believe that staff should always model a passion for reading, research, books and literature to inspire and enthuse the children to develop a love of literacy.
• We have a creative, cross-curricular approach to English which engages children and promotes learning links.
• Our Learning Model builds on previous learning and encourages self-belief, curiosity, excitement and motivation through the use of open-ended questioning, with a focus on building connections and making learning worthwhile and relevant.
• each classroom has a writing resources shed which houses all the resources children would need, so that their independence is developed and the classroom environment can act as a third teacher in line with our continuous provision ethos.
• We provide a language-rich learning environment which supports current learning and where the written word is displayed in a variety of print, including many examples of handwritten script.
• Working walls and/or washing lines are used to display current learning and show progression through units of work.
• We believe that writing should be a creative/developmental process at a functional and imaginative level. Compositional and transcriptional skills are taught alongside creative aspects.
• Children are taught and given opportunities to self- and peer-assess, enabling them to become more reflective and supportive learners.

Speaking and Listening

At Rednal Hill Infants, Speaking and listening is a key feature of our English Curriculum. Speaking and listening skills are explicitly taught and there are a range of opportunities, both planned and incidental, for children to revisit, apply and extend these skills. Interactive teaching strategies are used to engage all pupils in order to develop effective communication skills and raise reading and writing standards. We use Talk for Writing strategies to support children’s oral language and embed their knowledge of texts. Children are encouraged to use discussion to explore and extend their ideas while addressing their misconceptions.