English

At Oakridge School, we strive for each child to reach their full potential and ready for Secondary school by the end of Year 6. We believe the development of English skills is central to enhancing the life chances of all our pupils.  Our curriculum maintains high standards of English across all areas of the curriculum, making strong cross-curricular links where possible. Through English, we enthuse and excite children with a wide range of high quality texts, both fiction and non-fiction. We strive to immerse all pupils in a language-rich learning environment, where they develop confidence in themselves as readers and writers.

Reading& Phonics

We strongly believe that reading empowers our children with knowledge. Here at Oakridge we develop our pupils’ reading skills through the use of VIPERS (Vocabulary, Infer, Predication, Explain, Retrieve and Summary). This is carried out through ‘Teaching of Reading’ in KS2. In Early Years and KS1, a similar approach is adopted but there is a greater focus on developing reading fluency.

Reading is a fundamental skill and here at Oakridge we work hard to ensure that we provide as many opportunities for reading. Time is allocated in the timetable for all classes to have ‘Reading for Pleasure’ sessions, as we believe pupils who read for pleasure make significantly more progress in vocabulary and spelling than children who read very little. We run annual ‘Bingo Challenges’ and ‘Reading competitions’ to promote reading. Classrooms include unique reading corners to inspire pupils to read.

We start phonics from Nursery. We view phonics as crucial as this provides them with the skills to become successful readers. We regularly train staff on phonics and also hold a number of phonics sessions for parents. Additional phonics sessions are planned in for EYFS and Key Stage 1.

Writing

We follow the National Curriculum requirements to ensure progression and enhance the learning by using a cross curricular approach, linked to a core reading text. We also make links with current news as we feel it is important that children know about the world they live in. Through carefully selected texts, our English curriculum encourages language-rich lessons so that every child has best possible chance of achieving their full potential.