The English Curriculum at Thomas Harding Junior School

Our English Intent

At Thomas Harding, we recognise that every child brings their own unique strengths, experiences and starting points. Our English curriculum nurtures a love of language and literature while providing the support and challenge each pupil needs to thrive.

We aim to broaden horizons, build confidence, and ensure that every child leaves us equipped with the skills to read fluently, write with purpose and communicate with confidence. Through engaging texts and rich learning experiences, pupils develop curiosity, creativity and critical thinking.

Our curriculum encourages children to become lifelong readers and writers who take pride in their work, enjoy expressing themselves and appreciate the power of words to connect, inspire and transform.

The ASPIRE values – Aspiration, Success, Pride, Integrity, Resilience and Equality – underpin everything we do. They guide pupils to be reflective, respectful and ambitious learners who believe in themselves and their ability to make a difference through language.

Implementation

At Thomas Harding, our English curriculum is carefully designed to respond to the needs of our pupils. Many of our children join us with varied starting points in vocabulary, fluency, handwriting and confidence. Through a clear, structured and ambitious approach, we ensure that every pupil is supported to achieve and empowered to succeed.

• Progression and Planning: Clear Reading and Writing Progression documents outline key objectives and show how knowledge and skills are explicitly taught, revisited and embedded across the school.

• Phonics and Early Reading: All children are assessed for phonics knowledge on entry to Year 3. Any child requiring additional support follows the Read Write Inc. Catch-Up programme, with daily phonics sessions in LKS2 and targeted interventions across all year groups as needed.

• Spelling: Spelling Shed is used consistently in Years 3–6. Lessons take place at least twice a week, with weekly focus words drawn from statutory lists and common spelling patterns, ensuring progression, accuracy and confidence.

• Handwriting: Handwriting is explicitly taught to support fluency, stamina and pride in presentation. Teachers consistently model high standards of handwriting and presentation in all shared work.

• Vocabulary Development: Tier 2 words and other ambitious vocabulary are explicitly taught, displayed and promoted in every classroom. Pre-teaching of key vocabulary ensures that all pupils, particularly those who are disadvantaged, SEND or EAL, can access new learning successfully.

• Reading: Daily Whole Class Reading lessons are fluency-based, ensuring all children practise reading aloud and develop expression, pace and understanding. Carefully chosen texts expose pupils to a wide variety of genres, diverse authors and meaningful cross-curricular links.

• Reading Strategies (VIPERS): These comprehension skills are taught consistently from Years 3–6, enabling pupils to explore vocabulary, make predictions, infer meaning, retrieve information and summarise effectively, always justifying responses with evidence from the text.

• Oracy: High-quality spoken language is modelled and promoted across all English lessons. Pupils are given frequent opportunities to articulate ideas, explain reasoning and develop confidence in speaking and listening.

• Assessment: Regular reading, spelling and writing assessments are used to identify pupils in need of additional support or challenge. Assessment information is used to inform planning, ensure progress and close gaps.

• Book Talk and Reading Culture: Reading is celebrated through monthly Recommended Reads. Children regularly share book recommendations with peers, fostering discussion, enthusiasm and a culture of reading for pleasure.

• Reading for Enjoyment: Class novels are read daily in every year group, immersing children in rich, challenging texts and modelling fluent, expressive reading.

• Writing: Core texts are carefully selected to inspire purposeful, high-quality writing. Each half-termly writing unit has a clear purpose and audience, enabling pupils to adapt their style, structure and vocabulary to suit different contexts.

• Teaching Approaches: Writing is taught through clear modelling and scaffolding, helping pupils understand outcomes and expectations. Grammar and punctuation are taught both discretely and within meaningful writing contexts to support application.

• Publishing and Celebration: Final writing pieces are shared, published and celebrated, giving pupils a strong sense of audience, purpose and pride in their work.

• Enrichment: Reading and writing events throughout the year promote enjoyment, creativity and the development of lifelong literacy skills.

• Professional Development: Learning walks, book scrutiny, pupil voice and staff meetings are used to share good practice and strengthen teacher subject knowledge. Internal and external moderation ensures consistency and high standards across all year groups.

Themed Events

Throughout the year, we celebrate English through a range of themed events that inspire a love of reading and writing, while raising the profile of literacy across our school community. These events create excitement around books, language and storytelling, giving pupils memorable experiences that deepen engagement, build confidence and foster creativity.

• Reading Assemblies: Teachers lead assemblies by sharing extracts from their favourite books, modelling expressive reading and introducing pupils to a wide variety of authors, genres and cultures.

• National Events: We take part in initiatives such as World Book Day and Pyjamarama, where pupils immerse themselves in stories, share books and enjoy the magic of reading together.

• Author Visits: Visiting authors, illustrators and poets bring literature to life, inspiring children to see themselves as readers and writers with their own voices to share.

• Competitions and Challenges: Reading and writing competitions encourage creativity, pride and friendly challenge, while giving pupils opportunities to showcase their ideas and talents.

These events enrich our English curriculum and strengthen our whole-school reading culture — a culture where books are celebrated, stories are shared, and every child is encouraged to see themselves as a confident reader, writer and communicator.

Impact

By the time children leave Thomas Harding Junior School, they will:

• recognise and understand the close relationship between reading and writing

• write effectively across a range of forms, adapting style and language to suit purpose and audience

• read widely and for pleasure, developing a lasting love of storytelling, poetry, plays and non-fiction

• acquire sustained learning and transferable skills that support success across the curriculum and beyond

• express themselves clearly, confidently and appropriately in both spoken and written forms

• read with accuracy, fluency and understanding, enabling them to become confident, independent readers

• develop a broad and ambitious vocabulary, including subject-specific terminology, and use it with precision

• apply spelling rules and patterns securely in their independent writing

• strengthen their thinking skills, becoming reflective, independent learners

• benefit from learning opportunities that integrate reading, writing, speaking and listening in meaningful contexts

Through our English curriculum, pupils leave Thomas Harding equipped with the knowledge, skills and self-belief they need to thrive as articulate, literate and confident learners, ready for the next stage of their education and for life beyond primary school.