English Curriculum Intent Statements

Spoken Language 

Opportunities for spoken language are interwoven through all aspects of the Colchester School’s curriculum.  Our curriculum aims to support all our children, regardless of individual characteristics, circumstances or disadvantage, in becoming confident individuals who can communicate and contribute effectively.

All children will have opportunities to express themselves, contribute to discussions, articulate views within a debate and speak in front of and to a range of audiences.  For every pupil, we ensure we create an environment which seeks to encourage high quality debate and reasoning whilst endeavouring to foster respect and tolerance of other opinions, and showing heartfelt compassion in line with British values.

Spoken language underpins the development of reading and writing.  Through reading inspiring and thought-provoking texts, children will be provided with opportunities to explore their own and other’s feelings, ask and answer questions and hold discussions with peers.  Children will be given opportunities to respond to texts in a variety of dramatic ways including improvising, devising and scripting their own work.   Oral rehearsal of language structures and texts forms a significant part of our English writing curriculum, providing children with structures to then use in their own written work.   In all aspects of the curriculum, ambitious vocabulary is planned for and modelled by teachers, and then opportunities given for children to use this vocabulary in oral and written work.

Throughout school life in the Colchester schools, children will be provided with opportunities to show their boundless creativity within a range of performances.  They will be able to adopt, create and sustain different roles as well as express themselves when performing to a range of audiences within our school and local community.

Phonics and Reading

The Colchester School’s Primary Phonics and Early Reading curriculum enables all children to become fluent readers and writers. Our approach to teaching phonics and reading is accessible to all learners, regardless of background.

We use Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme with built in progression. This ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through the school. As a result, children are able to tackle any unfamiliar words as they read. We model the application of the alphabetic code through phonics in shared reading and writing in phonics lessons and across the curriculum We have a strong focus on language development for our children because we know that speaking and listening are crucial skills for reading in all subjects. By the time children leave us, they read confidently for meaning and regularly enjoy reading for pleasure.

Phonics and early reading across the Colchester Schools, begins in Reception where a balance of child-led and adult-led experiences for all children meet the curriculum expectations for Communication and Language and Literacy. Children make a strong start and continue their learning journey through Phases. These four part lessons provide direct teaching in short bursts, a consistent approach, secure systematic progression in phonics learning, pace, repeated practice and application of phonics using matched decodable books. Three dedicated reading practice sessions have a clear focus and have been designed to focus on three key reading skills: decoding, prosody and comprehension.

We believe teaching every child to read is important and our approach ensures our children see themselves as readers for both pleasure and purpose. Opportunities to become compassionate and courageous readers are offered daily to enable our children to make sense of what they read and enjoy the impact of discovery through the written word.

How we teach reading

Writing

Our writing curriculum aims to ensure that all pupils develop the knowledge, skills, and confidence needed to write with accuracy, fluency, and creativity. It is built on EEF guidance, evidence-based research, and recommendations from the DfE Writing Framework (July 2025).

We prioritise secure transcriptional skills, handwriting and spelling to reduce cognitive load and enable pupils to focus on composition, vocabulary, and authorial intent. A diverse and ambitious book spine underpins the curriculum, ensuring that all pupils encounter high-quality literature that broadens their understanding of the world, inspires rich writing, and fosters a lifelong love of language.

The curriculum is coherently sequenced across a two‑year cycle to ensure full coverage of genres, text types, and key learning objectives in mixed-age classes. Each Unit of Writing identifies essential knowledge, skills, and genre features, and is taught twice yearly to strengthen retention and independence. Units follow a consistent structure of explicit teaching, extended writing, and editing and proof‑reading, supported by high-quality model texts.

We are committed to making writing meaningful and relevant by creating purposeful links across the wider curriculum wherever appropriate. This ensures that pupils apply their writing skills in varied contexts, deepening understanding, strengthening subject knowledge, and enhancing their ability to communicate effectively across disciplines.

Through this structured and progressive approach, pupils develop as confident, capable writers equipped with the foundational skills required for the next stage of their education and for effective communication beyond the classroom.