English at Bedford Drive Primary School

 “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you will go.” – Dr Seuss

The school follows the National Curriculum for English as defined by the Department for Education. The National Curriculum for English aims to ensure that all pupils:

• read easily, fluently and with good understanding

• develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information

• acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language

• appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage

• write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences

• use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas

• are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate.

There are a number of ways that you can support your child with their learning at home and Mrs McFarlane, Subject Leader for English has prepared the following information that may be useful for you.

We would like to share our work and learning from Summer Term 2023

Foundation 1

Foundation 2

Reading - This term Reception have been learning about re-telling stories and narratives and the importance of having and using a rich, ambitious vocabulary.

Phonics - We are working within phase 4 of our phonics scheme Little Wandle. We are focussing on much longer words now and are using the strategy of chunking words up.

Writing - We are continuing to write sentences using capital letters, fingers spaces and full stops independently.  Lots of our writing has been linked to our Literacy counts units: The Seaside and The Extraordinary Gardener. 

Handwriting - We have had a focus on letter formation this half term and are making sure we always write top to bottom and form all of our letters correctly.

Year 1

The children’s writing was based on a book called The Secret of Black Rock this term. They really enjoyed the story and then produced their own story based upon it. They used images from the text to learn about nouns and adjectives and learnt some super new vocabulary, which they then used in their own writing. Finally, they went on to learn about postcards and eventually wrote their own from a character in the story. We saw some excellent writing this term.

Year 2

We have enjoyed reading some new texts this term. When reading ‘Rosie Revere Engineer’ they enjoyed thinking like engineers and analysed an explanation text then planned and wrote their own information text about their magnificent inventions. As part of our conservation work, we are looking at ‘Duffy’s lucky escape’ from this we will research Sea Turtles so that we can produce our own poetry, information text and posters.

Year 3

During English this term in Year 3 we have used two brilliant texts to inspire our writing. Firstly we read Jemmy Button by Alix Barzelay. The story tells us about a young boy call Jemmy Button who travels to a place completely different to his own. Children used this inspiration to write their own Return narratives in the role of Jemmy Button describing their experiences and emotions they would go through. Children developed these emotions further by writing in role a letter home to a significant family member expressing their thoughts and feelings on their adventure away from home.

During Summer 2 we read our second text, Into the Forest by Anthony Browne. This is a clever story that merges several familiar fairy tales into a beautifully illustrated picture book. Children have used these pictures to create their own Lost Narrative. Children used a lot of ‘Show, not tell’ to create tension in their writing building up suspense throughout.

Year 4

In English this term, Year 4 have done lots of impressive writing. We started with ‘The Lost Happy Endings’ which allowed us to develop our inference and prediction skills. We then wrote a twisted narrative and a persuasive letter to make sure that parents did not share the twisted tales with their children. Our next text was ‘The Journey’ a beautiful story about a refugee family escaping a war torn town. We used our empathy skills to understand how the characters would be feeling and then wrote a diary entry as the Mother.

Year 5

This term, Year 5 have written some excellent pieces using two highly engaging texts. We began the Summer term by exploring the book ‘The Lost Book of Adventure’ by The Unknown Adventurer. Children learnt about how to survive in different areas in the wild including skills such as setting up camp, sourcing water and foraging/ hunting for food. Their knowledge then helped them to write their own survival narrative and later on their own survival explanation text.

During Summer 2, Year 5 have read King Kong by Anthony Browne. We carried out some role-play and had many discussions on the topic of captivity. Children used their knowledge to then write a balanced argument about keeping gorillas in captivity, coming up with some excellent and valid reason why captivity can be both positive and negative.  This led in to our Conservation work where we wrote a short narrative from the viewpoint of an orang-utan in the rainforest and also carried out some letter writing.

Year 6

This term, Year 6 have produced some sophisticated and detailed pieces of writing inspired by a range of genres. Firstly, in Summer 1, the children wrote a narrative based on the heart-warming video ‘The Piano’. Using powerful vocabulary to portray the key elements of the story, as well as including effective fronted adverbials to indicate the progression of time, the children were able to capture the true message of the story within their writing. Next, our focus turned towards writing a dual narrative based on the fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel. Through descriptive writing and sophisticated punctuation, the children produced an advanced piece of writing which portrayed both characters very different personalities.

During Summer 2, the children produced an information leaflet about The Conway Centre. Due to their impending residential trip, this highly engaging unit of work required the children to demonstrate a range of literary skills as well as a clear structure to produce a detailed, informative and eye-catching piece of work.

We would like to share our work and learning from Spring Term 2023

Foundation 1

This term Foundation 1 have been reading ‘Little Red’ by Bethan Woolvin. The children have enjoyed exploring Traditional Tales through sharing stories, dressing up, role play and art.

In writing the children have been continuing weekly ‘Squiggle Whilst you Wiggle’  activities to help to form letters and write their own names.

As part of our ‘Little Wandle’ daily Phonics programme, the children have been introduced to Phase 2 sounds and have thoroughly enjoyed learning a new sound each day and exploring linked activities within the environment through play.

Foundation 2

This term Foundation 2 have been learning how to read long words such as carpark and singer. We have been using the strategy of chunking to do this. During our group reading sessions we have been developing our fluency and can now read sentences back once we’ve decoded the words. In our writing we are beginning to write simple sentences using known GPC’s, finger spaces, capital letters and full stops. We have been using our decodable books and our literacy counts units as a prompt for our writing. We have enjoyed writing about some of the characters from the traditional tales we have been reading.   

Year 1

In Spring Term, Year 1 have continued to work hard in their daily phonics lessons and are learning alternative sounds. They are practising their sounds every day and have enjoyed reading lots of different reading books.

Our main text in Spring 1 term was ‘Hermelin’ where the children learnt how to write a detective story. The main focus was writing simple sentences and using correct punctuation, capital letters and full stops. The children also learnt new vocabulary that they could use in their writing and then learnt how to put this all together to write their own story.

In Spring 2, our main text was ‘Where the wild things are’ which the children really enjoyed! They used their imagination to pretend they were inside the story, learnt all about adjectives to describe the wild things and even designed a wanted poster for an imaginary wild thing! Finally they planned and wrote their own version of the story.

Year 2

In Spring 1 we studied a text called ‘The Night Gardener’, we loved finding out how all of the trees and bushes had been mysteriously turned into different shapes overnight.  We were so inspired that we were able to write our own stories about secret creations.

Our text in Spring 2 has been ‘Grandad’s Island’ by Benji Davies.  We have used similes and prepositions to describe the island that Grandad and Syd visited.  We then created a story plan before writing our own return narrative.  Some of our stories were set in mystical places such as ‘Candy land’, or crazy planets!

We are all working hard to improve our spelling by learning new spelling rules each week. 

Year 3

In Spring 1, Year 3 enjoyed using the book Egyptology to support their learning. They started off by exploring clues, which prompted them to ask questions and make predictions about what the text might be about. The children wrote a wonderful narrative about finding an amazing discovery in a lost tomb, which ended on a cliff-hanger. Did their characters make it out unscathed?! Next, they produced a diary entry, writing in first person which detailed their quest to find the lost tomb of Osiris.

During Spring 2, children have used the picture book ‘The Return’ as inspiration for a descriptive setting narrative. They worked hard to collect a bank of words and phrases to help make their work more interesting. Children have used descriptive language and figurative language to describe a selection of images from the beautiful book.

Year 4

This term, year 4 have had lots of fun writing pieces of work based upon the graphic novel Arthur and the Golden Rope. This picture book was set in the world of Norse mythology and we were able to use it to create some vivid setting descriptions with a focus on noun phrases and prepositions. We also used this text to write an adventure narrative, a fun and creative story where a hero had to go on a quest to save their village from a supernatural threat. Lastly, we used this text to write a monster hunter survival guide. This was an informative text, that instructed the reader how to defeat mythical and legendary monsters and required us to write in a formal and factual tone.

Year 5

In this term, Year 5 have created writing pieces based upon the books ‘The Errand’ and ‘The Promise’. The children immersed themselves into the Whispering Woods through a drama activity where they had to act as though they were going on a dangerous errand. The child used this to help them write a cliff-hanger narrative which left our readers wondering whether our characters escaped with their lives! The children then wrote an instruction manual for their couriers on how to avoid the deadly dangers that lurk in the Whispering Woods. Year 5 also role played as characters from ‘The Promise’ taking turns in what they would say to a thief! The children thought carefully on what it would be like to live in the hopeless city and what their character would have to do to survive. The children then used these ideas to plan and write a character narrative in the third person.

Year 6

Spring term has seen the English writing and grammar focused on two books in Y6 – Rose Blanche and The Origin of the Species.

Rose Blanche is a narrative telling a story set in wartime and the children used this beautiful book to write setting descriptions and a diary entry as though they were Rose living through the war. The children then also went on to write a bravery award speech about a Pride of Britain winner, inspired by Rose Blanche. The Origin of the Species is the non-fiction tale of the discoveries of Charles Darwin. In these lessons the children planned and wrote a discovery narrative based on his exploration of the Galapagos islands, and used this to then write an explanation text about how an animal of their choice has adapted to its environment over time.

Grammar focuses included the use of modal verbs, noun phrases and a range of punctuation.

We would like to share our work and learning from Autumn Term 2022

Foundation 1

This term Foundation 1 have been exploring lots of different books through our ‘Steps to Read’ texts. The children have been learning lots of new vocabulary words at story time and through a language rich environment.

Each week the children have taken part in ‘Squiggle Whilst you Wiggle’ to strengthen their fine motor skills in order for them to be able to form letters later on.

Foundation 2

This term Foundation 2 have been learning about the importance of having a rich and ambitious vocabulary, this has been supported by our steps to read scheme where we use high quality texts such as Tiny Little Rocket. In our writing we have begun to write cvc words such as pig and dog independently using our fingers to segment the sounds

Year 1

In Year 1, we have looked at two texts this Autumn term. First, we explored the historical story of, ‘Major Glad Major Dizzy’. We learnt about the Victorian era and how toys have changed over time. We expanded our vocabularies learning words we could use in our writing. We have also looked at the traditional tale of Rapunzel. We talked about story language such as, ‘Once upon a time’, as well the key features of a story – the setting, the characters and the plot. This helped us to write our own version of the Rapunzel story with our own villains and main characters.

Year 2

During Autumn 1, we looked at the book ‘The Bog Baby’ by Jeanne Willis. The children used the book as inspiration for their own descriptive writing as well as creating an instructional text on how to build a habitat for their own creature that they created. The children were able to plan, write and edit their work.

During Autumn 2, we used the book ‘The River’ by Marc Martin to look at the features of a circular story and a letter. This unit has allowed the children to use new vocabulary and noun phrases to describe the different places the river flows through in their writing. 

Year 3

During Autumn 1 children used the book Iron Man by Ted Hughes as inspiration for their own descriptive writing as well as creating an instructional text on how to trap an Iron Man. Both of these text types required children to plan, write and edit their work.

During Autumn 2, children used Fox by Margaret Wild as driver to create their own fable following the same moral. Children also created an informational text about a fox, using positive and negative language.

Year 4

In Autumn 1, children used the book ‘Leaf’ by Sandra Dieckmann in order to create a setting description and an outsider narrative from the point of view of a polar bear. This book allowed us to extend our knowledge of grammatical terms such as fronted adverbials and expanded noun phrases.

In Autumn 2, we have used a picture book called the Whale by Ethan and Vita Murrow to generate an atmospheric and tense narrative and also a newspaper report about a whale sighting. This unit allowed children to develop their knowledge of prepositional phrases and reported speech.

Year 5

In Autumn 1, the children read the book ‘Henry’s Freedom Box’ by Ellen Levine. It focuses on slavery and Black history. Children wrote their own diary entry in role as the main character, Henry, portraying their thoughts and emotions. They then research Henry Brown using the Chromebooks and wrote their own biography about him.

In Autumn 2, our book has been FArTHER by Grahame Baker Smith which linked nicely with remembrance. The children have written their own setting description using adventurous vocabulary and phrases, focusing on what they could see in the background, middle ground and foreground. They moved on to letter writing and worked in role to write a letter as the father, to his son.

Year 6

In Autumn 1, Year 6 studied the vehicle text ‘Dreams or Freedom’. ‘Dreams of Freedom’ is a collection of visual stories and images, woven together to inspire young readers to stand up for others and to make a difference. We used this to inspire persuasive letters and an information text about freedom and the rights of children around the world.

In Autumn 2, we have studied Shackleton’s Journey, which has cross curricular links to our current geography units of work: The North and South Pole. We have used to story and adventures of Earnest Shackleton the explorer to write an exciting, setting description, endurance narrative and a magazine article.

Here is a selection of our work over the school year 2021/22:

Summer Term

Foundation 1

The Foundation 1 children have continued to enjoy many opportunities for mark making every day this term. The weekly Squiggle while you wiggle sessions have helped the children to make lots of progress with their writing. They have continued to read lots of lovely stories including Come on Daisy and 10 Rubber Ducks to name just a few.

Foundation 2

This term Foundation 2 have been learning about re-telling stories and narratives and the importance of having a rich and ambitious vocabulary. In our writing we have been writing sentences using capital letters, fingers spaces and full stops independently.

Year 1

Year 1 have enjoyed ‘The Last Wolf’ by Mini Grey; an author we have looked at previously! Children have used adjectives to describe characters from the story, used questions marks, explored dialogue between characters and even planned and written their own story, using The Last Wolf as inspiration. What a busy half term!

Year 2

Year 2 have enjoyed reading some new texts this term. When reading ‘The King who banned the dark’ they completed some fantastic role play and letter writing. When reading ‘Rosie Revere Engineer’ they analysed an explanation text then planned and wrote their own information text about their magnificent invention. As part of our conservation work, we researched Sea Turtles.

Year 3

Year 3 have enjoyed reading ‘Into the Forest’ by Anthony Browne. They have written a lost narrative incorporating tension into their work and a newspaper to report Dad being missing. We have enjoyed reading about Ivan the Gorilla and creating a persuasive letter asking for his release.

Year 4

In summer term one, Year 4 read ‘The Lost Happy Endings’ by Carol Ann Duffy. We wrote a letter to persuade the evil witch to return the lost happy endings to the children. Year 4 then enjoyed reading ‘The Journey’ by Francesca Sanna. They have written a diary entry as a refugee who has been displaced because of war. We shared the true-life text ‘Ivan’ as a captive gorilla living in a small, concrete enclosure in a shopping mall. We have then written a persuasive letter to Chester Zoo to help improve the quality of his life and living conditions.

Year 5

This term Year 5 have read “The lost book of adventure” and “King Kong”. We have worked as a team to look at writing a narrative and writing a guide book to help adventurers. As part of our work on King Kong we wrote a dilemma narrative and we have looked at different ways to engage with our readers. We have also worked on our palm oil project and we used the Rang Tan video to write a letter from the Rang Tan to the humans to persuade people to help these endangered creatures.

Year 6

This term, year 6 have written a wide range of pieces for a variety of purposes. We have written a duel narrative based upon the story of Hansel and Gretel but with a darker twist. We also wrote a persuasive leaflet to advertise the upcoming residential to the Conway Center that was intended to inspire tourists to the area. Following that, we wrote a newspaper article about a disaster in a lighthouse and this tested many of our features of writing. Finally, we wrote an extremely long and detailed recount of our time at the Conway Center and all we did there!

Spring Term

Foundation 1

In Nursery, children have carried out an author study of Michael Rosen. They have created their own story maps and thought about descriptive vocabulary to write their own missing bear posters. Children have also continued with their daily mark making and weekly ‘scribble while you wiggle’ sessions. 

Foundation 2

Foundation 2 children have been working hard to spell CVC words and use them within simple sentences. They have used story planning circles to plan their own story based on ‘Juniper Jupiter’ and have written some simple and some detailed sentences using ‘Little Red’ as a stimulus.

Year 1

Year 1 have used the text ‘Hermelin’ as a stimulus to plan and write their own detective story. They read ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ and have planned and written their own report to given information about monsters. Year 1 have continued to work hard on the elements of SPAG and have been working on singular and plural words as well as suffixes.

Year 2

Year 2 have read the text ‘The Night Gardener’ and used this as a stimulus for their writing. They planned and wrote a diary entry as well as a setting narrative. Pupils have also read the text ‘Grandad’s Island’ where they learnt about possessive apostrophes before writing their own return narrative and non-chronological report about toucans. Year 2 have continued to work hard on the elements of SPAG and have been working on spelling words with different prefixes and suffixes.

Year 3

Year 3 have used the vehicle text ‘Egyptology’ to base their writing on this term. They planned and wrote a diary about an Egyptian discovery. Children have also read the text ‘Return’ and planned and written their own setting narrative, with description based on this. Year 3 have continued to work hard on the elements of SPAG and are beginning to incorporate this more effectively within their writing.

Year 4

Year 4 have studied the book ‘Arthur and the Golden Rope’ and written their own myth narrative based on this. They enjoyed reading the book ‘Manfish’ and carried out research of David Attenborough. The children then used their findings to write a biography based on his life.  Year 4 have continued to work hard on the elements of SPAG and use these within their writing.

Year 5

Year 5 have used the text ‘Hound of the Baskervilles’ as a stimulus this term. They planned and wrote a historical report based on this text as well as a cliff hanger narrative. They also read ‘The Promise’ and have written a character description using this as their stimulus. Year 5 have continued to work hard on the elements of SPAG and use these within their writing.

Year 6

Year 6 have used the text ‘Rose Blanche’ to explore and write a diary from the point of view of Rose Blanche herself. Pupils also wrote their own bravery award acceptance speech for somebody they found inspirational after carrying out their own research. Year 6 also used ‘The Origin of the Species’ to learn about adaptation and write their own explanation text on penguins. Year 6 have continued to work hard on the elements of SPAG and use these within their writing.

Autumn Term

Here is a selection of our learning from the Autumn term.

Foundation 1

In writing the children in Nursery are learning to mark make and give meanings to what they are drawing and writing. They have been learning how to form circles and vertical lines using their ‘scribble while you wiggle’ sessions.

Foundation 2

The children have worked on finding story sentences and writing simple sentences on a poster and within a poem using the ‘Star in a Jar’ and ‘The Something’ texts as a stimulus.

Year 1

Year 1 children have been exploring a book called ‘Major Glad, Major Dizzy’. They explored new vocabulary from the book and worked on writing sentences to show their understanding of the vocabulary. They have learnt about nouns and adjectives and have incorporated this knowledge into creating their own 2A noun phrases and writing their own story.

Year 1 have also explored the book ‘Rapunzel’ where they became more familiar with the elements of a traditional tale. They learnt to narrate a traditional tale and also used ‘The Three Little Pigs’ to consolidate.

Year 2

Year 2 began the year by using Our Big Cat Collins books to look at sentence construction

Year 2 children have been very busy planning and writing their first draft for their circular narrative ‘A River'.  They have had lots of fun applying the noun phrases, using alliteration and repeated phrases to describe their own journeys.

Year 3

Year 3 have been working hard to publish their writing, they have been writing a Threat Narrative, which was based on the story of ‘The Iron Man’ by Ted Hughes. The children were challenged to use noun phrases and similes.

They have also looked at the text ‘The Fox’ where they have written their own fable based around their reading.

Year 4

Year 4 have explored the book ‘The Whale’ and have written a setting description. They have been editing and redrafting their work. They have also used ‘Leaf’ as a vehicle text to plan and write their own narrative.

Year 5

Year 5 have used the vehicle text ‘Henry’s Freedom Box’ to base their writing on this term. During the writing phase of their topic, they used a model text as a springboard to create their own diary. They have also written a biography about Henry as part of their non-fiction writing.

The children have also used the vehicle text ‘FaRther’ to write a descriptive setting as well as a letter from the son to his father.

Year 6

The Y6 pupils have been reading ‘Dreams of Freedom’ where the explored persuasive techniques and wrote a persuasive letter. They have also looked at ‘Shackleton’s journey’ where they wrote an endurance narrative as well as a magazine article.

At Bedford Drive Primary School, we have constructed an ambitious English curriculum, which follows the content of the EYFS statutory framework and the National Curriculum. These documents, along with our school policy, are available below.