Speaking and listening
At Unity we are committed to supporting speaking and listening skills. We firmly believe that children need to 'Talk It' before they can 'Read It and Write It'! A range of strategies are used to promote improved oracy, vocabulary and communication skills.
Reading
At Unity Academy we value reading as a key life skill and are dedicated to ensuring the children will leave school as competent readers. The all-through nature of Unity dictates that the teaching of reading is divided into several approaches under an overarching vision that we want our children to develop fluent reading capabilities which allow them to read a range of academic texts and for pleasure. We take great pride in the fact that we nurture the love of reading in our children to offer the opportunity to immerse themselves in a variety of genre. Which can take them from a pirate ship to the top of Mount Everest! This is also evident in our choice of House names. The children take part in whole class guided reading and the literary canon following elements of reciprocal reading. For independent reading the children access the Accelerated Reader and Reading eggs programmes.
Phonics
Children receive daily phonics sessions in small groups. The synthetic phonic scheme that we use is Read, Write Inc and this enables our children to read with confidence and clarity. Children are regularly assessed so that we know children's next steps and can ensure they keep up with our teaching program. This leads into RWI comprehension and spelling sessions which develop on the children’s phonics skills.
Writing
We encourage the children to become confident writers and to be able to apply their skills to a range of non-fiction and fictional genres. We use arrange of strategies to support this including fantastic foundations (Jane Considine) Talk for writing. scaffolding and modelling and grammar specific lessons. The children have a progression for writing book of which they are very proud. This allows then to see their termly improvement.
KS3/4
Our secondary English curriculum is built around our shared belief that all children, irrespective of their starting point, ability or needs, deserve access to a ‘world class’ education. We believe that English is fundamental to our students’ success in and out of school and as such our curriculum is academically rigorous and unapologetically challenging. We set high scholastic targets, teaching to the top while ensuring all students receive the support they need to access demanding work.
Our English curriculum blends seamlessly with the skills and knowledge developed at KS1 and 2. The content of our curriculum is underpinned by the National Curriculum and aims to foster independent thinkers, analytical readers and writers who appreciate the power of words and utilise language to express their own points of view.
The design of our curriculum focuses on a mastery of knowledge and is structured to engage students in spiral and interweaved learning. This design ensures we promote the deepening of crucial knowledge and the refinement of core skills, moving our students from novices to experts and nurturing a love of English.
In following the national curriculum at KS3 and 4, we cover a range of canonical texts and writers including Shakespeare, Orwell, Plath, Shelley and Milton. The texts we study help our students learn from the past and consider how we can shape our present, while developing an empathy and understanding of the world around us. We encourage students to debate and discuss the relationships between texts and their contexts, holding critical conversations about political and social issues. We think it is essential that our students see themselves, and others, in the texts they read. Throughout their academic journey students study a varied range of texts that celebrate the diversity of voices within our world and help them to develop a stronger sense of self.
Throughout KS3 and 4 we explore a range of significant non-fiction texts, encouraging students to study closely the words of the often marginalised and consider how language has been used as an act of resilience and defiance throughout history. We study speeches, letters and articles from leading figures such as Emmeline Pankhurst, Harriet Tubman, Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen and Gandhi.
Our KS3 curriculum is not narrowed by the demands of GCSE English, but ensures students develop the higher order
thinking skills and conceptual knowledge needed to be successful at KS4 and beyond.
We strive to immerse our students in English, making sure they have the opportunity to watch live performances; engage in debate and enter their own writing in a range of local and national competitions.
Handwriting Progression N - 6 2023 - 2024