At Theodore Primary School, we believe that English is fundamental to every child’s learning, growth, and ability to participate fully in society. We are committed to developing confident, articulate, and thoughtful communicators who can express themselves clearly and creatively across a range of contexts.
We believe that high-quality English teaching- encompassing reading, writing, speaking and listening and spelling- should be engaging, inclusive, and accessible to all learners. Through a rich and varied curriculum, we aim to foster a lifelong love of literature, language and learning.
As a whole school community, we are committed to providing consistent, evidence-based instruction, celebrating diversity in language and experience, and supporting every student to reach their full potential in English.
Everyday in our English classrooms you will see
- Gradual release of responsibility model to support and scaffold student learning, including a balance of high impact explicit instruction, guided practice, cooperative learning and guided inquiry
- An explicit and systematic approach to phonics instruction (phonological awareness and letter-sound correspondence) in years K-2
- A word investigation approach in years 3-6 exploring etymology and morphology
- Differentiated tasks at students’ point of need that work towards personalised learning goals
- Continuous loop of feedback, encouraging dialogue between staff/student and student/student
- Print-rich learning environments, including co- constructed word walls aimed at growing students’ vocabulary and aiding their spelling attempts when independently writing
- Celebrating student success in English
