English

English Statement of Intent

At Thornton, we believe a thorough command of English is not only the core of education but is also central to participating in society as a whole. We provide an exciting and engaging curriculum fed by the belief that developing children’s language widely is crucial to equipping them with the essential tools to achieve at Thornton and beyond, into adult life.

Reading is at the heart of our curriculum.

We work to instil a love of reading in all members of the school community. This ethos of reading for pleasure underpins our pedagogy. By empowering children to choose to read, we can impact not only on their academic achievement, but advance them culturally, emotionally, spiritually and socially.

We strive to ensure our children appreciate literature for all its rich variety through reading a wide range of high-quality texts. We promote diversity in our texts, allowing children to explore other lives, places and times, and also reflect on their own experiences. This is developed through focused discussions and informal book talk. Our children acquire new knowledge and build on what they already know. Children’s writing is informed by core texts, wider reading and experiences provided across the curriculum. This in turn enables them to communicate creatively and imaginatively, while writing for a range of purposes.

At Thornton, our vision is to ensure that every child achieves their full potential in all aspects of English to become confident readers, writers and communicators. We are building a foundation for our children to grow a life-long passion for reading.