English and Literacy at Newton Prep
Our broad and creative curriculum instils a love of reading and writing, and speaking and listening from the very start. Whilst giving all pupils a strong grounding in the foundations of written and verbal communication, we also encourage exploration of different genres and forms through a diverse range of class readers and topics. We celebrate National Book Day and National Poetry Day across the School, as well as sparking children’s imagination and creativity through author visits, digital technology and theatre trips. To ensure that the children’s learning in English lessons is consolidated, we work closely with other departments to embed key strategies into all subjects, and take every opportunity to relate topics to real life situations or give our pupils real life audiences. It is our aim to inspire a life-long love of language and literature in all Newton Prep pupils.
There is a constant interconnectivity in our curriculum design between all the elements of English because we believe one definitively affects the other, however, below are some highlights from each:
Reading
Newton Prep is a school of readers. Pupils read for pleasure, proudly visit our two libraries (in their own time and in lessons), share book recommendations and celebrate their reading achievements. We know the power of reading: it fuels our imaginations, opens our hearts and minds to different people and ways of life, and reflects our own lives back to us. Books are our mirror, window and sliding door, which is why our bespoke yearly reading lists are full of diverse authors and a variety of genres.
In this digital age, being able to understand text-based communication is an essential skill that will allow pupils to develop the knowledge and understanding to succeed. We build the foundations of reading in the Lower School through a focus on phonics and develop key comprehension skills as pupils move up through the School, including inference, critical thinking and language analysis. Using the National Curriculum as our guide, we cover a variety of classic and contemporary texts, from Shakespeare and Chaucer to Eva Ibbotson and Onjali Q. Rauf , as well as poetry, current forms of media and non-fiction forms.
Writing
Newton Prep pupils appreciate the power of the pen. Different purposes, forms and genres are all dissected, explored and experimented with in lessons. In Year 6, children even go so far as creating their own poetry anthologies based on a theme of their choice. The Lower School’s termly Independent Write is a wonderful collection of the journey each child makes through mark-marking to story-writing, and our Big Write gets the whole school involved in the celebration of narratives. Of course, the mechanics and technicalities of writing are tackled too in discrete SPaG and handwriting lessons. By Year 5, pupils are ‘Word Detectives’ discovering the etymology of words and how words are built.
The ever-popular Writers’ Society is a lunchtime club where pupils in Years 5 to 8 have the space and time to write, share and get inspired, publishing a Zine of their work every term. All our pupils are encouraged to enter national writing competitions regularly and their pieces are often published in magazines and books.
Speaking and Listening
Newton Prep is full of great communicators. We encourage exploratory and presentational classroom talk at all levels of the school and welcome pupil voice. Through different forms of speech, such as debate, speech-making and small group discussion, we develop their skills in clarification, challenging and probing all which require active listening.
The pupils in the Upper School have access to audiobooks in the Library and often are given the option of using these for homework tasks. In Year 5 and 6, there are units of work dedicated to developing their speaking and listening skills ahead of Senior School interviews. Our oldest pupils end their English studies at Newton Prep by working on a language project called ‘How I Talk’ which introduces them to linguistics and the technical aspects of language, preparing them for GCSE-level study.
Outside of their classrooms, Key Stage 3 pupils take part in World Speech Day, developing their own speeches on a topic of their choice to deliver to Key Stage 2 pupils who give them feedback afterwards. As a Department, we also host the House Poetry Slam Competition where children write and perform their own pieces.
