English
The overarching aim for English at Cavendish is to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written word, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment. 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
Our English Plan
We plan our writing lessons around either our whole class high-quality text or the Connected Curriculum topic we are covering, where possible linking the two. The learning sequence starts by identifying the grammar we are learning through authentic texts, analysing the affect of the grammar for the reader and putting the skill into practise. The children will then do some imitated writing using the skill, in a variety of ways, giving them a chance to explore how it is to be the writer. The children will then complete an independent piece of writing where they will show the skills they have been learning, as well as prior skills acquired, through a variety of text types. They will edit and improve their writing as part of this process, through verbal, written and peer feedback they will be developing these skills continually in writing.
Key Stage 2
Reading
At Cavendish, we map out high-quality books for each year group to be used across Reading and Writing lessons.
We use the whole class texts each day in our Reading lessons to support the teaching of the main reading strategies: summarising, inference, prediction, making connections, clarifying, evaluating and questioning. Each week we focus on one of the reading strategies, with the teacher modelling how to use the strategy within the whole class book context. The children then use sentence stems to practise the reading strategy as the continue reading the whole class book in pairs. Two days a week children read a book chosen from the shelves of ‘Recommended Reads’ as seen below. These are diverse books that encompass a range of genres and expose children to many different authors.
Phonics
We continue our Linguistic Phonics programme through the whole of Key Stage Two. The rationale for Linguistic Phonics is that children are taught to understand the relationship between spoken language and written words. It starts with what the children naturally acquire, spoken language, and teaches them the relationship between sound-spelling correspondences. Teaching children to read through Linguistic Phonics allows them to develop their decoding skills; this supports children in learning to blend graphemes (letters) for reading, segment phonemes (sounds) for spelling and manipulate phonemes (sounds) to develop accuracy in reading and spelling. Linguistic Phonics teaches the concept that all sounds can be spelled. We therefore do not promote silent letters, magic letters, or memorising whole words by sight. We appreciate parental support and ask that you read with your children in this way, encouraging children to use their decoding skills to read and spell.
Our teachers and teaching assistants receive training to deliver the Sounds-Write phonics programme. Sounds-Write takes children through systematic, incremental steps to teach children the 44 sounds in the English language and their multiple spellings.
Wider Curriculum
2Curriculum Planning
At Cavendish, the children are taught History, Geography, Science, Art, Design and Technology and computing through a thematic approach.
Each term, the curriculum is underpinned by a key enquiry question ‘Why do we play with different toys as we grow older?’, ‘ Can party food be healthy?’
At the beginning of each theme there is a ‘Stunning Start’ to introduce the key question. The middle of each theme is celebrated with a ‘Marvelous Middle’. This is an event that inspires the children and keeps the theme alive for them. A ‘Marvelous Middle’ can involve a visitor or a trip. At the end of each theme the children will have an opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills acquired through the celebration of a ‘Fabulous Finish’.
Educational workshops and visits are an integral part of our curriculum offer and an enrichment activity is planned during each theme. This can be in the form of a visitor, workshop in school or trip linked to the theme. Pupils experience ‘real-life’ opportunities through having these opportunities. Some of the enrichment activities the children have enjoyed this year include; Battle Abbey, The Toy Museum, The Motor Museum and workshops on Chinese dancing.
Click here to download the 2021 – 22 Wider Curriculum Overview
%
of pupils achieved 9-4 in English.
After School programs
%
of pupils achieved 9-4 in Maths.
Years Established
Celebrating Success
The staff and governors of Cavendish wish to congratulate all of our Year 11 pupils for the fantastic GCSE grades they have achieved this year.
Headteacher, Peter Marchant said, "The grades that our pupils have achieved are a reflection of their hard work throughout their time at the school and they can rightly feel proud of what they have achieved through these challenging times."