English

Intent

It is our intention, to secure the necessary reading, writing and linguistic skills to become enthusiastic and independent learners. We strive to ensure all our children receive a sequential learning experience, which will equip them with the essential tools to achieve at Widney Junior School and beyond. It is our intention to immerse children in the wonders of quality texts, to ensure all children can read and foster a love for reading, a passion for discovery and the confidence to explore the world.

English underpins the work undertaken in all other areas of the curriculum and is essential for educational and social progress. Through reading a wide range of quality texts and having meaningful discussions, we aim to create valuable, contributing members of society. Our vision is to ensure that every child achieves their full potential in all aspects of English to become confident readers, writers and communicators.

Phonics

Widney recognises the importance of phonics in enabling children to become confident readers. All children are assessed on their phonics knowledge when they start at Widney. The school use the phonics programme Read, Write, Inc to support those children who have gaps in their phonics knowledge and these children receive daily intervention.

Kinetic Letters Handwriting

Kinetic Letters – Helping Every Child Become a Confident Writer

Our school is starting on our journey introducing a new handwriting scheme designed to give children the skills, strength, and confidence they need to write fluently and legibly from the earliest stages. It provides clear, consistent letter formation guidance across all year groups, helping children develop pride in their presentation and a strong foundation for future writing.

This approach combines child development principles with proven teaching strategies, ensuring that handwriting becomes an automatic skill, freeing pupils to focus on the content of their work.

Kinetic Letters uses a unique, story-based approach to help children remember letter formations, alongside targeted exercises to improve fine and gross motor skills. By embedding these skills early, pupils gain the confidence to express their ideas clearly and creatively in all areas of learning.

We are looking forward to seeing our children’s handwriting progress rapidly, with neat, consistent, and confident writing becoming a natural part of their everyday work.

Kinetic Letters® is a handwriting programme that children begin as soon as they begin Widney in year 3. It is also used at Cranmore Infant School.

It consists of four main threads:

Making Bodies Strong – Developing core strength, posture, and pencil grip through fun, engaging activities.

Learning the Letters – Teaching letter shapes and joins in a logical, easy-to-remember sequence.

Holding the Pencil – Ensuring children develop a comfortable and efficient grip for sustained writing.

Flow and Fluency – Building speed and consistency so handwriting becomes effortless.

It enables children to develop legible handwriting that is produced quickly and automatically. With the development of automaticity, handwriting becomes a valuable tool and not a hindrance to learning.

Kinetic Letters is based on a set of rules that have been made as simple as possible to enable fast learning.

Strength: Writing is a fine finger operation; children must have core body and arm strength to be able to control their fingers precisely.

Pencil hold: The pencil/pen grip must be comfortable to allow writing for long periods.

Letter formation: The movements to form the letters begin with whole body movements and progress through writing in sand trays to writing on whiteboards and finally writing on paper. In Kinetic Letters®, all the letters and numbers are formed by one of two monkeys, a brave one (Bounce) who goes to the top branch of the tree, and a scared one (Skip) who goes to the lower branch.

Flow and fluency: Letter movements are minimised to help a fast writing style to develop. There are no lead-in strokes (as this wastes time and effort). Once the children are competent in using the unjoined Kinetic Letters font, they can start to join letters together.

More information can be found here: https://www.kineticletters.com/

Widney's Handwriting Policy

Policies

English Policy

Reading Policy

Handwriting Policy

English overview

Long term overview ALL YEARS

English Knowledge Organisers

Year 3

Year 3 English – Fiction

Year 3 English – Non-Fiction

Year 3 English – Poetry

Year 4

Year 4 English – Fiction

Year 4 English – Non-Fiction

Year 4 English – Poetry

Year 5

Year 5 – English – Fiction

Year 5 - English - Non Fiction

Year 5 English – Poetry

Year 6

Year 6 - English - Fiction

Year 6 - English - Non Fiction

Year 6 - English - Poetry

English Progression Documents

Reading Skills Progression Map

Writing Skills Progression Map

Widney – Grammar and Punctuation Progression Map

Class Reads

We allocate time in our timetable for teachers to read to their class each week. The texts have been carefully selected so they include a range of fiction and non-fiction, stories from different cultures and characters that have different experiences and perspectives to the pupils in the class. The list is reviewed and updated annually.

Here is an overview of the class reads

Overview of class reads 2025-26

Recommended Reads