English

At South Hylton Primary Academy we believe English is a fundamental life skill; it develops children’s ability to communicate effectively – to listen, speak, read and write for a wide range of purposes, with confidence and enjoyment.

At South Hylton Primary Academy, writing is at the heart of our curriculum. Our children enjoy a language-rich journey through our school, accessing a range of high-quality fiction, non-fiction and poetry texts which feed into the writing process.

Through our ‘reading into writing’ approach, we have ensured that all of our children are exposed to stories and authors from other cultures to encourage a wider appreciation of the world around them.

Skills and knowledge in writing are carefully sequenced in order to give our pupils a platform to ‘believe, achieve and succeed’ with creativity being a main driver of our curriculum. Our pupils will experience writing in a range of styles for multiple audiences and purposes, drawing on what they have read for inspiration.

By the end of Year Six, we intend for our pupils to have developed a love and appreciation for writing, equipping them with a lifelong skill for their future education, employment and enjoyment.

Children of all ages are expected to read at home, with a book matched to either their phonics or Accelerated Reader level.

Our Literature Spine

This literature spine has been designed by the staff at South Hylton Primary Academy with the intention of mapping out our pupils’ core entitlement in order to create a living library in the child’s mind.

We have used our own expertise and, with support from experts in children’s literature (FFT Literacy and Literature Works Newcastle), we believe that our spine reflects the best children’s literature – carefully selected for its quality and for how it can support our children’s understanding of our society and the wider world.

We have selected texts that are diverse in order to help our pupils to become tolerant, respectful, well-informed and empathetic young people. It is important to us that our selected titles not only reflect our shared British heritage but also cultures across the world. In order to fully prepare our young readers for the next stage in their education, we have selected books that are complex not just in the language they use, and that demand more from our students as readers. As such, our reading spine is a launchpad for our pupils’ own journey as lifelong readers.

South Hylton Primary Academy works to ensure that all children develop the ability to communicate effectively and that any barriers to learning are swiftly identified and steps are taken to remove them so that all children are given the chance to flourish and access the whole curriculum.

For detailed information about our curriculum and subjects, please visit the Key Information page.