English at GJS
At Greasby Junior School, we nurture confident, enthusiastic readers and writers who view English as both purposeful and enjoyable. Our aim is for every child to develop a deep love of reading and the skills to communicate clearly, creatively and effectively.
Reading is taught through Pathways to Read and dedicated comprehension lessons, where pupils develop essential skills such as retrieval, inference, summarising and vocabulary building. Twice-weekly Accelerated Reader sessions further support children in reading widely, enjoying a range of texts and strengthening their understanding.
Writing is inspired by rich, high-quality texts and meaningful experiences. Our carefully sequenced writing lessons follow a consistent structure across the school:
Hook → Text Familiarisation → Gathering Content → Plan → Write → Edit,
with teacher modelling underpinning every stage. This ensures pupils learn explicitly how writers think, craft and refine their work.
Children begin by exploring a model text, identifying its structure, language features and purpose. During the gathering content phase, pupils build the knowledge, vocabulary and ideas they need in order to write effectively. Teachers model writing throughout the sequence, demonstrating how to apply grammatical features, vary vocabulary and organise ideas clearly.
Pupils then move through the full writing process – planning, writing, editing and improving – with increasing independence. Grammar and spelling are taught systematically using resources such as Grammarsaurus and Pathways to Spell, enabling pupils to develop accuracy and confidence.
Children working at greater depth are encouraged to exercise conscious control over their writing, manipulating grammar, vocabulary and levels of formality to create specific effects and adopt an appropriate register.
Through this structured and supportive approach, we aim to develop articulate, reflective and motivated writers who take pride in their work and enjoy expressing themselves.
