Northside’s children come from wide-ranging cultural, national and educational starting points. The school has a very diverse mixture of socio-economic lifestyles which reflect the children’s learning needs. We believe literacy is at the heart of all children’s learning and, at Northside, we strive for excellence in English achievement. English is central to children’s intellectual, emotional and social development as it enables them to communicate effectively through the spoken and written word. We develop the children’s abilities within a cross–curricular programme of reading, writing and oracy.

At Northside, we recognise the importance of language, particularly as we are a multi-cultural school where 85% of the children speak English as an additional language. In order to close the vocabulary gap and ensure that our children achieve their full potential, we provide a high-quality, vocabulary-rich environment. Happy to Learn and Inspired to Flourish.  

To ensure that all children benefit from an inclusive and fair learning experience in English, we aim:

• to immerse the children in a vocabulary-rich learning environment.
• to model and develop the use of high-quality spoken and written word.
• to provide opportunities for children to access a range of text types and genres.
• to provide opportunities for pupils to demonstrate a developing imagination.
• to promote and develop a lifelong love of reading and writing.
• to teach a broad and balanced English curriculum across all subjects.

The Northside Curriculum reflects the multi-cultural nature of the school whilst opening the children’s eyes to British culture, by exposing them to memorable, fun experiences including World Book Day, Nursery Rhyme Week and participating in poetry recitals.  The English curriculum allows children to take risks in a safe environment and builds on key academic and life skills in a progressive way. Through the English curriculum, we aim to provide children with high-quality texts, expose them to various issues and dilemmas and promote equality of opportunity for all. We allow children to express opinions and share ideas in a safe environment where we use mistakes as a pathway to further knowledge and understanding.

We implement our creative, topic-based, cross-curricular curriculum through a range of activities which suit all types of learners. We have separate reading and writing lessons each morning, which are then enhanced in the afternoon with DEAR time (when children enjoy some private reading time) and a whole-class Storytime at the end of the day. Each class reads a Terrific Text every half-term, to immerse the children in different cultures, time periods and situations; we use this text to deliver reading comprehension lessons as well as English writing and topic lessons. Alongside these lessons, children will also have handwriting and spelling lessons to develop their transcription skills. 

Values (Respect, Pride, Inclusion, Challenge, Creativity, Resilience)

RESPECT – children are taught the value of books from an early age. The well-kept book corners and our yearly investment in the Barnet Reading Road Map books encourage a love and respect for books. Children are taught to be responsible, maintaining their Reading Records and caring for the school library. Positive relationships, healthy attitudes and respect for all are key features of the selected texts and reflect key aspects of our NORTHSIDE values.

PRIDE – the teaching of English at Northside promotes confidence in exploring texts. Purple Pen work (see Feedback Policy) enables children to produce work they are proud of, not just ‘done it’ work. Our aim is to always write for a meaningful purpose so that children understand the value of their writing. Published work in the classroom, on the website and in our newsletters celebrates pupils’ successes throughout the academic year.

INCLUSION – all nationalities and cultures are celebrated and shared through our carefully chosen texts. Parents are encouraged to join their child and celebrate their learning through workshops, open afternoons, Stay and Play, ESOL classes and cultural days.  

CHALLENGE – in English lessons, children are always challenged to do their very best and adaptive teaching strategies are used to enable all children to achieve. Children are exposed to a wide range of challenging fiction and non-fiction texts which are appropriate for their individual ability and enjoyment.

CREATIVITY – children explore characters, illustrations, settings and plots through role play, drama and talk for writing. Time is allocated to creative writing to develop a love of words.  Children enjoy a range of texts during our daily Storytime, which encourages their imagination and curiosity to flourish.

RESILIENCE – resilience is promoted through extended writing across a range of genres, and daily dedicated time for DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) develops the children’s concentration and stamina.

Through our English curriculum, Northside children will achieve academic success, becoming confident independent learners ready for their next stage of education. This will be assessed through day-to-day monitoring and end-of-key-stage summative assessments. Children will leave Northside as respectful, inclusive, creative members of their community who are proud of their achievements and resilient to challenge. 

Through our English curriculum, children are Happy to Learn and Inspired to Flourish.