At Pleasant Street Primary School, we believe that literacy and communication are key life skills. Through the English curriculum, we will help children develop the skills and knowledge that will enable them to communicate effectively and creatively through spoken and written language and equip them with the skills to become lifelong learners. We want children to enjoy and appreciate literature and its rich variety.  We have included information on reading and phonics in a separate section.



English Long Term Plan 

We use the Read to Write teaching resources by Literacy Counts as the basis of our English planning from Reception to Year Six.  It incorporates reading, writing, vocabulary and GPS skills through the teaching of high quality text each half term.


English National Curriculum



Useful Websites

chatter icon

English Chatter

chatter icon

Juniper Jupiter!

24-10-2024

This term Reception have been focusing on the story Juniper Jupiter by Lizzy Stewart, the children have loved learning about Juniper Jupiter and her sidekick Peanut! The children received a letter from Juniper Jupiter asking if the children could create a poster as to become her sidekick whilst Peanut is unwell. The children created some fantastic drawings of themselves being superheroes and explained what their superpowers would be.

3
chatter icon

Preparing to write a diary

13-10-2024

To help us prepare for our writing, we produced and rehearsed a story map. We are going to use the images to help us with our writing.

6
chatter icon

English

09-10-2024

Learning key vocabulary from the text and analysis an image

9
chatter icon

English

09-10-2024

Looking at hook items from our new story

7
chatter icon

English

09-10-2024

Qualities for a side kick

9
chatter icon

English

09-10-2024

Hot seating Juniper Jupiter

8
chatter icon

Super SPAG Work

08-10-2024

This week some of the children worked in our new building to show off their fantastic SPAG skills. We have been focussing on using words like and, because or so to add more detail.

3
chatter icon

Reading Buddies

07-10-2024

Our reading buddies have enjoyed reading together again this year. Some pupils enjoyed sharing some brand new non-fiction books together, finding out lots of information about plants and flowers.

2
chatter icon

Comprehension

04-10-2024

Today our comprehension work was based on a text about the Romans in Britain.

4
chatter icon

Planning Our Diary

03-10-2024

This morning in English we are planning Rose Blanche’s diary in our own words. We have studied the story and now we’re using our comprehension skills to create our plan, using keywords and illustrations from various events.

7
chatter icon

Fantastic storyboard English work.

30-09-2024

In English Reception have been reading and exploring the story ‘Juniper Jupiter’. Reception have drew pictures of what happened within the story on to a storyboard. Reception worked so hard to remember what parts of the story and what to draw.

11
chatter icon

English

27-09-2024

Were class 7 predictions correct? Revealing our new text.

9
chatter icon

English

27-09-2024

Thinking about superhero powers

8
chatter icon

English

27-09-2024

Creating alliterated names for class 7 children

9
chatter icon

English

27-09-2024

Looking at hook items for our new class story

9
chatter icon

Oliver’s Vegetables

26-09-2024

This week we have been reading Oliver’s Vegetables, we discussed what vegetables we already know and some new. To find out wether the children liked or disliked the vegetables we did a taste test.

5
chatter icon

SPAG-Parenthesis

25-09-2024

We worked on parenthesis in English today and had some great discussions, giving examples. We then extended our comprehension skills by retrieving information from a written text.

6
chatter icon

Superhero Crafts

23-09-2024

This term Reception are learning about the story ‘Juniper Jupiter’ in English. The children have explored lots of superheroes and we have been very crafty this week, creating our very own superhero lolly sticks and superhero masks.

11
chatter icon

Henry’s Freedom Box

10-09-2024

The class wrote down how Henry must have been feeling.

6
chatter icon

Making Predictions

09-09-2024

In class 6 this morning we are looking at the hook items from our English story and making predictions on who the girl may be in the picture and where she may be going…

5
chatter icon

English

16-07-2024

’The Lonely Beast’

18
chatter icon

Michael Rosen book signing!

08-07-2024
16
chatter icon

Michael Rosen Event

08-07-2024

Class 3 enjoyed a trip to The Florrie on Friday to take part in poetry activities and to listen to Michael Rosen talk and recite some poetry. We took part in a workshop to create our own animal poems, played poetry games and listened to a man called George reading his favourite poems. We had a brilliant time and loved hearing some of our favourite poems including Chocolate Cake and No Breathing in Class!

15
chatter icon

English

03-07-2024

Sequencing ‘The lonely Beast’ story

14
chatter icon

English – Conscience Alley

01-07-2024

Today in class 2 we did conscience alley trying to persuade Jack to either go up the Beanstalk or not!

12
chatter icon

Speech

28-06-2024

Adjective work

15
chatter icon

Hello Lonely Beast!

26-06-2024

The children worked in groups to generate questions to ask our special visitor. They explored different question words and what they are used to find out, including How, Why, Where, Who and What? They were delighted to receive a visit from not one, but two Lonely Beasts! They asked questions and listened carefully to the answers.

16
chatter icon

English in Reception

20-06-2024

In English, the children worked very hard to independently read words and using a ruler they connected the word to the correct image.

15
chatter icon

Little Red

12-06-2024

In English this term we are exploring the book “Little Red”. In our choose time the children have loved to dress up as all the characters in the story.

This week the children have been working so hard to write all about the story. Today for our sentence snake we wrote “Red went into the woods” the children worked independently to write their sentence, they did a fantastic job.

28
chatter icon

English

06-06-2024

Looking at hook items and finding a stranger sleeping in our classroom.

14
chatter icon

Prediction

04-06-2024

We used the clues that had arrived in our classroom to write predictions about our new English story.

14
chatter icon

English writing

23-05-2024

Here are a couple of examples of our writing contributions this half term, based on ‘The King who banned the Dark’

23
chatter icon

Phonics in Reception

19-05-2024

Recently Reception have been learning all about constant and vowels using them to spell words in phonics, they have been using phonic knowledge to write different CCVC and CVCC words.

Reception have also been finishing Miss Oh No’s zigzag books for her as she keeps forgetting to draw the pictures so Reception have been reading the sentences and drawing pictures to match the sentence to help Miss Oh No finish her books.

31
chatter icon

English

17-05-2024

Further work on our Hermelin Book in class 7

22
chatter icon

Speaking & Listening

17-05-2024

It was fantastic to observe the children leading their own game of ‘Heads Up’ during choosing time this week. They have worked so hard learning different ways of questionning during whole class speech games. It was lovely to see that they can now play this game independently.

23
chatter icon

The King who banned the dark

16-05-2024
21
chatter icon

Hermelin the mouse detective

10-05-2024

22
chatter icon

English

08-05-2024

First read of our class text ‘Hermelin.’

19
chatter icon

Writer’s Knowledge

08-05-2024

Class 4 used the Writer’s Knowledge wheel to generate accurate sentences that could be used in our own invention stories.

19
chatter icon

English

01-05-2024

Class 7 exploring their new text

23
chatter icon

Y2 English

30-04-2024

The class looked at writer knowledge using our sample text.

18
chatter icon

A World Above

29-04-2024

We used a crucial moment in our story to consider the character’s feelings. Through role play, we were able to come up with descriptive phrases to describe the character’s reaction as opposed to stating “I felt …”

We are looking forward to using these in tomorrows incidental write. Well done everyone!

18
chatter icon

The King who banned the dark

26-04-2024

Wonderful examples of work on our washing line, as the children immersed themselves in our new Literacy Counts unit.

19
chatter icon

Some drama to get into character

26-04-2024

In English today we did some drama to understand how the characters of our story will feel when they see the gargantuan beast.

23
chatter icon

Spring Planting?

26-04-2024

Reception have been learning all about plant lifecycles in Science, we planted our own sunflower seeds by following ‘Joe’s’ instructions from our Literacy story ‘The Extraordinary Gardener’, we are so excited to watch our seeds grow.

35
chatter icon

Hermelin

25-04-2024
, ,
34
chatter icon

English

25-04-2024

We recapped on what we could see on Offley Street and looked at the notice board. Class 7 made wonderful predictions.

20
chatter icon

English

25-04-2024

Offley Street. Who lives here? Is it a nice place to live? What can you hear on the video?

20
chatter icon

English

25-04-2024

Class 7 found an old suitcase in our class! What was it for? What are the items in it for?

20
chatter icon

Conscience Alley

24-04-2024

The children did brilliantly today, giving reasons for and against banning the dark!

20
chatter icon

Phonics Parent Meeting

23-04-2024

Thank you to all of the Y1 parents who joined us for the Phonics Screening Information meeting. If you have any questions about the test, please do not hesitate to ask us.

29
chatter icon

English

29-03-2024

Continuing class 7 learning about Joe in ‘The Extraordinary Gardener’

23
chatter icon

Dual Narrative

19-03-2024

Building our dual narrative for The Witch and Hansel or Gretal in our English book based on the fairytale of Hansel and Gretal. Using new vocabulary and extended noun phrases to bring our writing to life.

23
chatter icon

Finding Features of the Text

14-03-2024

We used the story of Hansel and Gretal to help find examples of expanded noun phrases, verbs and adverbs to enhance meaning and profiles of each character.

20
chatter icon

English

13-03-2024

The Extraordinary Gardener

20
chatter icon

The Extraordinary Gardener

11-03-2024

Character profile of Joe

16
chatter icon

The Extraordinary Gardener

11-03-2024

What does Joe like to do?

17
chatter icon

World Book Day

07-03-2024

The children wore some wonderful costumes and outfits today, as they celebrated World Book Day in style. There were superheroes in class, along with wizards and princesses! The children were also excited to take home their free book.

24
chatter icon

World Book Day??

07-03-2024

Class three have enjoyed world book day! It has been so fun and interesting seeing and hearing about each others costumes and favourite books?

27
chatter icon

First Impressions

23-02-2024

Today in English we are looking at the hook items for our next English story and making predictions. We also discussed our first impressions as a class and heard lots of great thoughts.

25
chatter icon

English

22-02-2024

Additional hook items

20
chatter icon

English

22-02-2024

Exploring hook items from our new story.

21
chatter icon

Aquarium trip!

08-02-2024
115
chatter icon

English

07-02-2024

Creating our own story in the style of The Storm Whale.

23
chatter icon

English

07-02-2024

Creating our own version of The Storm Whale.

21
chatter icon

English

07-02-2024

Sequencing pictures and text from The Storm Wahl

19
chatter icon

Building a Biography

05-02-2024

Today class 6 are researching information to build their biography of Earnest Henry Shackleton.

20
chatter icon

Earnest Henry Shackleton

02-02-2024

In English today we are converting sentences to passive voice and using new vocabulary we have learnt, thesaurus’s and dictionary’s to find synonyms from a modelled text.

19
chatter icon

LLP reading event

01-02-2024

The class enjoyed listening to author Lucy Farfort this morning, after enjoying her book ‘In our Hands’ – a book about hope, unity and positivity! They also drew characters who would transform the world! The book links in well with the upcoming Mental Health and Wellbeing Week.

27
chatter icon

Author Event

30-01-2024

Mental Health and Well-being Week

Today we have been very lucky to listen to Natalie Denny, Natalie went into amazing detail of her characters and what goes into writing a published book. We then had the pleasure of listening to the first chapter of Natalie Denny’s new book, Keisha Jones is a Force of Nature!

This book is about when Keisha discovers that the trees in a nearby park are going to be cut down to make way for a carpark, the Bee Squad has its next cause. It’s time for some green activism to save the VITs … that’s Very Important Trees!

26
chatter icon

Reading Buddies visit JMU

29-01-2024

Some of our reading buddies were invited to John Moores University library to talk about reading and books with some Childhood Studies University students. They discussed some of the books in the library, why they selected them and their thoughts on the content and illustrations.

111
chatter icon

English

25-01-2024

The Storm Whale

22
chatter icon

Speech

25-01-2024

recognising sensible and silly sentence

24
chatter icon

English – Hook

22-01-2024

Looking at hook items from our story.

22
chatter icon

English

22-01-2024

Looking at hook items from our new story

27
chatter icon

Speech

22-01-2024

Developing observation skills during a game of Kim’s game.

19
chatter icon

Speech

22-01-2024

Brown Bear

21
chatter icon

Speech

22-01-2024

Clapping number of syllables in our names

22
chatter icon

Speech – syllables

21-01-2024
23
chatter icon

Atmospheric Poems

19-01-2024

This week in English, class 6 showed off their skills in figurative language to build an atmospheric poem. We have also showed how we can use semi-colons to extend our sentences.

25
chatter icon

First Impressions

12-01-2024

Today in English we used AI as part of our hook to create the right atmosphere. We explored different items and had a class discussion on what we thought the items were used for. We then wrote our first impressions down.

21
chatter icon

Mysterious Bag found in class 5

12-01-2024

In class 5 we found a strange bag in the class cupboard. We found lots of different items inside the bag. Maybe this is a clue for our new English book? We made predictions on what we think the book might be about.

30
chatter icon

English Hook

11-01-2024

The class were introduced to objects relating to their new English book today. They had some wonderful ideas, predictions and questions!!

30
chatter icon

The Journey

11-01-2024

We enjoyed looking at our hook reveal and making some amazing predictions on what our story could be about. What could all these items mean?

This term class 4 have the pleasure in reading “The Journey” by Francesca Sanna. This book explores the unimaginable decisions made as a family leave their home and everything they know to escape the turmoil and tragedy brought by war.

34
chatter icon

Reading Buddies

20-12-2023

A big thank you to our reading buddies who have all completed their training and are now reading with their buddies each week, enjoying stories together and helping to foster a love of reading!

26
chatter icon

Writing Fun in Reception

08-12-2023

Reception have been trying really hard this week to write sentences in phonics using capital letters, finger spaces and full stops.

38