English
Reading
For information about Early Reading at Biggin Hill Primary School, please click below:
Intent
The teaching of reading through Destination Reader is designed to develop confident, fluent and thoughtful readers who can understand, interpret and respond to a wide range of texts. The approach aims to deepen comprehension by explicitly teaching key reading strategies, including predicting, questioning, clarifying, summarising and making connections. Through engagement with high-quality fiction, non-fiction and poetry, children broaden vocabulary, background knowledge and cultural understanding while developing a lifelong love of reading. The curriculum ensures that children build the skills needed to access the wider curriculum and become independent readers who can think critically about what they read.
Implementation
In Years 3 - 6 (and the summer term of Year 2), Destination Reader is implemented through daily, structured reading lessons that combine whole-class modelling, shared discussion and independent application of comprehension strategies. Teaching follows a consistent cycle in which teachers explicitly model reading behaviours, guide children in practising strategies collaboratively and then support independent response to text. Carefully chosen, age-appropriate texts provide challenge and progression across year groups while exposing children to diverse authors, genres and themes. Classroom environments promote reading for pleasure alongside skill development, with regular opportunities for discussion, vocabulary exploration and written or oral responses to reading. This consistent approach ensures that comprehension skills are systematically taught and revisited in increasing depth.
Impact
The impact of Destination Reader is evident in children’s ability to read fluently, understand increasingly complex texts and articulate thoughtful responses using appropriate vocabulary. Pupils demonstrate improved comprehension, inference and analytical skills, alongside greater confidence in discussing and justifying interpretations of texts. Reading outcomes show progression across year groups and support attainment across the wider curriculum. The approach also fosters positive attitudes towards reading, with children showing curiosity about texts, resilience when encountering challenge and enjoyment in independent reading. By the end of primary school, pupils are prepared as engaged, capable readers who can access secondary-level texts and continue to develop as lifelong readers.
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Writing
Intent
The writing curriculum at Biggin Hill Primary School is designed to develop confident, purposeful and imaginative writers who can communicate effectively for a range of audiences and purposes. Through immersion in high-quality, age-appropriate texts, children learn how authors craft language and structure writing across different genres. The curriculum aims to build secure foundations in transcription, grammar and composition while fostering creativity, vocabulary development and authorial voice. By explicitly teaching the features and techniques of different text types, children gain the knowledge and skills needed to plan, draft, refine and evaluate their writing, enabling all pupils to become fluent and independent writers.
Implementation
Writing is taught through a tailored three-week, genre-based cycle that ensures clear progression from skill acquisition to independent application. In the first phase, children explore a high-quality model text and learn the key language, grammatical features and structural elements of the genre through focused skills lessons and the development of a writing toolkit. The second phase centres on shared and guided writing, during which teachers model composition, decision-making and editing processes while children practise applying the toolkit collaboratively. In the final phase, pupils produce an independent piece of writing within the genre, drawing on the taught skills, vocabulary and text knowledge. This structured approach ensures repeated practice, consolidation and increasing independence across a wide range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry genres.
Impact
The impact of the writing curriculum is seen in children’s growing confidence, stamina and accuracy as writers across the primary years. Pupils demonstrate secure understanding of genre features, grammar and composition strategies and are able to apply these independently in extended writing. Outcomes show clear progression in sentence construction, vocabulary choice, organisation and authorial voice, supported by consistent use of taught toolkits. Children write for varied purposes and audiences with increasing fluency and creativity, and can edit and improve their work effectively. By the end of primary school, pupils produce sustained, coherent and technically accurate writing across a range of genres, preparing them for the demands of secondary education and effective written communication beyond school.