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22/09/23

🏅️ Mr Girvan was delighted to be the host for our event, awarding our pupils for their hard work pic.twitter.com/JlPAUzK5mw

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22/09/23

☕️ We are delighted to announce that will be hosting a tea/coffee morning🤝 Chat with experts and meet other parents about managing your child's behaviour at home📍Monday 25th September between 9:00am - 10:30am located in the school dining hall pic.twitter.com/bhGL70TemA

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21/09/23

OPEN EVENT ANNOUNCED FOR SIR FREDERICK GIBBERD COLLEGE SEPTEMBER 2024 YEAR 7 INTAKE Saturday 14th October (12pm - 2pm) at Latton Bush Centre, Harlow.Full information on: https://t.co/JTGUWrQNIx pic.twitter.com/MPYjS4qinQ

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11/09/23

OPEN EVENTSOur Essex Secondary Schools Open Events kick off this week.Tue 12 5:30pm - 8:30pm Burnt Mill Academy (Harlow)Thu 14 6pm - 8:30pm Epping St John’s School (Epping)Wed 27 5pm - 8pm Forest Hall School (Stansted Mountfitchet)Thu 28 6pm - 9pm Mark Hall Academy (Harlow) pic.twitter.com/6G2FMT4mE2

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08/09/23

☀️ Mrs Wade was delighted to be the host for our event awarding our pupils for their hard work. pic.twitter.com/KUmIi3kXeJ

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11/07/23

⭐ On our way to Outstanding👏 have praised the work of Cooks Spinney Primary Academy following a Section 8 inspection, suggesting the school could be judged Outstanding with a full (Section 5) inspection.📰 https://t.co/796H1LKNni pic.twitter.com/sTYPUFTzLk

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30/06/23

👏 Well done to all pupils who took part in final enterprise event💷 After winning their individual selling to parent events, young people from all BMAT primaries were welcomed to 🎉 Thank you to all the parents, careers and members of the public who attended pic.twitter.com/ORG4YoJ2Pt

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30/06/23

👏 Well done to all pupils who took part in final enterprise event💷 After winning their individual selling to parent events, young people from all BMAT primaries were welcomed to 🎉 Thank you to all the parents, careers and members of the public who attended pic.twitter.com/ORG4YoJ2Pt

27/06/23

📢 We're Hiring! (Harlow) have a vacancy for a Co-Educator📄 For a job description and application details, please visit our websitehttps://t.co/jL82oC9oha

27/06/23

📢 We're Hiring! (Harlow) have a vacancy for a Co-Educator📄 For a job description and application details, please visit our websitehttps://t.co/jL82oC9oha

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26/06/23

🖌️ Our Enterprise Event is taking place on Wednesday 28th June 💷 Pupils from multiple schools will be selling fridge magnets, key rings, loom band bracelets and more!⚖️ All funds raised will go towards a charity of the winning classes choice pic.twitter.com/lEwnUKaGJA

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26/06/23

🖌️ Our Enterprise Event is taking place on Wednesday 28th June 💷 Pupils from multiple schools will be selling fridge magnets, key rings, loom band bracelets and more!⚖️ All funds raised will go towards a charity of the winning classes choice pic.twitter.com/lEwnUKaGJA

22/06/23

📢 We're Hiring! (Harlow) have a vacancy for a Grow Provision SEMH Co-Educator📄 For a job description and application details, please visit our websitehttps://t.co/HSDYHkH416

22/06/23

📢 We're Hiring! (Harlow) have a vacancy for a Grow Provision SEMH Co-Educator📄 For a job description and application details, please visit our websitehttps://t.co/HSDYHkH416

21/06/23

🙌 THANK YOU ALL STAFF AT COOKS SPINNEY ⭐️#ThankATeacherDay23⁰#ThankATeacherDay⁰#ThankATeacher pic.twitter.com/52p2CjCphd

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21/06/23

🙌 THANK YOU MS DACKOMBE ⭐️#ThankATeacherDay23⁰#ThankATeacherDay⁰#ThankATeacher pic.twitter.com/vl37RboKmG

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21/06/23

🙌 THANK YOU MS WILSON ⭐️#ThankATeacherDay23#ThankATeacherDay#ThankATeacher pic.twitter.com/UFxc6AMr3z

21/06/23

🙌 THANK YOU MS JORDAN ⭐️#ThankATeacherDay23⁰#ThankATeacherDay⁰#ThankATeacher pic.twitter.com/lF76AqA982

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21/06/23

🙌 THANK YOU MS WILSON ⭐️#ThankATeacherDay23#ThankATeacherDay#ThankATeacher pic.twitter.com/aWukzn31m9

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21/06/23

🙌 THANK YOU MS WADE ⭐️#ThankATeacherDay23⁰#ThankATeacherDay⁰#ThankATeacher pic.twitter.com/m6E1i7WKrI

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Supporting primary and secondary schools across Essex and North & East London, BMAT is a growing multi-academy trust with a singular vision: schools, teachers and pupils freed to succeed.

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English

English is taught using our set texts for each year group. These texts have been selected specifically for our curriculum.
Our full curriculum overview can be downloaded at the bottom of this page.  

The criteria for choosing the set texts are; cultural capital, challenge, vocabulary, variation and conceptual richness. We also consider how these texts build upon knowledge and concepts year after year. We review our literacy canon regularly to ensure our pupils are exposed to a diverse range of authors, cultures and characters.

Here’s one example: Aesop’s Fables is read in year 1 - a culturally important, challenging text that teaches us that stories contain messages. This then leads to Winne the Pooh in year 2 which moves us from moral to theme, and from fable to short story. This leads to Charlottes's Web in year 3 which develops the themes found in The Velveteen Rabbit i.e. the transformative power of love and is culturally significant and challenging. This then leads to Philip Pullman’s Clockwork in year 4; again the book develops the theme of love's transformative power but also introduces a contemporary writer and a meta-story within a story (an idea that will come up again and again in fiction). Ultimately, this reading route can carry our pupils to the most complex texts ever written.

Our Literacy Canon 

Please see below for a list of our set texts for the current academic year. A copy of each book will be provided to each pupil for English lessons. 

Year 1 

The Oliver Jeffers Picture Book Collection by Oliver Jeffers (2007)

Aesop's Fables retold by Michael Morpurgo (2004)

The Story Tree by Hugh Lipton (2005)

Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman (1990) 

Shine by Sarah Asuquo (2020)

Introduction to Poetry (Selected poems with an animal theme) including Brian Patten and Lord Tennyson.  

Year 2

Look Inside Space by Rob Lloyd Jones (2012)

A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare (retold by Andrew Matthews) (2003)

Little People, Big Dreams: Treasury by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara (2021)

The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton (1939)

Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne (1921)

Greek Myths retold by Geraldine McCaughrean (1993)

Year 3 

The Iron Man by Ted Hughes (1968)

Beowulf retold by Rob Lloyd Jones (2009)

Traditional Tales by Various Authors 

The Magic Finger by Roald Dahl (1966)

Charlotte's Web by E.B. White (1952)

The Street Beneath my Feet by Charlotte Guillain (2017)

Year 4 

Roman Diary – the Journal of Iliona – a Young Slave by Richard Platt (2014)

The Malfeasance by Alan Bond (1990)

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865)

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis (1950)

Clockwork by Philip Pullman (1996)

Year 5 

Holes by Louis Sacher (1998)

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by JK Rowling (1997)

Kick! by Mitch Johnson (2017)

Overheard in a Towerblock: Poems by Joseph Coelho (2017)

Kensuke's Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo (1999)

Thief! by Malorie Blackman (1995)

Year 6  

Skellig by David Almond (1998)

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness (2011)

Letters From The Lighthouse by Emma Carroll (2017)

Selected Speeches including Martin Luther King and Malala Yousafzai

The Lost Spells by Robert Macfarlane & Jackie Morris (2017)

 

The Write Stuff 

In KS2, extended writing is taught using the highly successful 'The Write Stuff' approach. This method allows pupils to improve their oracy and widen their vocabulary whilst deepening their understanding of writing choices. For more information about this approach, please click here

 

Specific Areas of Learning

Cooks Spinney's English curriculum focusses on the following areas of learning:

Language Development

We develop pupils’ spoken language, reading, writing and vocabulary as integral aspects of the teaching of every subject. English is both a subject in its own right and the medium for teaching; for pupils, understanding the language provides access to the whole curriculum. Fluency in the English language is an essential foundation for success in all subjects.

Speaking and Listening

Pupils are taught to speak clearly and convey ideas confidently using Standard English. They learn to justify ideas with reasons; ask questions to check understanding; develop vocabulary and build knowledge; negotiate; evaluate and build on the ideas of others; and select the appropriate register for effective communication.

Reading and Writing

Pupils are taught to read fluently, understand extended prose and are encouraged to read for pleasure. Classrooms are well stocked with fiction, non-fiction and poetry books; and we set ambitious expectations for reading at home. Pupils develop the stamina and skills to write at length, with accurate spelling and punctuation. They are taught the correct use of grammar (see our Grammar and Punctuation Plan at the bottom of this page for more information). The writing they do includes narratives, explanations, descriptions, comparisons, summaries and evaluations: such writing supports them in rehearsing, understanding and consolidating what they have heard or read.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT OUR english CURRICULUM PLEASE MAKE AN APPOINTMENT ON 01279 437590

 

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