English

At Blackheath Prep, we aim to foster a lifelong love of language and literature through our creative English curriculum, which is deeply enriched to engage, excite, inspire and challenge our pupils.

Our children are immersed in a rich reading culture, sparking a joy in reading from an early age and nurturing our pupils to become fluent, confident and passionate readers and writers.

From Reception to Year 2, children develop their early reading and language skills through our Systematic Synthetic Phonics programme which provides exciting opportunities to learn through tactile resources, visual prompts, nursery rhymes, songs, stories, games and interactive ICT.

In the Pre-Prep, children are taught English by their form teachers, but as they progress from Year 3 onwards English is increasingly taught by specialist subject teachers.

Creative writing is taught through the use of high-quality texts, inspiring stimulus and engaging experiences that ‘hook’ and excite the children. Children are taught to write for a clear purpose (writing to entertain, inform, persuade or debate) and audience, including opportunities to publish, perform and present. In addition, we provide author visits, poetry workshops, literary competitions, book festivals and library trips.

We have a beautiful, well-stocked library housed in the school’s former chapel, with a study area for research and a cosy area where children can curl up to enjoy a good read. Pupils also have access to well-stocked book corners in every classroom.