In accordance with English national curriculum, we believe that English has a pre-eminent place in education and in society. A high-quality education in English will teach pupils to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others and through their reading and listening, others can communicate with them. Our aim is to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written word, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment.

At stage 1, pupils will be taught to:

• listen and respond appropriately to adults and their peers;
• ask relevant questions to extend their understanding and knowledge;
• articulate and justify answers, arguments and opinions;
• give well-structured descriptions, explanations and narratives for different purposes, including for expressing feelings;
• maintain attention and participate actively in collaborative conversations, staying on topic and initiating and responding to comments;
• use spoken language to develop understanding through speculating, hypothesising, imagining and exploring ideas;
• speak audibly and fluently with an increasing command of Standard English;
• participate in discussions, presentations, performances, role play, improvisations and debates;
• gain, maintain and monitor the interest of the listener(s);
• consider and evaluate different viewpoints, attending to and building on the contributions of others;
• select and use appropriate registers for effective communication.

The overarching aim of English as a core subject at Anglofonní základní škola is to establish secure foundations for effective spoken language in our students' studies at primary school, helping them to achieve in secondary education and beyond.

Year 1 English

During Year 1, pupils need to develop the skill of blending the sounds into words for reading and to develop their reading, spelling and language skills. Teacher will ensure that his/her teaching develops pupils' oral vocabulary as well as their ability to understand and use a variety of grammatical structures.

Pupils are taught to apply phonic knowledge and skills as the route to decode words, respond speedily with the correct sound to graphemes, read accurately by blending sounds in unfamiliar words, read common exception words, read words with contractions, read aloud accurately books and re-read these books to build up their fluency and confidence in word reading. Young readers encounter words that they have not seen before much more frequently than experience readers do, and they may not know the meaning of these. It provides the opportunity for teachers to explain the meaning and thus develop pupil's vocabulary.

Teacher leads the pupils to develop pleasure in reading, motivation to read, vocabulary and understanding. Pupils participate in discussion about what is read to them, taking turns and listening to what others say. They need to explain clearly their understanding of what is read to them.

Pupils write from memory simple sentences dictated by the teacher, write sentences by saying out loud what they are going to write about, composing a sentence orally before writing it, and re-reading what they have written to check that it makes sense. They discuss what they have written with the teacher or other pupils.