Our Curriculum Intent

At our Federation, we believe that literacy is the foundation of all learning. We have developed a bespoke reading and writing curriculum designed specifically to meet the needs of our pupils across both Bushey and Oxhey Infant School and Bushey Manor Junior School. Our curriculum ensures a seamless transition from early reading to advanced literacy, nurturing articulate speakers, passionate readers, and creative, fluent writers.

At Bushey Primary Education Federation, our bespoke English curriculum focuses on delivering an ambitious, text-driven journey from Reception to Year 6. By immersing children in a rich, diverse reading spine, we systematically develop early phonics, vocabulary, and deep comprehension, whilst instilling a genuine love for books and stories. This exposure to high-quality literature serves as a direct springboard for our writing curriculum, empowering pupils to express themselves with clear purpose, audience, and creative flair.

We are deeply committed to an inclusive, adaptive approach, carefully managing cognitive load through explicit scaffolding, oral rehearsal, and assistive technology so that every learner—including those with SEND—can thrive. Ultimately, we cultivate a vibrant, reflective school culture where diverse voices are celebrated, pupil success is proudly shared, and every child is empowered to become both a critical reader and a confident writer.

Our Implementation 

Phonics & Early Reading: Little Wandle

We believe that early phonics expertise is the vital building block for literacy, developing the essential skills of blending and decoding for reading, and segmenting for accurate spelling. We use Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised as our validated Systematic Synthetic Phonics (SSP) program. Children in EYFS & KS1 receive daily, highly structured phonics lessons that follow a rigorous weekly cycle: Review, Teach, Practise, Apply. This consistent approach minimises cognitive load and maximises learning retention. As children move into the Junior school, phonics knowledge is seamlessly integrated into daily English lessons to support advanced spelling and grammar application. We are committed to a "keep-up, not catch-up" ethos. For pupils in Years 3 and 4 who are not yet meeting age-related expectations in reading, we deliver targeted Little Wandle Rapid Catch-up sessions to rapidly close gaps and build reading confidence.

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Spelling: ESSENTIAL SPELLING 

Building on our early phonics foundations, spelling is taught systematically across KS2 using the ESSENTIAL Spelling scheme. This scheme of work allows children to actively explore spelling patterns, rules and word origins. We focus heavily on application, ensuring these spelling skills are directly and accurately transferred into daily, independent writing. 

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Handwriting & Presentation: Nelson Handwriting

We place a high value on neat presentation across the entire curriculum. In EYFS & Year 1 handwriting begins alongside our phonics curriculum. Letter formation is explicitly taught using the Little Wandle mnemonics and phrases, ensuring children develop correct pencil grip and posture. Once letter formation is secure, we transition into the Nelson Handwriting scheme. This introduces a clear, progressive pathway toward a continuous, comfortable, and fluent joined cursive style.

Our Bespoke Reading Curriculum 

We are incredibly proud of our bespoke reading curriculum, which was passionately researched, collaborated on, and designed by our own English team to perfectly meet the needs of our children. Through lesson study and extensive research into evidence-based frameworks—including the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) and the 'Take One Book' methodology—we have created a reading journey that inspires both our children and our teachers.

Our curriculum builds upon our strongest practices to ensure consistency in Guided Reading lessons from Year 2 through to Year 6. 

We have moved away from the traditional, repetitive cycle of simply reading a text and answering questions. Instead, our lessons are designed around deep immersion. We build genuine excitement through purposeful hooks, exploring background knowledge, and deepening critical thinking.

At the heart of our reading curriculum is a heavy focus on high-quality talk. Through structured partner and whole-class discussions, children learn to articulate their thoughts, challenge ideas, and justify their answers orally before putting pen to paper. By explicitly teaching ambitious language and word meaning through our core texts, our reading curriculum directly supports and elevates the vocabulary standards in our children’s independent writing. Through a carefully updated selection of rich, diverse, and inspiring texts, we ensure that while children are mastering the mechanics of reading, they are ultimately developing a profound, genuine love for stories and literature.

Our Bespoke Writing Curriculum 

Our bespoke writing curriculum recognises that writing is a cognitively demanding subject.  Rooted in the statutory guidance of the DfE Writing Framework and heavily enriched by the evidence-based Hertfordshire ESSENTIAL Writing principles and the highly acclaimed Writing for Pleasure pedagogy, our approach has been meticulously designed to actively reduce cognitive overload and prevent working memory from becoming overwhelmed.

In EYFS and Key Stage 1, we place a heavy emphasis on foundational skills such as pencil grip, letter formation and sentence construction through oral rehearsal first. 

Punctuation and grammar are not taught in isolation at our Federation, they are delivered through explicit teaching that feeds into children's writing sequences.  Every sequence is rooted in a meaningful audience and one of the four core purposes—to entertain, inform, persuade, or discuss—ensuring that grammar makes practical sense to the children as a tool to impact their reader.

We assist children's cognitive load by purposefully integrating technology such as Chromebooks and text to type tools, ensuring that all children are able to show off their true capabilities.