St John the Evangelist CE Primary School

English

“I always advise children who ask for tips on being writers to read as much as they possibly can." J.K. Rowling

At St John the Evangelist CE (VA) Primary School, our English curriculum is designed to develop children’s love of reading, writing and discussion; preparing our learners for life as successful, valuable and socially responsible citizens. We inspire an appreciation of our rich and varied literary heritage and develop a habit of reading widely and often. We nurture a culture where children take pride in their writing, can write clearly, imaginatively and accurately and adapt their language and style for a range of contexts. We inspire children to be confident in the art of speaking and listening and to use discussion to communicate and further their learning in all areas of the curriculum.

We believe that children need to develop a secure knowledge base in Literacy, which follows a clear pathway of progression as they advance through the primary curriculum. Our carefully sequenced, broad and balanced curriculum - underpinned by inclusive practice - aims to provide our children with the opportunity to build on their experience. We believe that a secure basis in literacy skills is crucial to a high-quality education across the curriculum. We whole-heartedly ‘promote high standards of literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written word,’ and ‘...develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment.' (National Curriculum 2014)

Reading:

‘It is with children who learn to read fluently and well: they begin to take flight into whole new worlds as effortlessly as young birds take to the sky.’ William James

Intent: We want pupils to have the freedom to access the world through reading. We want our school community to engage with a range of literature/texts – to talk, share, argue, be inspired and dream about them. Through book talk, shared reading aloud and designated reading time of quality texts, we want our community to have a passion for reading.

As readers, children have the capacity to continue a lifelong journey of learning and experience life in all its fullness. Through lifelong learning, children aspire to satisfy their curiosity of the world; we want our curriculum to enable them, through the skills taught and learnt, to have self-belief and independence to be the best they can be.

We want children to read with speed, accuracy, expression and understanding. Children will apply reading skills to make critical decisions in the moment of reading, to make sense of the text. In making sense of the text, children can respond to show their comprehension. Children should be taught how to read fluently alongside decoding so that they understand the books they read, engage with them fully and develop the skills they need to comprehend independently as they grow as readers.

Implementation: At St John’s, we want to develop fluent readers; therefore, we provide a balanced reading diet which includes: phonics and phonological awareness; shared and guided reading with rich discussion; vocabulary and knowledge instruction; reading for pleasure; comprehension strategy instruction and fluency practice.

Leaders have mapped out five text types that are explored throughout the children’s time at St Johns. These text types are revisited in both reading and writing across the year groups. These text types include:

Traditional Tales

Heritage Texts
Non-Fiction
Poetry
Multi-cultural Texts

In Year 1, our reading approach ensures that children have complete immersion in texts. We believe that children will benefit from being explicitly taught fluency as part of a balanced diet in reading lessons. Therefore, our ‘read aloud’ practice from enthusiastic adult readers helps develop fluent readers, inspiring children to develop a desire to read for pleasure. Daily Book Talk sessions are carefully planned to ensure pupils learn to respond to texts, developing their oral comprehension.

In Year 2 the children continue to focus on applying their phonological understanding to decode texts while building fluency and developing comprehension skills. In the autumn term, Book Talk continues to be used with children’s responses to texts recorded in a class floor book. From the spring term, children record their own individual responses in their own exercise books. For those children who have not yet secured automaticity in phonics, the children join daily phonics sessions in the autumn term and then have Fast Track Phonic Tutoring to address any remaining gaps in the spring term.

In Year 3 to Year 6 all classes have a daily reading lesson with the focus on teaching discrete reading comprehension strategies while continuing to build fluency and reading stamina. At St John’s we have used research studies to develop the teaching of fluency and comprehension.

The reading process:

An explicit description of the strategy and when and how it should be used
Modelling of the strategy in action by teachers and or pupils – I do
Guided practice using the strategy with gradual release of responsibility - We do
Independent use of the strategy - You do

Opportunities are given across all curriculum areas for pupils to read and practise reading strategies.

EYFS: Reading in EYFS nurtures communication and literacy. Children develop speaking and listening through storytelling, role-play, and group discussions, expressing ideas with increasing confidence. The children explore books, joining in with repeated phrases, building vocabulary and comprehension which is enthusiastically modelled by all adults.

Children are engaged through reading discussion and immersion activities. In addition, songs and rhymes enhance rhythm and expression, which can be used to support particular text types and comprehension skills.

Impact: As a recursive curriculum, teachers have formative assessment points that show where children can apply learnt skills into their individual reading. Where concerns or issues arise, additional support / targeted teaching can revisit and address misconceptions.

Reading fluency assessments are undertaken with children each term to identify aspects of fluency that need to be a whole class, group of individual focus. Teachers use St John’s reading assessment grids to track progress in reading and comprehension is assessed using NTS reading assessments each long term. These support teacher assessment.

A moderated judgement for each child, based on a range of evidence, is recorded each term so that future teaching opportunities build on and develop new skills.

Writing:

Intent: We want children to be able to communicate their thoughts, dreams and aspirations. We want to shape individuals who can make connections across communities.

We strive to help our children develop into articulate and imaginative communicators, who are well-equipped with the basic skills they need to be successful in the next stage of their education and the outside world. We aim to ensure all our children develop a genuine love of language and the written word, through a text-based approach which immerses all children in quality texts.

Implementation: We believe that teaching and learning cannot be a ‘one size fits all’ approach and so our text-led English curriculum has been shaped by our vision to enable all children, regardless of background, ability or additional needs, to flourish and become the best they can be.

In Early Years, the teaching of writing starts in Nursery with stories, songs and rhymes; creating opportunities to develop children’s language. Particular emphasis on teacher modelling by ‘talking out loud’ and ‘my turn, your turn’.

In Reception, we continue to encourage them to re-tell stories and narratives, all the time building vocabulary. Children are taught to use and understand vocabulary in different contexts. Importance is placed on oral rehearsal - stepping out and mapping texts - to build the coherence, sequence and features of different forms of writing. They are encouraged and supported in writing letters; they spell words by identifying the phonemes (sound) they hear and represent these with the correct grapheme (letter) and eventually write simple sentences that can be read by others.

In Reception Drawing Club is used as our approach to imaginatively engaging children in writing. It was developed by Greg Bottrill and brings the magic of story into the classroom. It supports the development of foundation skills including fine motor, maths, early writing, vocabulary and most of all imagination and excitement.

In Year 1, we have adapted our text-based curriculum to allow for all children to embed the foundational skills of writing. High quality texts are used to engage children, creating a stimulus for a unit of work. Our writing approach allows all children to gain a solid understanding in the processes and skills of writing. Children experience their writing journey through small, focused steps, allowing all to really embed the knowledge or skill they are learning to develop accurate writers.

In Years 2 through to 6, we follow a text-based curriculum, where children are taught writerly behaviours, skills and choices with a progressive level of complexity and application through a 3-stage process:

Stimulate and Generate
Capture, Sift and Sort
Create Refine and Evaluate. (HIAS Model)

Writing skills are taught explicitly and within the context of the shared text from each child's starting point. Through modelled, shared and guided writing, skills are explored and ‘played with’ to evaluate effect and impact. The carefully selected skills are practiced by the children with increased independence before being applied to a writing outcome.

The writing curriculum is constructed so that it is recursive over the term, year and key stage. Children are challenged to apply prior knowledge and skills in a range of contexts. They make independent choices to create writerly effect.

Impact: As a recursive curriculum, teachers have formative assessment points that show where children can apply learnt skills. Children’s independent application of writing skills across a range of forms, for different audiences and purposes, contribute to summative assessments. Teacher assessment judgements for writing are moderated across year group classes, phases, key stages, the school and across partnership schools.

Mark books are actively used by teachers and teaching assistants as a means of recording formative and summative learning as well as next steps for children so that future lessons are reshaped or guided groups formed in response to feedback and teacher marking. The St John’s writing assessment grids clearly identify the age-related expectations and greater- depth expectations for each year group.

Further Information on our English Curriculum:

English Progressions

Spoken Language Progression Document

Reading Progression Document

Writing Progression Document

Early Years Progression in Writing Skills Progression

Early Years (Nursery) Writing Milestones

Early Years (Reception) Writing Milestones

Long Term English Plans:

Year 1 to Year 6 Reading Long Term Plan

Year 1 Writing Long Term Plan

Year 2 Writing Long Term Plan