Curriculum statement- English

Intent

Promoting a love of reading and writing is extremely important at Christ Church First School. We strive for our children to become life-long readers and provide a wide range of texts to engage, excite and motivate our pupils to become confident readers who tackle texts with a sound understanding. Throughout school, we build upon children’s knowledge by first embedding key phonic skills taught through the Little Wandle scheme. This daily programme allows children to decode words and also develops the skills to enable them to comprehend successfully. Our curriculum incorporates high quality reading materials, not only in core subjects, but also in cross-curricular lessons. This provides children with a thirst for knowledge and helps to develop an inquisitive mind. All books in school have been chosen with the children's likes and interests in mind and lay the foundations for them to enrich their vocabulary and apply what they have learnt. Writing is taught across school daily to embed key skills that can be applied to a range of writing genres. We provide a range of exciting writing opportunities that draw upon high quality texts and feature effective vocabulary, varied sentence structures and interesting content. We encourage children to write for a purpose using the age related skills they have learnt in lessons. Working collaboratively is also important as it enables children to share ideas and become confident, articulate speakers. We want children to understand the writing process and be able to plan, write and edit their independent writing effectively. The English curriculum is designed to develop knowledge and skills that are progressive, as well as transferable.

Implementation

Reading

With these aims in mind, first and foremost, we introduce daily reading sessions from EYFS-KS2. This ensures that reading is explicitly taught every day and that each group of children has time with their teacher or additional adult, at least once a week. Vulnerable groups are highlighted and receive regular targeted interventions. Resources to support and enhance these lessons are provided by the English lead, so that all staff feel proficient and skilled in delivering these sessions effectively. Furthermore, we have successfully implemented a shared reading system, were children access a whole class, high quality text at the end of each day. We also deliver guided reading sessions 4 x a week, were children have the opportunity to work in a focused group with the class teacher to further embed their knowledge and understanding of high-quality texts, whilst developing their understanding of vocabulary and a love of reading.

Reading is not only celebrated in classrooms at Christ Church First school, around school you will find displays which celebrate authors, recommended texts and reading reward schemes. In addition, throughout the school year the importance of reading is enhanced through World Book Day, author and poet visits, parent reading workshops and a range of trips and visits which enrich and complement children’s learning.

Phonics and Spelling

Phonics and Spellings Phonics in the EYFS-KS1 is taught using Little Wandle. Phonics is taught daily in 15-20 minute sessions. Half termly assessments are carried out in order to ensure children are working at the correct phonic phase and children move through the phases as the year progresses.

Spelling sessions in KS2 take place daily, for 15-20 minutes. Sessions are delivered in various ways: as morning activities; English starters or part of Guided Reading sessions.

Writing

As we believe consistency and well-taught English is the bedrock of a valuable education, at Christ Church First School we ensure that the teaching of writing is purposeful, robust and shows clear progression for all children.

In line with the national curriculum, we ensure that each year group is teaching the explicit grammar, punctuation and spelling objectives required for that age groups. As well as teaching the objectives, teachers are able to embed the skills throughout the year in cross-curricular writing opportunities and ensure that most children are achieving the objectives at the expected level and that some children can achieve at a greater depth standard. Assessment of writing is fluid as teachers assess writing, once per half term, against moderation criteria created by staff. All year groups use the same format for assessing writing which have been produced in line with the end of Key Stage assessment frameworks as published by the Department for Education.

 Impact

• An inclusive curriculum which meets the needs of all learners;
• Staff who are enthusiastic in their approach to teaching and learning in Reading and Writing;
• •    Phonic tracker shows any gaps in learning, these are then used for future weeks planning to ensure gaps are filled. Interventions are planned alongside these. A curriculum which equips pupils for the next phase of their education and beyond;
• Confident children who can articulate themselves for a range of purposes and contexts;
• Pupils who can decode texts confidently and fluently so that they can enjoy and understand what they are reading;
• Pupils who are able to make links between reading and writing and write as readers, and read as writers;
• Pupils who are excited by the craft of writing and confident in the process required to produce work of which they are proud;
• Independent and resilient learners who recognise the links between reading and writing and how this can be applied to all areas of the curriculum;
• A body of staff who are continuously evolving and improving to meet the needs of pupils as they move through the school;
• A governing body who are clear about what the English teaching and learning provision looks like within the school.
• Interventions enable a greater proportion of pupils to be on track to meet end of year expectations or for those significantly below to make better than expected progress.
• Subject leader provides action plan and addresses need annually.
• Group reading groups in Rec, Year 1 and 2 are changed and altered as required to ensure children are reading books to stretch their ability when working with an adult. • Subject leader meets with appointed governor so they are up to date with new the process of reading, analysing, gathering content, planning and writing.
• Vocabulary to be displayed to link to the genre and be used across the curriculum with key words for units available for the children. Children have word of the day implemented into their reading or writing session assessed against the end of year expectation statements being addressed.
• Termly whole school writing tasks to take place based on a similar theme. • Work to be differentiated as required and needed with children with EAL or PP will be shown on English planning.
• Teacher and TAs to support ALL pupils on a regular basis; providing intervention, support and challenge.
• Interventions to take place to promote and support the understanding of key children in reading and writing based on year group RAGs. Teacher to plan and TAs to deliver to address main targets. Entrance and exit assessment to be in place per group.
• Teacher and TA’s to model writing, reading and cursive handwriting script. initiatives that have been introduced and the impact these are having.
• Subject leader conducts learning walks, moderation of books, deep dives, lesson observations, hears children read, assesses planning and carries out pupil interviews. He also provides feedback and works with staff where appropriate to support.
• Standards being met at the end of EYFS, phonics screening check in Y1 and 2, KS1 and 2 data results are in line with national averages. Each year data is analysed and any areas for improvement identified and addressed. These are then included in school SIP and English Action Plan.