English

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. Through reading in particular, pupils have a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. Literature, especially, plays a key role in such development. Reading also enables pupils both to acquire knowledge and to build on what they already know. National Curriculum (2014)

Intent

At Claydon Primary school our English curriculum has high-quality children’s literature at the heart of all learning and closely follows the aims of the National Curriculum for English 2014

It is strongly supported by our school values and drivers: Character, Curriculum, Collaboration, Community and Culture.

We aim to improve the life chances of our children by ensuring that every child has access to quality experiences of literacy and that all staff have the knowledge and resources to support children to become fluent, confident, happy and enthusiastic readers and writers who can contribute to discussions through speaking and listening carefully. We aim to prepare children for life after school and tackle social disadvantage; planning to enhance children’s cultural capital through our English lessons.

Implementation

We use carefully chosen texts predominantly from the Centre of Literacy for Primary Education’s very best recommendations. Each year group across the school uses a diverse mixture of classic and modern narratives, poetry and non-fiction text types. We use creative and effective teaching approaches which foster a whole school love of reading and writing.

At Claydon Primary school, we ensure that our English teaching and learning provides many purposeful opportunities for reading, writing and discussion. All pupils receive a daily English lesson. Teachers also ensure that cross curricular links with concurrent topic work are woven into the programme of study.

Teachers plan English lessons following a three-week unit to ensure we have a consistent and systematic approach across from EYFS to Year 6. At Claydon Primary School, our carefully designed planning units use the fourteen principles of effective writing and creative teaching approaches. Our English units are carefully planned to allow all children the opportunity to:

Become a community of writers
Read, share, think and talk about writing.
Write a range of genres: letters, stories, biographies, myths, legends, instructions, recounts, autobiographies, reports, book or film reviews, poetry and playscripts.
Write fluently, purposefully, authentically and with interesting detail on a number of topics throughout the wider curriculum.
Write to entertain, inform, persuade, teach, make a record, reflect and discuss.
Develop a creative imagination which makes readers engage with and enjoy their writing.
Learn and use new vocabulary.
Learn writing techniques which extend details for descriptions for the reader.
Teach the writing process: organise and structure their writing through careful planning, drafting and editing.
Set writing goals.
Build stamina and confidence through short-burst writing opportunities as well as extended pieces of writing.
Have excellent transcription skills that ensure their writing is well presented and punctuated, spelled correctly and neat.
Gain a love of writing and an appreciation of its educational, cultural and entertainment values.

Each English unit includes three important parts

Immersion: the children begin to discover the text using hooks and drama activities which develop their vocabulary, experiences and oracy. They learn to predict, retrieve and infer from analysing the front cover. They then complete an independent writing task which allows class teachers to set personal targets. During this first week, teachers share examples of (WAGOLL) What A Good One (piece of writing) Looks Like which the children analyse before making a writers toolkit for the unit text type, for example, a narrative or recount.

Initiation: teachers and children continue to read the text together using echo or choral reading to support fluency practise. Children will be taught related skills from the reading domains of: retrieval, sequence, inference, define, summarise, relate, explore and compare. Children will be taught and modelled, the Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPaG) knowledge and skills necessary to achieve the end of unit writing piece. The children will have many opportunities to practise and apply what they have learnt through short burst writing opportunities.

Invention: Finally the children will learn to plan, draft and edit their extended piece of writing. Teachers will create opportunities for the children to present their work to an audience.

Here are some examples of our long term plans for English:

Year 2 Cycle A

Year 6 Cycle A

Reading

We love reading at Claydon Primary School and we aim to teach our children:

excellent phonic knowledge and skills.
fluency and accuracy in reading across a wide range of contexts throughout the curriculum.
knowledge of an extensive and rich vocabulary.
an excellent comprehension of texts.
motivation to read for study and pleasure.
extensive knowledge through having read a rich and varied range of texts.

Teachers promote reading through reading aloud regularly to their class and talking about reading. Weekly library visits enable children to choose books for pleasure or to follow an interest. Timetable reading for pleasure sessions allow children to read their book of choice from the library, favourite books from home or a book from the classroom reading area. Teachers read aloud daily, ideally at the end of the day, choosing books from our reading spine.

Pupils in EYFS and KS1 have daily phonics sessions, following Essential Letters and Sounds. Children in Year 3 follow Bounce Back Phonics as an intervention. To view our Phonic Intent please click here

Reading skills are taught through our reading gems. Each different coloured gem represents a skill and these are differentiated for KS1 and 2. These are taught explicitly in English lessons and whole class reading sessions.

At Key Stage 1, the gems are Enjoy, Decode, Define, Retrieve, Sequence, Infer, Predict.

At Key Stage 2 the gems are Enjoy, Decode, Define, Retrieve, Summarise, Infer, Predict, Relate, Explore and Compare. We have also added our own gems of Expression and Pace.

Whole class reading is taught throughout the week. We use a range of texts to inspire, engage and challenge children in order to improve general knowledge, encourage imagination and empathy.

Children’s personal reading is different in the lower and upper school. In EYFS and KS1, the children read two books each week, one of which is closely linked to their phonic knowledge. In KS2, comprehension is the focus. Therefore, children are encouraged to read for at least 20 minutes every day reading a book that once completed, children can take a quiz on it using Accelerated Reader.

Supporting children’s reading at home

Learning to read is a partnership between school and home and it is vital that children read aloud everyday at home, as well as sharing books and a wide range of reading material in order to develop a love of reading through sharing books and being read to. At Claydon Primary School, we believe all children can become strong, confident and engaged readers; we aim to share the pleasure of reading with children both in school and at home. The parents’ guides can be found on the links below and give you information on our reading approach and how you can support your child’s reading at home.

Years 1 and 2

Year 3 - 6

Children are encouraged to read at home by collecting different gems each half-term. The collection of gems is celebrated weekly and children add their gem to class displays. Teachers monitor children’s home reading each week (this can be from Bug Club, phonics reading books, Accelerated Reader books or Reading for Pleasure) and present children with their certificates. Parents are encouraged to record reading at home using the reading logs (EYFS-Year 3) and reading bookmarks. (Year 4-6.)

Diverse and Inclusive Books

At Claydon Primary School, we believe it is crucial to ensure the books that we share with children allow them to act as windows into other lives and experiences, as well as enabling all children to see themselves and their own life experiences in books. For this reason, we have created a working list of diverse and inclusive books to add to our spine reading books. We are also constantly reviewing the books available in the library and book areas to ensure our books feature a range of diverse characters.

Assessment

At Claydon Primary teachers undertake regular rigorous assessment and review to ensure that they are able to provide targeted support which ensures all children experience success in literacy. Teachers assess children using PiXL assessments each half term in reading and writing. They also assess year group statutory spelling, punctuation and grammar to track pupils’ progress. This informs future planning and any intervention needed.

Impact

The impact of our English curriculum is measured through the monitoring and evaluation cycle. This includes lesson observations, book monitoring, pupils’ voice and learning walks. Importantly, monitoring and evaluation is also used to identify gaps in the curriculum that may need to be addressed across the school, or within individual year groups.

Monitoring and evaluation is an ongoing cycle, which is used productively to provide the best possible English curriculum for our children and to ensure it is inclusive to all.

During our monitoring we ensure that:

Skills progression (grammar and punctuation) throughout the school is evident in children’s books.
Pupils’ voice – shows understanding of key skills and knowledge, progression and confidence in discussing.
Pupil progress meetings ensure different groups (including EAL, PP and SEND) and individual progress is monitored, and interventions (such as Switch On) organised to support good and better progress.
Parents and carers will understand how they can support spelling, grammar and composition and home, and contribute regularly to homework.

To view the National Curriculum objectives and Programme of Study for English, which we cover in their entirety across each year click here

To follow shortly links to our English text types and other helpful information.