English
Intent
At St. Philip's CE Primary School, we strive to ensure that all pupils are equipped with the skills needed to be fluent in all aspects of English.
Communication is an important part of our curriculum and success relies upon being fluent in speaking, listening, reading and writing.
We want to prepare our pupils for the next stage of their education by ensuring they can read, write and communicate with confidence for a variety of purposes and audiences, whilst developing their own individual flair and opinions. We strive for our pupils to leave St. Philip’s as avid readers, who can read fluently and are able to express preferences and opinions about the texts they choose. We want them to read for pleasure, having had access to a wide range of genres and authors, making informed choices about their favourites. Reading and writing go hand in hand and at St. Philip's we adopt a read to write approach to the curriculum. Lesson sequences ensure that prior knowledge is built upon and pupils are immersed in a range of genres where writing for a purpose engages and ignites their passion. We strive that all pupils leave St. Philip's with a secure knowledge of spelling and grammar and understanding of how to edit writing and to write effectively for a range of purposes.
We follow the National Curriculum Programmes of study for all aspects of English.
Implementation
Phonics
In EYFS and Key Stage 1, Phonics is taught daily. As a school we teach phonics using Essential Letters and Sounds.
Each child from Reception to Year 2 takes part in phonics sessions daily. Children who are identified to be struggling with their phonics will also have an additional daily phonics intervention to support them, as well as additional 1: 1 reading of a decodable text.
Each week children take home a decodable reading book for them to practise what they have learnt in school, at home with their families.
From Year 1 upwards, children will also have spellings to practise at home that include their new phonics learning.
Reading at school and at home
Our reading system is book banded by colour, using books from a range of reading schemes including Oxford Reading Tree, Project X and Songbirds. Each book band has been carefully organised to contain decodable texts suitable for children as they move through the different phonic and reading phases.
All pupils have access to our school and class libraries.
Reading and writing go hand in hand and at St. Philip's and we adopt a read to write approach to the curriculum. Lesson sequences ensure that prior knowledge is built upon and pupils are immersed in a range of genres where writing for purpose engages and ignites their passion. We expect that all pupils leave St. Philip's with a secure knowledge of spelling and grammar and an understanding of how to edit writing and to write effectively for a range of purposes.
Lesson sequences: Sequences of lessons ensure that quality model texts clearly demonstrate what is expected of each genre so that pupils are aware of expectations from the start.
Working Walls: These are in every class to support the child's learning journey.
Spelling lessons: Within phonics and beyond, spelling rules are taught and practised. Spelling shed is used to engage pupils in spelling at home. Pupils from Year 1 to Year 6 are sent weekly spellings linked to their class learning. Year 1 and Year 2 spellings contain phonics to allow them an extra opportunity to apply their new learning.
Spelling appendices for each year group are taught in either discreet spelling sessions or within English lessons.
Grammar is integral to all literacy units and is taught both discretely, as a separate lesson and within English units.
Shared and modelled writing: Teachers model writing so that children fully understand the writing process. Teachers model thinking out loud, editing errors and improving their writing. During shared writing every pupil is given the opportunity to contribute to the writing process. This is scaffolded further into paired, supported and finally independent writing.
Writing for a purpose: Whenever possible teachers plan writing opportunities with a clear, real-life purpose to motivate and inspire pupils to write for a variety of reasons.
Celebrations of pupil's achievements in writing are displayed around school and in classrooms to motivated and inspire pupils.
Storytime: Where books are read aloud for pupils to enjoy and foster a love of reading.
Guided Reading: Where a broad range of texts are explored and enjoyed and pupils build upon their reading proficiency, vocabulary, authorial intent and comprehension in a small group.
Comprehension Lessons: Where pupils are taught to develop pupil understanding of texts. Pupils are taught to retrieve, infer, predict, summarise, analyse and evaluate a whole class text.
Independent Reading: Is vital to develop a love of reading and allows children to be immersed in text. Our class and school libraries allow for pupils to develop their own preferences.
Reading to learn: We aim to maximise opportunities for pupils to read through all curriculum subjects.
Impact
Through clear and explicit teaching, regular monitoring and moderation that focuses on progress and attainment of all pupils, focused tasks at the end of each literacy unit to assess pupils against the National Curriculum objectives, the impact of our curriculum at St. Philip's should ensure that:
- Pupils will be fluent readers and will be able to reference a wide range of different authors from different literacy traditions, culture and genres.
- Pupils will be fluent writers. They will be able to express their opinions and use creativity in their writing that is well-structured, clear, technically accurate and interesting to read. They will be able to apply their writing skills to writing of any purpose.
- Pupils will be able to communicate effectively and express their opinions verbally in a range of scenarios and situations.
- Pupils leave confident to try new things, experiment with their writing, take risks, and continue to expand their experience of reading.
