English

English Team: Mrs Williams, Mrs Frost and Miss Notaro

Curriculum Vision

At Carlton Primary school we want to create a love for reading and writing that inspires and challenges all children to achieve their full potential, through engaging teaching and setting high expectations. We want to provide all of our children with the tools to enable them to feel successful in reading and writing, so that they can feel that sense of achievement. We want our children to immerse themselves within their reading and be transported to different places and to approach their writing as author’s; composing writing that they automatically edit and improve showing their desire to be the best that can be.

'Reading is like breathing in; writing is like breathing out' Pam Allyn

Intent

At Carlton Primary School, we intend for all pupils to experience an inspiring, language-rich and motivational English environment. We aim to foster a love of books and reading, alongside a positive culture of writing, for a variety of purposes and audiences and across all subjects within our broad curriculum. We want our children to be focussed listeners and confident speakers who can share their opinions and verbalise their thinking and processes.

Our youngest children will begin their early reading and writing development supported by excellent synthetic phonics teaching, giving them the foundational skills needed to confidently segment, decode and build words. During their time at Carlton Primary School, all pupils will be given the opportunity to immerse themselves in a wide variety of texts from a range of different cultures. Through shared texts and explicit teaching, they will experience a wide range of vocabulary, giving them the understanding and power of language that they need to flourish.

Our intent is for every child to leave our care as able and independent communicators, with the confidence and skills required to read and write fluently. They will be thoroughly prepared in all aspects of English and fully equipped for the next step in their educational journey.

Implementation

Our English curriculum at Carlton Primary School is delivered with the support of Twinkl Phonics, Accelerated Reader, VIPERS and ‘The Write Stuff’ sentence stacking approach. Planning is individualised to each class and the teachers adapt the resources to the needs of the class. The Natural Curriculum and Twinkl Spag is adapted to teach a weekly SPAG focus which will then be used within the Sentence stacking lessons. The schemes are used to support teachers to deliver well-structured and exciting learning opportunities that enable our children to learn, revisit and progressively develop their skills in English at an age-appropriate level.

Phonics

The teaching of Twinkl phonics supports children in EYFS and KS1 to develop their phonic knowledge. The rest of the school continue to use phonics to aid with reading and learning spelling patterns. We use a synthetic approach which guides them step by step, from learning initial sounds to reading and writing sentences with confidence and fluency. As part of this, children in EYFS and KS1 also begin to learn correct letter formation and early joins, which help them to form a fluent and correctly joined handwriting style. We teach a pre cursive style. as attached and children are given time to practise writing letters with good adult modelling. Teachers in these year groups are regularly given CPD opportunities to update and refresh their phonics teaching in line with the school approach.

Reading

Our reading scheme in EYFS and KS1 ensures that the books children are reading at home match with their phonic ability and reading level. Teachers also listen to children read regularly so that they can practise the skills that they have learnt in context. We use banded books to meet the needs of groups of learners and to practise essential comprehension skills, as well as building confidence and fluency. This also provides ongoing assessment and learning opportunities for teachers to regularly check pupil progress and adapt the teaching of reading as necessary.

Within Year R, Year 1 and Year 2 the focus of reading is based around Twinkl phonics, the children have a story which develops across the week within their Phonics lesson, retrieval and inference are used within these. Also from years 2- 6 the VIPERs approach is developed further. We use materials from the Literacy Shed and Ninja comprehension to develop the children’s comprehension skills. Within Key Stage 2 there is a daily focus on these either through discussion or through a written assessment. Phonics is continued throughout the school through spellings and reading building upon the skills taught in Key Stage 1.

As soon as children are ready we move them onto the Accelerated Reader Programme where they will read and then answer questions online about the book that they have completed. Children continue to be heard read by adults in school on a regular basis. Children are rewarded with certificates if they achieve personal targets on Accelerated Reader or within their class reading. These are the Reading Champion Certificates and are celebrated in the Friday Celebration assembly.

Writing

The school currently uses the Jane Considine ‘The write Stuff’ (sentence stacking) approach. The Write Stuff is based on two guiding principles; teaching sequences that slide between experience days and sentence stacking lessons. With modelling at the heart of them, the sentence stacking lessons are broken into bite-sized chunks and taught under the structural framework of The Writing Rainbow. Teachers prepare children for writing by modelling the ideas, grammar or techniques of writing.

This research informed and evidence based systems provide structures for success, enabling teachers to deliver outstanding results, through the systematic approach used within the plans. The sentences are stacked together chronologically and organised to engage children with short, intensive moments of learning that they can then immediately apply to their own writing.

Speaking and Listening

Children have many discussions in class and children are taught how to present and to debate having respect for others as speakers and reflect upon the opinions of others. Within ‘The Write stuff’ approach as part of the initiate lesson speaking and listening is focused heavily upon. The children take part in drama, discussions and experience sessions. Children also have the opportunities across the year to take part in class assemblies and performances to practise their skills to an audience.

Spelling

In EYFS and Key Stage 1 the spellings are linked to the level and unit that the children are working on in that week. In Key Stage 2 they use the Twinkl Spelling Programme which complements the Twinkl Phonics Program thus providing continuity for our children. Spellings are taught explicitly each week and Look, Say, Cover, write. Check completed nightly for regular practice. Children are tested each week by using the words in dictated sentences.

Handwriting

We use the Twinkl cursive joined script and all work typed or written for children is modelled in this style. Regular handwriting sessions take place and children know that presentation is very important.

Impact

At Carlton Primary School, all pupils make excellent progress in English. This starts with a firm foundation in EYFS, with 72.8% of pupils achieving their Early Learning Goals in literacy which is above the average in England being 68% in 2022.

Our end of KS1 assessments for 2022 show that the percentage of pupils achieving expected outcomes in Reading is 100% and for Writing it is 100%. Children that had greater depth in these subjects were 23.1% and 15% respectively. This is supported by the high number of pupils that pass the Phonics Screening Check at the end of year 1, with an 78% pass rate. This is a direct result of our excellent phonics curriculum and teaching.

The vast majority of our older pupils are equipped with the English skills they need to succeed at secondary school when they leave us. This is reflected in our end of KS2 assessments for 2022 with 84% of pupils meeting expected outcomes in Reading and 84% of pupils meeting expected outcomes in Writing.

Through evaluation of work in children’s books at Carlton Primary School, it is clear to see the high quality of writing throughout the school. Children are able to confidently talk about their work in English lessons and can apply age-appropriate skills and knowledge in their work. They are willing to take risks and learn from their mistakes, showing both perseverance and resilience in English learning.

Our children leave us confident in all English skills and we hope they have a passion for reading and writing for life.

Experience days: