English

United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) articles supported by our English curriculum:

“The more that you read, the more that you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” – Dr Seuss

Subject Leaders: Mr Pitts, Mrs McDonald & Miss Taylor

The aim for English in the National Curriculum is to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written language, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment. The National Curriculum for English aims to ensure that all pupils:

• read easily, fluently and with good understanding

• develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information

• acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language

• appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage

• write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences

• use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas

• are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate

In Years 1 to 6 children access a daily English lesson. This includes all elements of the subject, including Guided Reading, writing, spelling, grammar and comprehension.

In the EYFS children work in small focus groups with staff for Guided Reading, and writing.  Opportunities for reading and writing are woven into continuous provision activities throughout the Foundation Stage.

Phonics:

At Pike Fold, we believe that all our children can become fluent readers and writers. We teach phonics and early reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme. We start teaching the skills for phonics in Nursery through lots of listening activities and games to tune pupils into their speaking and listening ability. In Reception and Year 1 we follow Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised progression, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school.

Through our teaching of phonics, children are able to tackle unfamiliar words as they read. To ensure our pupils can apply their phonics knowledge and skills, we model the application of the alphabetic code through phonics in shared reading and writing, both inside and outside of the phonics lesson and across the curriculum. We have a strong focus on language development for our children as speaking and listening are crucial skills for reading and writing in all subjects.

What Phonics lessons look like at Pike Fold

Daily Phonics Lessons in Nursery, Reception and Year 1

• In the nursery, children follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised ‘Foundations for Phonics’ guidance. The focus is on daily oral blending and language development through high quality stories and rhymes.

• We teach phonics lesson for 30 minutes a day. In Reception, we build from 10 minute lessons with additional daily oral blending games, to the full-length lesson as quickly as possible. Each Friday, we review the week's teaching to help children secure their knowledge and skills.

• We follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised expectations of progress:

• Children in Reception are taught to read and spell words using Phase 2 and Phase 3 GPCs. In Phase 4 children are taught to read and spell words with adjacent consonants with fluency and accuracy.

• Children in year 1 review Phase 2 and 4 and are taught to read and spell words using Phase 5 GPCs with fluency and accuracy.

Keep-up Lessons Supports Every Child To Learns to Read

• Any child who needs additional practice has keep-up support taught by a fully trained adult. Keep-up lessons match the structure of class teaching and use the same procedures and resources but in smaller steps with more repetition, This supports every child to secure their learning.

• Daily phonics lessons or suitable 1-1 interventions are timetabled for any child in Year 2 or 3 who is not fully fluent at reading or has not passed the Phonics Screening Check.

• Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessments are used to identify the gaps in phonics knowledge and teach to these using keep-up resources.

Reading scheme books provide decodable reading material to ensure that, as children move through the early stages of acquiring phonic knowledge and skills, they can practice by reading texts closely matched to their level of phonic attainment. Texts from a range of genres and publishers are matched by phonics phases and colour reading band to ensure children are reading at 90% fluency.

How do we assess phonic knowledge?

In reception and year 1, at the end of each week there is a review session which recaps the learning. There are also whole review weeks (pre-planned and bespoke review weeks to address gaps identified by the class teacher’s ongoing formative assessment).

In reception and year 1, the children are assessed at the end of every half term using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessment tracker.

The children in Y1 sit the Phonics Screening Check in the summer term.  The check is taken individually by pupils and is designed to give information on how children are progressing with their early reading skills. The check consists of 40 words (20 real words and 20 pseudo words) and will take 5-10 minutes to complete. During the check pupils read the words and results are shared with parents at the end of summer term. Children who do not pass the Phonics Screening Check in Y1, will re-sit this in Y2.

Children who are in Y2 and above and need ‘catch up’ sessions are assessed through teacher’s ongoing formative assessment as well as half termly summative assessments.

Reading:

At Pike Fold, we want children to choose to read and enjoy it both in and out of school. We use levelled books to ensure structure and progression of skills, in KS1 we are using the Big Cat Collins Reading Scheme and Big Cat Phonics Little Wandle and the Accelerated Reader programe for all our pupils in KS2.  But we also want children to read a range of books beyond these. Reading for both pleasure and purpose is important and we encourage you to help your children to continuously increase the range and types of books that they choose. Sometimes, in trying different genres (styles) of books, we can discover styles that we were not expecting to enjoy!

Writing:

To support the National Curriculum for English from Year 1 and the EYFS Development Matters, we follow a whole school mastery approach to writing through the programme Pathways to Write. Units of work are delivered using high quality texts and children in all year groups are given varied opportunities for writing. Skills are built up through repetition within the units, and children apply these skills in the writing activities provided. Many opportunities for widening children’s vocabulary are given through the Pathways to Write approach and this builds on the extensive work we do in school to provide our children with a rich and varied vocabulary.

Pathways to Write is designed to equip pupils with key skills to move them through the writing process towards their final outcome. It is built around units of work that follow a mastery approach to the teaching of writing. To support this approach, clear detailed lesson plans and resources are linked to a high-quality text. Pathways to Write ensures engaging and purposeful English lessons. The units can be used thematically to encourage a whole school approach to writing with the opportunity for topics to link across all year groups.

Each unit covers a range of areas in the national curriculum:

• Mastery of vocabulary, grammar and punctuation skills

• Writing a range of genres across a year

• Vocabulary development

• Using a wider range of reading comprehension strategies as a whole class

• Spoken language activities including drama and presentations

• Opportunities for practising previously taught genres

• An extended, independent piece of writing

This process follows three stages:

The Gateway (1-2 lessons)

Begin at the Gateway with a ‘hook’ session to intrigue and enthuse young writers

Use objects, people, images or role-play to stimulate questions about the chosen text

Give pupils the opportunity to predict the text

Establish the purpose and audience of the writing

Revisit previous mastery skills and ongoing skills

The Pathway (10 lessons)

Introduce pupils to three new writing skills from their year group curriculum

Provide opportunities to practise and apply the skill they have learnt through short and extended writing tasks including character descriptions, poetry, dialogue between characters, fact files or diary entries in role

Provide opportunities to re-cap and apply previously taught skills

Challenge greater depth writers through a wider range of tasks e.g. changes to form, viewpoint and audience

Writeaway (4 lessons)

Section and sequence texts independently or collaboratively

Create extended pieces of writing over time

Opportunity to apply mastery skills

Time for planning, writing, checking, editing, redrafting and publishing

A fiction or non-fiction outcome will be written (covering a wide range of genres and themes over the year)