English

Joint English Leads: Emma Batt / Vicki Dickinson 

Phonics Lead: Ellie Stevens

EYFS Literacy Lead: Carol Griffiths

Overview

‘The National Curriculum in England: English programmes of study’ is followed in Years 1-6

The published programmes followed are:

-Little Wandle ‘Letters and Sounds’ (LW)

-‘Pathways to Write’ (P2W) – includes speaking & listening, reading, writing, grammar, punctuation & spelling

-‘Rising Stars Spelling’ long-term plan

Handwriting – Penpals

Staff:

• model spoken and written standard English.
• model effective handwriting by following the school’s ‘Penpals’ handwriting style.
• consistently demonstrate accurate spelling, grammar, punctuation and handwriting.

Phonics

Nursery:

• Daily small group phonic sessions – DfE Letters and Sounds Phase 1
• From the summer term, any children secure in oral blending and segmenting start Little Wandle Letters and Sounds and the Reception year group plan is followed.
• Opportunities are provided throughout the day, to reinforce and practise oral blending and segmenting, eg. “come and s-i-t sit on the m-a-t mat”, ‘you may leave the carpet when I say your name, a-b-d-u-l, f-i-z-a etc.”

Reception and Year 1

• Fidelity to the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds programme.
• All children in Reception (regardless of whether they have had LW lessons in Nursery) start at the beginning of the LW Reception year plan.
• A daily discreet 30-minute lesson following LW year group plan.
• ‘Keep up not catch up’ – all children are included in the daily whole class lesson – magnetic boards and letters may be used by children with limited pencil control – children may work in smaller groups with an additional adult during the ‘practise’ and ‘apply’ section of the daily lesson to practise and apply blending and segmenting of words that are matched to their known PGCs.
• Additional ‘LW Keep Up’ daily sessions for children at risk of falling behind – 10/15 mins.
• A daily ‘1:1 LW Tutoring’ session for the lowest 20% – approximately 5 minutes per child.
• Little Wandle Phonics Tracker is used for summative assessment – to be completed half termly and designed to keep track of progress, inform next steps and identify children for ‘LW Keep Up’.
• The LW Placement Assessment is carried out with children new to school.
• Guided reading – Little Wandle ‘Big Cat’ fully decodable reading books matched to children’s current learning in phonics – lessons focus on decoding/prosody/comprehension.
• Home reading – ‘Rocket Phonics’ (Rising Stars) fully decodable books and e-books matched to children’s current learning in phonics (Little Wandle Big Cat e-books to be considered during 2022/23) + a sharing book (a picture book for parents to share with their child).

Year 2

• Autumn 1 – all children have a daily LW Letters and Sounds lesson to revisit phases 2, 3, 4 and 5, based on gaps in learning from the summer term assessment.
• Autumn 2 onwards – all children who are not secure with phase 5 continue with a daily LW Letters and Sounds lesson.
• A daily ‘1:1 LW Tutoring’ session for children who didn’t reach the Y1 phonics check standard.

Year 3

• All children not yet secure with phase 5 continue with a daily LW Letters and Sounds lesson to revisit phases 2, 3, 4 and 5, based on gaps in learning from the summer term assessment – delivered as an intervention.

Reading

Key Stage 1

• A daily 30-minute carousel of reading related activities – including a guided reading (GR) focus group with teacher – see example table below
• Groups of no more than 6 children of similar attainment for focus GR group
• LW ‘Big Cat’ phonically decodable books linked to phonic phase used for GR or, if secure phase 5, a book banded/ ’real’ book matched to reading attainment
• All children have at least one GR session with the teacher each week.
• An additional GR session each week for all children not on track
• A meeting for parents held for each year group early in the autumn term to talk about reading routines, national expectations, phonics, and sharing ways that parents can support their child’s reading at home
• Parent meetings held in the spring term; Y1 provide information about the ‘Year 1 Phonic Check’, Year 2 provide information about the national’ KS1 SATs’

Reading Interventions:

• Reception and Year 1 – LW Letters and Sounds Keep Up, 1:1 Tutoring and additional LW ‘Big Cat’ guided reading sessions
• Year 2 – LW Letters and Sounds Keep Up, 1:1 Tutoring and additional LW ‘Big Cat’ guided reading sessions, ‘Fischer Family Trust Wave 3 (FFT Wave 3)’ and additional book banded and real book guided reading sessions  

Group	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
1	Guided Read	Follow up Task	Listening Centre/  I-pads	High Frequency Words	Phonics/ Spelling
2	Phonics/ Spelling	Guided Read	Follow up Task	Listening Centre/  I-pads	High Frequency Words
3	High Frequency Words	Phonics/ Spelling	Guided Read	Follow up Task	Listening Centre/  I-pads
4	Listening Centre/  I-pads	High Frequency Words	Phonics/ Spelling	Guided Read	Follow up Task
5	Follow up Task	Listening Centre/  I-pads	High Frequency Words	Phonics/ Spelling	Guided Read

Key Stage 2

To further promote reading for pleasure every year group from Years 3-6 reads a longer novel, usually linked to the P2W unit/theme. Each year group has a carefully selected (half class) set of books for each half term. Books are read by the teacher during story time, by the children during guided reading sessions and through extracts in whole class reading (WCR) lessons. Longer novels are sometimes read across a full term.

The Accelerated Reader (AR) programme is followed for independent reading and enables children to select high quality books to read, appropriate to their reading level. They read daily in school for 20 minutes and AR books are also taken home for continued reading. A ‘Star Test’, linked to AR, is carried out three times a year to track children’s progress and children are motivated to read by completing a quiz at the end of each book. In addition, class teachers deliver weekly review lessons to praise and challenge children on their AR reading.  

Whole class reading lessons (WCR) and guided reading lessons take place each week. In the autumn term, year 3 continue with the year 2 model of guided reading daily and move to the guided reading/ WCR model when the children are ready. Equal time is given to guided reading and WCR across every half term. All children (regardless of attainment) receive a minimum of one guided reading session each half term and children not yet reading at age related expectations receive additional sessions . All children are encouraged to read aloud to develop fluency.

Whole Class Reading Lessons (WCR)

-The focus during these sessions is reading comprehension and reading fluency.

-Texts include age-appropriate short texts and extracts, non-fiction supporting the wider curriculum & poetry.

-The school’s ‘Comprehension Teaching Sequence’ is followed – this is used flexibly to reflect the teaching opportunities within the chosen text and the needs of the pupils.

-The adult always reads the text to the children first ensuring access for all children.

-A ‘model/ practise/ independent’ approach is followed throughout ie.  adult models each skill, children practise the same skill then discuss, children carry out the same skill independently. Children work in mixed-attaining pairs for paired reading and discussions.

-Opportunities are provided to challenge higher attainers later in the sequence.

The guided reading lesson (GR)

-The focus during these sessions is word reading and reading fluency.

-a 30 minute lesson

-Includes a range of activities; GR with the teacher, pre/ follow-up tasks, Accelerated Reader (AR) and Spelling activities

-The class longer novel is used for the GR focus group, unless children are reading significantly below their expected age when book banded or earlier year group GR books are used.

-All children read aloud at the same time during the GR focus session with the adult.

Review Session; 1 weekly session

-Share AR reports with children – praise, reward, challenge.

-Listen to individual readers

-Revisit specific skills e.g., reading fluency

-Independent reading

Reading Interventions:

–Reading Accuracy; Fischer Family Trust Wave 3, Boosting Reading @ Primary (BRP), additional Guided Reading

–Reading Comprehension; On Track English Reading Comprehension (Rising Stars), Picture Detective Group (MCC), Inference at KS2 (Leicester Learning Services), Reading Between the Lines (Delamain & Spring)

Writing 

In Years 1-6 we follow the Pathways to Write (P2W) programme, which is adapted to meet the needs of the children. Each unit is focused around a high-quality, age appropriate picture book. There are 6 units per year group, lasting approximately 3-4 weeks, leaving additional time for writing linked to the wider curriculum and special events, such as writing a report following a class visit. Half termly objectives remain the same throughout a half term (the mastery approach).  

P2W Objectives are referred to as:

Gateway keys – objectives from earlier year groups

Mastery keys – year group objectives 

Feature keys – objectives linked specifically to the genre 

P2W Gateway Tasks:

• Each unit begins with a ‘Gateway Task’, used to identify; children not yet secure in the basic skills (Gateway Keys), gaps in learning for most children; next steps in teaching. 
• Adjustments are made to children’s objectives/ keys/ success criteria to reflect their individual next steps and to avoid overload for the child eg. a Y5 child may be given Y4 objectives (gateway keys) as their focus when writing.

P2W Final Writing Outcome:

• Is marked by the teacher, ideally with the child present.
• Children are shown how to improve their writing and are given the opportunity to make the necessary changes.
• Space in the child’s book allows for the changes to be made.
• Children are encouraged to write freely and avoid ‘shoe-horning’ features into their writing e.g., over-use of extended noun phrases, resulting in writing that does not flow or make sense – success criteria can be shared part-way through the independent writing process.

Independent Writing

Writing is independent even when children are provided with support materials, as they decide how to use the supporting information in their writing. Children are encouraged to use:

• English Folders (containing reference sheets/ scaffolds)
• Vocabulary lists on the working wall e.g., a list of extended noun phrases
• Key vocabulary
• Descriptosaurus sheets
• Word Mats 
• Phonic Mats

 Writing Intervention – Pathways to Progress (P2P)

• Runs alongside the P2W unit and focuses on the Gateway Keys
• Groups of 4
• 3 x 20/30 minute sessions each week
• Progress is reviewed termly

Spelling

• The ‘Rising Stars Spelling programme’ long-term plan is followed consistently, ensuring complete content coverage across all year groups. Resources from a range of sources are used when delivering lessons.
• Spelling boards are updated weekly and reflect the current class spelling rule and/ or a list of spelling words.
• Independent practice and application opportunities are provided during lessons.
• Children are encouraged to keep a personalised list of focus spellings to refer to when writing, proofreading and editing.
• Spelling is a focus for development and improvement during the academic year 2022/23.

Handwriting  

The ‘Penpals ‘handwriting programme is followed throughout school. Penpals helps us to teach the children to develop fast, fluent, legible handwriting. It links to the guidelines in the National Curriculum for England and Wales. Using Penpals ensures a coherent whole-school approach to continuing to improve handwriting standards.