ENGLISH

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

At St Charles’, English is taught as part of our broad and balanced curriculum, in line with the school’s Curriculum Intent Statement:

Through our curriculum, children are encouraged to “Bring Forth Christ” and reflect our school’s values in all that they do. We want to utilise resources the surrounding area offers whilst also learning from its rich history. Developing greater links with our parish and local community will help us achieve this and also strengthen our faith. We will cater for the needs and desires of all our children by offering varied and experiential learning opportunities whilst developing an awareness of their responsibilities to the environment as future global citizens. Challenging each child through our inclusive curriculum is important to us but we also want them to learn from their mistakes through the development of their resilience. Finally, we want the children to demonstrate pride in all they do and develop clear aspirations for the future based on their knowledge of the wider world.

The aim of our English 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 (National Curriculum 2014). We strive to develop children’s literacy within a cross-curricular programme of Reading, Writing and Speaking and Listening, providing children with a vast range of exciting and meaningful opportunities to consolidate their understanding of taught English skills and apply them in a range of contexts.

Children at St Charles’ will:

Learn how to read and write with fluency, understanding and confidence, developing a range of independent strategies to take responsibility for their own learning
Be encouraged to develop a love of reading and to read for enjoyment
Develop their ever-growing vocabulary through an interest in words and their meanings
Experience a range of text types and genres, across a range of contexts, to enrich their understanding
Learn to write in a variety of styles and be able to apply characteristic features of texts to their own writing
Develop a technical vocabulary with understanding of grammatical terminology
Learn how to apply a range of grammatical features in their own writing
Have the opportunity to write for pleasure and explore and develop their own ideas
Have the opportunity to develop their creativity and imagination.

CURRICULUM

EYFS

In EYFS, Literacy is a specific area of learning and development, focussed on developing children’s early reading and writing. Children have daily phonics lessons based on Letters & Sounds to develop skills in preparation for early reading and writing. Continuous Provision activities are designed to provide children with opportunities to develop their communication, language and literacy skills on a daily basis with a focus on child initiated activities. As well as a writing area, which provides children with a range of materials with which to experiment and practice mark marking/letter formation (and eventually to practice taught skills), other activities are enhanced to provide children with the opportunity to read and write in a range of contexts. A range of resources in the outdoor area, including a phonics wall, provide valuable opportunities to engage children in writing for pleasure. Adult led activities in EYFS are usually linked to stories, poems or nursery rhymes or to cross curricular topics. From when they start school, children learn that writing can have a range of purposes and they begin to explore the features of different types of writing.

KEY STAGE ONE

In Key Stage One, children follow the LPDS (Lancashire Professional Development Service) National Curriculum planning scheme. In English lessons, children explore a variety of themes and study a range of fiction and non-fiction texts, beginning to compare characteristic features of writing. Children learn how to apply these features in their own writing and begin to write at length. In Key Stage 1, children will write for a range of purposes, including (but not limited to):

Narratives
Diaries
Instructions
Explanation texts
Poems
Letters & postcards
Labels, lists and captions
Recounts
Non chronological reports

Children continue to follow the Letters and Sounds phonics programme on a daily basis, building upon phonetic knowledge acquired in EYFS and with an increased focus on spelling and spelling rules.

KEY STAGE TWO

In Year 3, children follow the LPDS (Lancashire Professional Development Service) National Curriculum planning scheme. In Years 4 – 6, English units are planned around a class novel or text and are linked to cross-curricular topics where possible, with teachers using Lancashire’s Key Learning In Primary Schools (KLIPS) guidance to identify the key skills to be taught in a unit. During Key Stage Two, children will write for a greater range of purposes, developing their knowledge of previously taught genres and embracing more complex text types, including (but not limited to):

Narratives (including a variety of genres such as myths & legends, adventure, mystery & suspense)
Letters
Play scripts
Biographies
Recounts
Glossaries
Explanation texts
Discussion texts
Poems (including Haikus)

Children will also learn to write in a range of styles, including;

Writing persuasively
Writing in a journalistic style
Writing formally/informally
Writing balanced arguments

Reading

READING

TEACHING APPROACHES/PEDAGOGY

At St Charles, the teaching of Reading is broken down into two main areas - word reading and comprehension - as stipulated in the National Curriculum (2014). This begins in EYFS where children have discrete daily phonics lessons following the Letters and Sounds programme. Children are sent home with reading books matched to their phonics phase (fully decodable) and are listened to by the class teacher or teaching assistant at least weekly. Later in the year, as children’s word reading becomes secure, children will begin a weekly Guided Reading session. In small groups, children will read a book with the class teacher, again matched to their phonics ability, and will discuss the book, commenting on its features and answering simple comprehension questions.

In Key Stage One, children continue with daily discrete phonics teaching which is streamed to children’s abilities to further develop their word reading skills (decoding, segmenting and blending). If children have not met end of key stage phonics expectations by the end of Key Stage One and require further input, this will continue as children enter Key Stage Two.

In Key Stage One and Two, the teaching of Reading is approached in two main ways. The first of these is through Guided Reading, which is taught daily for 20-25 minutes on a carousel system. Children are split into ability groups and undertake a weekly cycle of activities (based around a fully decodable text) including:

Pre-Read (children are given an activity to prepare for the guided session)

Guided Read (children work with the class teacher to discuss a text, deepen understanding, explore new vocabulary and address misconceptions)

Follow-up activity (children complete an activity based on discussions during the guided session)

Each cycle of activities has a learning objective taken from Lancashire’s Learning and Progression Steps for Reading (LAPS) and the Guided Read and Follow-up activity is designed to demonstrate children’s grasp of each objective.

The two other sessions in the week may include:

Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling activities

Reading Comprehensions

Reading for pleasure

The second approach to the teaching of Reading is through daily English lessons. Each English unit is planned in three phases: READING, GATHERING CONTENT AND WRITING. In the Reading phase, children will be immersed in a text which provides rich, challenging vocabulary and an opportunity to develop language comprehension. Teaching approaches at this stage may include:

Class teacher reading aloud to children

Class teacher identifying vocabulary for children to explore

Children identifying vocabulary to self-explore

Children using dictionaries to define new vocabulary

Whole-class discussion on sections of a text with questions to guide learning

Making text-to-text, text-to-self and text-to-world links

Drama to provide children with opportunities to infer thoughts and feelings of characters, e.g. Hot Seating, Conscience Alley, Garden Fence

As a school, we recognise the value of reading aloud to children to model appropriate use of intonation and expression and to encourage reading for pleasure. We want to enthuse them with a love of books and inspire them as writers. Children have the opportunity to participate in lots of exciting and rewarding activities linked to reading, including:

Visits to the local library for storytelling and book sharing

Visits to reading festivals and author visits

World Book Day and Roald Dahl Day celebrations

PROGRESSION AND CONTINUITY

To ensure progression and continuity, teachers’ planning is informed by the National Curriculum for English and Lancashire’s Key Learning In Primary Schools for Reading (KLIPS) document. These resources provide statutory and non-statutory guidance for the content to be taught in each year group, ensuring that teachers build upon previously taught skills and knowledge. To further break down the key skills for each year group, teachers also refer to the Learning and Progression Steps for Reading (LAPS), to ensure that skills are developed in a logical manner to aid children’s understanding and internalisation of knowledge. Teachers also have access to examples of children’s work to illustrate expectations within each year group so that progression and continuity is assured.

SEN AND MORE ABLE CHILDREN (EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES)

Regular assessment ensures that children who need further support in Reading are identified and appropriately supported. Children in Key Stage One requiring extra support are referred to the Better Reading scheme which is delivered by trained teaching assistants to attempt to fill any gaps in children’s word reading and language comprehension. Children who require further support in Key Stage Two may be offered additional phonics intervention if their problems are word reading related. Children who need comprehension support are given skill-specific intervention which is planned by the class teacher and delivered by the class teacher or teaching assistant. Tailored Individual Education Plans are in place for children with specific learning needs.

Children identified as More Able in Reading throughout the school have access to a separate collection of books designed to stretch them and deepen understanding, by offering a variety of challenging themes, vocabulary, and concepts. Class teachers are expected to plan for More Able children by choosing more challenging texts, asking questions which challenge and deepen understanding, and providing children with opportunities to make comparisons across texts and text types.

Writing

WRITING

TEACHING APPROACHES/PEDAGOGY

At St Charles’, Writing is taught as part of the three-phase approach to planning an English unit: READING, GATHERING CONTENT AND WRITING. Each English unit has a clear writing outcome which is the culmination of two to three weeks’ work on a particular text type. The teaching of Writing is firmly grounded in the foundations of a well-planned Reading phase; through immersion in high quality, well-written, vocabulary-rich texts, children are exposed to a bank of resources (grammar, vocabulary, syntax, style) which can be used to inspire their own writing. In the Gathering Content phase, children use these high quality texts to generate ideas for their own piece of writing, making use of resources on the English Working Wall, dictionaries and thesauruses, books and the Internet for research and ideas generated through class/group/paired discussion. As part of the Writing phase, three writing outcomes are expected: SCAFFOLDED, INDEPENDENT AND CROSS-CURRICULAR. For the scaffolded outcome, children write with lots of input from the class teacher. Teaching approaches will include analysis of a WAGOLL, shared and modelled writing led by the class teacher with input from children, explicit teaching of grammatical features, use of a Must Should Could grid to guide writing, thorough, quality marking to address misconceptions and inform next steps, self and peer editing and improving. For the independent outcome, children write without any input from the teacher, however they may independently access dictionaries, thesauruses and any resources from the English Working Wall. Finally, children are asked to write a cross-curricular piece on the same text-type to demonstrate their application of skills to another subject area.

The teaching of Grammar and Punctuation is integrated into daily English lessons with a holistic approach rather than discrete teaching. Teachers select the features which are most appropriate to the text type being studied, e.g. passive voice in newspaper reports, and give children the opportunity to identify, analyse, use and apply these features to their own writing, enabling them to develop a meaningful understanding of grammar and punctuation.

From Year 2 onwards (or when children have completed the phonics programme), Spelling is taught through the No Nonsense Spelling Scheme which is carried out at least twice a week for around 15 minutes. Children also practise the statutory spellings for their year group as part of spelling lessons and they are also encouraged to practise their spellings at home at least weekly.

Handwriting is taught through the Letterjoin handwriting scheme. From EYFS, children are taught to form their letters using pre-cursive handwriting. In Key Stage One, explicit, discrete handwriting lessons are carried out at least twice a week until children can securely use cursive handwriting that is legible. If necessary, this will continue into Key Stage Two, and additional interventions may be put in place for children requiring extra practice.

PROGRESSION AND CONTINUITY

To ensure progression and continuity, teachers’ planning is informed by the National Curriculum for English and Lancashire’s Key Learning In Primary Schools for Writing (KLIPS) document. These resources provide statutory and non-statutory guidance for the content to be taught in each year group, ensuring that teachers build upon previously taught skills and knowledge. To further break down the key skills for each year group, teachers also refer to the Learning and Progression Steps for Writing (LAPS), to ensure that skills are developed in a logical manner to aid children’s understanding and internalisation of knowledge. Teachers also have access to examples of children’s work to illustrate expectations within each year group so that progression and continuity is assured. Through high quality marking, especially during the scaffolded writing stage, teachers can identify misconceptions as they arise and put steps in place to address them quickly, ensuring that children have the foundations in place before moving on so that effective progress is made.

SEN AND MORE ABLE CHILDREN (EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES)

Regular assessment ensures that children who need further support in Writing are identified and appropriately supported. Children whose writing is impaired by issues with fine motor skills are given tailored intervention with trained teaching assistants. If writing is impaired by poor spelling or handwriting, teachers refer to the Progression of Skills documents for spelling and handwriting to assess children and to tailor a specific programme of intervention so that children can catch up to their peers. Tailored Individual Education Plans are in place for children with specific learning needs; these children make use of a range of SEN resources, i.e. pencil grips, writing slopes, enlarged print, coloured paper and overlays etc.

Children identified as More Able in Writing throughout the school have access to a separate collection of books designed to widen their vocabulary and sentence structure in order to further develop their writing ability. Class teachers are expected to plan for More Able children by asking them to write from different perspectives, encouraging them to think about levels of formality and looking for more complex grammatical features and vocabulary; the use of the Must Should Could grid is in place to challenge all children, including those who are More Able.