English

English Curriculum

^{What are we aiming for?}

At Allens Croft Primary School and Resource Base, we aim to promote a love of reading and writing in all of our wonderful children regardless of their abilities and backgrounds. We understand that to enable children to be successful across the curriculum, they must progress well in all areas of reading, writing, speaking and listening. We are determined that all children will become highly competent readers and writers by the end of their time with us.

We want pupils to feel confident when it comes to written and oral literacy and have the means to make their voices heard.

Our English curriculum is based around Literacy Shed + as it offers high-quality texts from a range of authors and media, immersing children in vocabulary rich environments, teaching the craft of writing and ensuring the new curriculum expectations and the progression of skills are met. All, while developing a passion for writing, a love of reading and purposeful speaking and listening – irrespective of personal backgrounds. We hope to encourage pupils to become independent in their learning.

Our English curriculum encourages:

Creativity
Critical thinking
Independence
Confidence
A love of learning
A thirst for knowledge

Through use of the quality first teaching, pupils are supported in reaching the end of key stage attainment targets in the National Curriculum.

^{How do we achieve this?}

Our curriculum is delivered through carefully planned units, bespoke to our children’s needs and interests.

To meet the aims of the National Curriculum for English and in response to the Ofsted Research review into English, we implement the following:

Reading

Starting in Reception, children are taught to read daily by using the Read Write Inc phonics scheme and they take their Read Write Inc books, that are matched to their current reading ability, home to read with parents/carers. This programme also teaches children how to spell, write sentences and equips them with early comprehension skills.
Following on from Read Write Inc, children that continue to require further early reading development will progress to the Fresh Start scheme in Key Stage 2. Reading Buddies from KS2 to KS1 are in place to support confidence and progress of individual children.
Children in Year 2 and Key Stage 2 have daily comprehension lessons following the structure of: introducing a text, investigating to deepen their understanding and finally demonstrating their independent understanding through comprehension.
A class story is read at least daily in all classes.
Daily, children have time to read independently a text of their choice from their well-stocked class libraries. During this time, teaching staff listen to individual children read.
All children have the opportunity to take books home to read. Children are assessed regularly and guided in their choice of text according to their ability, progressing to reading literature of their choice which is checked for suitability by an adult where necessary.
Our reading culture encourages children to link what they have read to their prior knowledge and recommend books to their peers.

Writing

We follow the cycle of a week of skills-based learning followed by a week to apply the newly acquired skills.

We use well-planned, text-led learning journeys with clear outcomes and embedded teaching of grammatical skills.
Children are given interesting and purposeful reasons to write such as: trips and visitors to spark creativity.
Differentiated tasks are provided, where appropriate, to support and challenge all of our learners.
Opportunities are given to apply taught skills across the curriculum.

Spelling

Pupils in Year 2-6 are taught spellings through the Read, Write, Inc. Spelling programme, which follows on from the Read, Write, Inc. Phonics programme that we also follow in EYFS and Year 1.
Read, Write, Inc. Spelling is a spelling programme based on proven strategies of teacher modelling, followed by partner work to embed learning. The programme covers all of the word structures and spelling requirements for Years 2-6, including explicitly learning spelling rules and how to apply these, as well as learning the Common Exception Words and High Frequency Words that are outlined in the National Curriculum.

Handwriting

Handwriting is taught across the school daily using the Nelson handwriting scheme.

What does success look like?

The expected impact of our English curriculum is:

Our children's attainment is in line with or exceeds their potential when we consider the varied starting points of all of our children. We measure this using assessments each half-term for Reading and GPS. We assess writing using our own internal assessment criteria which is taken from the National Curriculum.
Children that move on from Allens Croft take with them confidence, passion and high aspirations for their future learning through the progress, sustained learning and transferrable skills secured over their time with us.
An understanding that English is an integral part of the curriculum and that by securing the skills taught in the English lessons, they can confidently access the wider curriculum.

Literacy in EYFS at Allens Croft

Literacy in the Early Years is particularly important for children as it gives them a head start in learning essential skills, such as reading and writing that they will use on a daily basis. We believe that it is crucial for children to develop a life-long love of reading and this is encouraged from the very first day of school. Children are exposed to a language rich environment with a wide variety of books and story-telling props such as puppets and role play resources. We follow the Read.Write Inc phonics programme which enables all children to learn the key skills needed in reading and writing. Opportunities are then provided for children to explore and extend this knowledge through child initiated and adult led activities. Children show this in range of ways including understanding and speaking in sentences, familiarity with phonics, demonstrating understanding of what they have read, the ability to write spoken sounds and words and by the end of the year, write independent sentences.

If you require any further information about this curriculum area or any other, please do not hesitate to contact us.

English Curriculum Policy

Writing Curriculum Overviews

Writing EYFS to Y6

At the start of each academic year, teachers carefully plan out their writing curriculum to ensure children are given opportunities to write across a range of genres. Emphasis on the purpose of writing also helps ensure children are aware of why they are writing. Grammar and punctuation skills are carefully matched to each written outcome so that children can see them being used purposefully. Please see the linked overviews for each year group for more information.

Writing Curriculum Overviews

Reading Curriculum Overviews

At the start of each academic year, teachers carefully plan out their reading curriculum to ensure children are given opportunities to read a range of genres. We follow a weekly cycle of whole class reading lessons. We start the week by exposing children to their new text and give them time to define any difficult or unfamiliar language. We them develop children’s cognitive skills through questioning and rich class discussion. Finally, we give children chance to demonstrate their understanding through independent answering of questions. Please see the linked overviews for each year group for more information.