English

At St James’ Church of England Primary School, we strive to help our children develop into articulate and imaginative communicators, who are well-equipped with the basic skills they need to succeed. Our English curriculum brings together the important skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening, equipping our children to be critical thinkers and effective communicators both in written and oral forms. Our English curriculum equips St James’ Church of England Primary School children with essential skills to enable them to be lifelong learners, underpinning all other areas of their learning.

At St James’ we strive to create a quality English curriculum that prepares children for the world of today and tomorrow. We believe this curriculum should develop children’s love of reading, writing and discussion enabling them to communicate with each other, the wider world and God.  We have worked hard to provide our children with rich and varied learning opportunities that help them to become confident and enthusiastic learners, enabling the children to flourish and grow in all areas of the curriculum. We want our children to have a positive attitude towards communication and to be able to independently express their emotions and their ideas.

Through our English Curriculum, we strive to teach the children how important their reading, writing, speaking and listening skills will be in the real world and that all these skills are of equal value and infinite worth. By giving this context to their learning, the children understand the value of English to them now, and in their futures. Therefore, they can then grow towards being global citizens and courageous advocates.

English in Action at St James'

Yr2 English - Man on the Moon

Off to the Moon. Yr2 travelled in their rockets and landed on the moon. The children loved looking around and exploring through the VR headsets. Following this, we completed amazing setting descriptions of the moon. Mrs Humberstone was very impressed.

EYFS English - The Three Little Pigs

Starting off their new topic of 'Once upon a time', EYFS have been reading the famous traditional tale of 'The Three Little Pigs'. First they discussed facts about pigs followed by painting observational pictures of pigs. Next, the children read the story and used puppets and materials to re-tell th

Yr3 English - Stig of the Dump

In Year 3, they have been continuing to explore their story 'Stig of the Dump' by finding the definitions of words using the iPads online dictionary. They also explored the cave using the VR headsets for further vocabulary. We are looking forward to seeing their amazing descriptive writing and fanta

Yr1 English - Reindeer Reports

Yr1 carried out some fantastic research about reindeers to help write their amazing non-chronological reports. They used accurate details and amazing vocabulary. They also watched reindeers in their habitat using our VR Headsets. It was brilliant to see the children being sensible with the equipment

Yr5 English - A Christmas Carol

Year 5 have been working very hard publishing their version of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. They have used great vocabulary to describe the setting of Victorian London.

Yr6 English - The Blitz (World War II)

This week Yr6 learnt about the effects The Blitz had on families, buildings and people in major cities across Great Britain. We investigated people sheltering from the bombs with our VR headsets. This then allowed us to produce some amazing and emotive descriptive writing based around The Blitz.

English Curriculum Intent

Writing Intent

The intention of our writing curriculum offered at St James’ is to enable all children regardless of their starting point to be successful in their writing journey. This is done through developing opportunities for children to be courageous writers that are able to write efficiently and creatively. We aim to create efficient spellers, who can articulate their views and ideas through the media of the written word. We endeavour to create proficient writers who are immersed in their writing opportunities after being exposed to a rich and varied stimuli for writing. Our intent is to enable all children in our school to be able to communicate their ideas, thoughts and feelings through their own written words.

Writing Implementation

Spelling

At St James’, we have introduced a new spelling scheme. This is to address a major gap in skills noticed by staff through writing moderation. The use of interactive and weekly sessions will enable the children to be exposed to their spelling rules and allow them to contextually apply them in a safe environment. Also, misconception and exceptions to rules are taught explicitly to enable all children to accurately understand how to spell their age appropriate word spellings.

Handwriting

We continue to establish our chosen handwriting scheme to enable the understanding and fluency required when performing joined handwriting. It is hoped that through exposure to this scheme we will enable all children to develop fluid handwriting strategies to enable them to write at length and at speed legibly.

 

Writing composition

Over the course of the last year, we have been developing writing strategies for sentence level understanding. We have developed a sense of sentence awareness and then have used these strategies to develop the technical aspects of grammar through child friendly and engaging names. We allow children to develop these sentence types and use a vast array of modelling to show how we can link individual sentences together across a paragraph and multiple paragraphs. Also, we can effectively show how sentence types can be used throughout a variety of writing genres by identifying them in a variety of texts through our reading stage of developing our writing units.

Coded editing/marking

Through our coded editing and success criteria, children experience the opportunity to edit and improve their work by identifying their errors and applying their knowledge of all the above elements of writing. Teachers use codes for errors and the children then find their own errors and edit using their purple pens thus showing an understanding of the elements taught.

Writing Impact

The impact of our development of writing has improved outcomes for teachers and children in school.

Teachers now feel more confident in the delivery of their grammar due to the use of weekly skill challenges. They have a reference point as to where they can go to find engaging writing activities that fundamentally teach the children in their class the grammar coverage for each year group. Teacher’s workload has been heavily reduced due to the new spelling scheme, having all resources already available saves teachers time but also ensures outcomes for children as well. We are hopeful that the continuation of the handwriting scheme will see a development and improvement of handwriting across school.

The children are able to articulate what type of sentence has what grammatical function. The children are now becoming more proficient when using these sentence types and are now showing deeper understanding though editing and improving by identifying their own errors when using these sentences.

English (Writing) Curriculum at St James Church of England Primary School

Reading Intent

At St James’, we believe that the teaching of reading is integral to a child’s understanding and appreciation of the world around them; a platform that allows our pupils to see beyond what they know, share in cultural experiences and develop the vocabulary they need to express themselves. Our reading curriculum strives to foster a lifelong love of reading.  We believe that all pupils should have the opportunity to be fluent, confident readers who are able to successfully enjoy, comprehend and understand a wide range of texts and vocabulary. We want pupils to develop a love of reading, a good knowledge of a range of authors, and be able to understand more about the world in which they live through the knowledge they gain from texts.

Reading Implementation

Reading is an important part of our curriculum and is an integral part of all of our lessons. We use reading as a fundamental part of all curriculum planning and development to support and enhance our pupils’ reading ability across the wider curriculum and immerse them in a language rich environment.

To achieve this at St James’:

-We teach synthetic phonics in EYFS and  Key Stage 1 through our daily Read Write inc. Phonics Sessions. Through this programme, the pupils are taught the essential skills needed for reading. Phonics is taught daily to all pupils in Foundation Stage, Year 1 and Year2. Its delivery is underpinned by continual assessment, allowing teachers to identify gaps in learning and use this to inform subsequent planning and intervention. The children have reading books which they are encouraged to read regularly at home which match their current phonics level. This enables class teachers to deliver a tailored learning experience for our pupils at St James’.

-We follow an approach of Whole Class Shared Reading working alongside Comprehension tasks in Years 3-6 (Year 2 follow this once completed Read Writ inc. scheme). The primary purpose of the lessons is modelling skills, with assessment secondary.  Teachers have access to high-quality text that will challenge all pupils within the group. These lessons are built around the teacher reading high-quality and challenging texts, which are dissected by the group through high-level questioning and discussion.  Pupils work on activities that help them to understand new vocabulary and develop their comprehension of the text, ensuring that our pupils are able to make justified responses using evidence from the text.  They are also taught to develop their ability to understand the author’s intent, connections and links to their own experiences.

-We maximise opportunities for pupils to read through our foundation subjects. These lessons support the teaching of reading whilst increasing pupils’ knowledge, understanding and technical vocabulary associated with the subject being taught.

-We have a timetabled Class Read sessions across school. This is an opportunity for all pupils to hear the teacher reading to the class, modelling fluency and intonation whilst helping pupils to get to know and love a range of stories, poetry and information books and extend their vocabulary, comprehension, as well supporting their writing.

-In both KS1 and KS2, our taught English units begin with a reading phase. Pupils explore a wide range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry within this phase as we recognise that reading development is closely linked to that of writing, for it is when given opportunities to reflect upon and discuss the texts they encounter, that pupils truly understand the writing process and are able to write in a variety of styles and forms appropriate for the intended audience

-We prioritise the assessment of reading. Pupils home reading is monitored each half term to assess their reading level, ensuring that pupils are reading the most appropriate books.  All pupils are listened to a minimum of once a week. In both key stages, pupils identified as needing additional support with their reading will be listened to a minimum of three times a week. This is to support them in meeting the expected standard in reading.

-We know that reading for pleasure is beneficial not only for reading outcomes, but for wider learning enjoyment and mental wellbeing. Therefore, we work hard to foster a love of independent reading and build communities of engaged readers. To support this, our library is regularly updated with books, and time slots are timetabled as well as our “Library Café” which is run by our Year 6 Librarians.

-We understand the significance of parents and carers in supporting their pupils to develop both word reading and comprehension skills so we endeavour to build a home-school partnership which enables parents and carers to have the confidence to support their pupils with reading at home.

Reading Impact

By the time pupils leave St James’, we aspire that all pupils are fluent, confident and enthusiastic readers, who can recommend books to their peers, access a range of texts for pleasure and enjoyments, as well as use their reading skills to unlock learning in all areas of the curriculum. They have a thirst for knowledge, can read a wide range of genres and confidently participate in discussions about what they have read. They can also read books to enhance their knowledge and understanding of all subjects on the curriculum, and communicate their research to a wider audience.

English (Reading) Curriculum at St James Church of England Primary School

At St James’ CE Primary School, we follow a Phonics and Reading programme called ‘Read Write Inc’.

Children in EYFS and Key Stage One take part in a 30 minute daily Phonics session. Children are grouped according to ability and work in smaller groups with their Phonics teacher. All staff (teachers and teaching assistants) have been trained in how to deliver the programme.

Who is Read Write Inc. for?

The Read Write Inc. programme is for primary school children learning to read. It enables every child to become a confident and fluent reader at the first attempt. Every child who completes Read Write Inc. learns to read fluently and confidently.

EYFS Expectations

Children begin the programme as they start school in Reception Class. The programme begins by teaching children how to recognise letter sounds. Pictures and rhymes are used to help children recognise the sounds quickly as well as supporting them to write the letters.

When children are confident with letter sounds they begin to ‘orally blend’ letters to read simple words. As children grow in confidence and fluency they will then move on to reading whole sentences.

At the beginning of Reception each session will last approximately 20 minutes per day. By the end of the year, children will build up to a 30-35 minute session every day.

 

Year 1 Expectations

Children continue with the programme as they move up into Year 1. Children will continue to learn more complex graphemes and will be supported to increase their reading fluency. Children will also develop skills in comprehension and will be expected to answer questions about what they have read.

Year 2 Expectations

Children continue the Read Write Inc Programme up until the end of the Autumn Term in Year Two. Some children will complete the programme earlier and some will need a little longer on the programme to fully develop their skills. Children who have completed the programme will then take part in class Guided Reading.

One to One Tutoring

Any children who staff feel need a little bit of extra support will be allocated a one-to-one tutor. This tutor will work with them daily to support them with any gaps in learning and increase their rate of progress.

English (Phonics) Curriculum at St James Church of England Primary School

Mr G Lloyd

English Co-ordinator

Mrs A Humberstone

Key Stage 1 English Lead & Phonics Co-ordinator

English Overviews, Key Learning and Curriculum Maps

Year 1 Overviews, Key Learning and Curriculum Maps
Year 2 Overviews, Key Learning and Curriculum Maps
Year 3 Overviews, Key Learning and Curriculum Maps
Year 4 Overviews, Key Learning and Curriculum Maps
Year 5 Overviews, Key Learning and Curriculum Maps
Year 6 Overviews, Key Learning and Curriculum Maps