English

The school's 'Champions' for English learning are Mrs Sarah Webb, Miss Steph Forward.

Please find whole school English plan here!

Pupils’ key skills, knowledge and attitudes are developed within an integrated programme of speaking and listening, reading and writing. This is usually implemented through a daily English lesson for Years 1 to 6, and is linked to the International Primary Curriculum (IPC) whenever appropriate. Our long term plan for English maps out these opportunities against the IPC ensuring a carefully thought out structure of core English skills and knowledge to prepare them for the next stage in their learning. Click this link to view our long term plan. EYFS learning opportunities are planned using continuous provision and interest child-led learning. The core English curriculum is divided into the following strands:

Phonics

In Reception and Key Stage 1, children are systematically taught the phonemes that enable us to read and then spell words using the Little Wandle phonics programme. During phonics sessions, children are taught to identify all the grapheme-phoneme correspondences in a particular order beginning with s,a,t,p,i,n. They are taught to blend, where they say the sounds that make up a word and merge them together until they can hear what the word is – this is a vital skill of early reading. Children are also taught to segment, which is the opposite of blending, by saying the word and breaking it up into the correct phonemes – this skill is a key aspect for early spelling. The learning of phonics are linked to your child's spellings.

Our school booklet - 'Reading and Phonics, Information for Parents/Carers' can be found here and a short video demonstrating pure sounds, below. Children access ‘Letters and Sounds Big Cat Books’ to introduce and reinforce their phonics learning in school. These books are physically stored in school using Huxley Horse Box. Children and their parents can also access books, from home and school, using the Collins e-book system. Additionally, children in Foundation Stage and Year 1 use ‘Reading Eggs’ to aid and reinforce their learning in phonics. All children should have an individual account to make phonics learning fun using this interactive programme.

Reading

Foundation Stage and Key Stage One

Regular reading practise, shared reading and guided reading sessions enable children to apply their phonic decoding skills, as well as other reading cues, to read for meaning. Children consolidate their phonic knowledge and comprehension at home by taking home an individual reading scheme book and/or library book. In all year groups children listen to and discuss a wide range of poems, stories and non-fiction at a level beyond that at which they can read independently. They become very familiar with key stories, fairy stories and traditional tales, retelling them and considering their particular characteristics. They learn to appreciate poems and learn some by heart. Please see our ‘Early Reading/Phonics Policy’ for more details.

In Year Two children are introduced to books that are structured in different ways. They retell a wider range of stories, fairy stories and traditional tales and continue to build up a repertoire of poems learnt by heart. Word reading and decoding skills that promote fluency continue to be explicitly taught. Children take part in discussions about a range of texts and explain their understanding. Many children will begin Accelerated Reader and use our extensive library to independently select a well-matched reading book. There will be some children who continue with ‘Big Cat Letters and Sounds’ scheme. These children will be carefully monitored.

Key Stage Two

At Key Stage Two children build on the good reading habits and reading fluency established at Key Stage One. Many children will continue on their Accelerated Reader journey and use our extensive library to select well-matched books. The teaching of reading skills is still addressed through English lessons or guided and shared reading sessions. Proficient readers are encouraged to extend their experiences and are guided by their class teacher in their book choices. Children who require support to develop their reading skills participate in small group phonics work. The principles of the Little Wandle programme is still endorsed throughout this Key Stage with intervention strategies put in place to support all children in becoming confident and competent readers.

By the end of Key Stage Two we expect all children to use the library regularly to make their own independent book selections. In Years Three and Four children read books that are structured in a variety of ways and continue to listen to and discuss a wide range of fiction, poetry, plays and non-fiction. Children identify new vocabulary and check the meaning of words using dictionaries and thesauruses. They recognise different forms of poetry and prepare play scripts and poems to read aloud. In Years Five and Six children continue to read an increasingly wide range of text types and recommend books that they have read to their peers, giving reasons for their choices. We access an e-book system: myON to create reading projects of fiction and non-fiction books to support cross curricular reading linked to our IPC topics. A parents’ guide to myON can be found here. Across all year groups, we promote the reading of ‘classic’ children’s literature either via individual reading comprehensions or reading a shared class novel. The English Long Term plan gives further details of these texts.

The use of ‘Reading Vipers’ is a key principal to our teaching of reading. The use of the VIPERS (Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation, Retrieval and Summarise) help us to identify key skills we are developing in reading throughout and across the school.

These key skills are introduced in Early Years and Key Stage One during shared and guided reading sessions. During Key Stage Two, children will apply these skills in all forms of reading .

Parents take an active part in developing the joy of reading by sharing the books brought home each day and making comments in the reading diary. Children should be reading at least five times a week for at least 20 minutes. This is an expectation in all year groups, though will increase to 30 minutes in Year 6. All reading should be recorded in the 'Home/School Diary'. Reading time should be a comfortable, stress-free and enjoyable time for both parent and child. We encourage children to read a range of materials. For example, boys may be inspired to read the sports column in their newspaper or graphic novels.

Reading is celebrated in school in classrooms and communal areas. Also, during weekly whole school assemblies and on our school Twitter feed. We regularly invite authors to school to further celebrate reading and writing.

Writing

Children in Key Stages 1 and 2 are encouraged to write independently to produce well-structured, detailed writing in which the meaning is made clear and which engages the interest of the reader. Attention is paid throughout the school to the formal structures of English, grammatical detail, handwriting, punctuation and spelling. Our long term plan document carefully maps out progression of SPaG skills across the school. In our 'Home/School Diary' there is a glossary of SPaG (Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar) terms used across the school; a DfE glossary document is also attached.

To support our teaching of writing we use our own assessment criteria based on the National Curriculum 2014 requirements with further guidance provided to Years 2 and 6 by the DfE performance descriptors and national writing standards. Teachers model writing strategies and the use of phonics and spelling strategies in shared writing sessions. Guided writing sessions are used to target specific needs of both groups and individuals. Once children have successfully come to the end of their 'Letters and Sounds' journey, we use the 'No Nonsense Spelling' scheme to teach spelling.

The children are given frequent opportunities in school to write in different contexts, for a variety of purposes and audiences, using quality texts as a model. There are many opportunities for children to improve their writing. They may be asked to produce their writing on their own or as part of a group. Children can also be given the opportunity to use ICT for their writing. Please refer to our separate presentation policy for details about expectations for handwriting and presentation of work. Click here for the presentation policy. Across the school, we use the 'Letterjoin' scheme of work for handwriting.

As part of our development of writing skills, all children across all phases of the school, independently produce a ‘First of the Month’ (FoTM) piece. This is marked against either the year group writing pathway or toolkit. Children may improve their pieces afterwards using purple pen marking. ‘First of the Month’ exercise books are passed on to the next year group. This ensures that future teachers have an understanding of the child’s writing journey across the school; it also provides a record for children and parents.

Speaking and Listening

Children are encouraged to speak clearly, fluently and with confidence in groups of varying sizes and ages and to listen and respond to other people. There are many opportunities within the school to speak confidently through class assemblies and performances. Drama is used whenever possible which helps in bringing the curriculum to life. Children also perform poetry. This can be individually or as part of a group.

There is weekly English homework set across the school.

Within English, there are statutory assessments in reading, writing and SPaG (KS2 only) at the end of EYFS, KS1 and KS2. There is also a statutory phonics screening where children read real and nonsense words. Years Three, Four and Five engage in termly assessments for reading and SPaG with a termly teacher assessment of writing.

Our Maths/English powerpoint presentation for parents can be found here.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What decisions have been made about the English curriculum ?

The English long term plan document, maps out the knowledge, skills and understanding that should be covered in each year group for English (reading, writing, SPaG and spoken language). This document is revised annually and was implemented as a result of OFSTED feedback given in June 2019 where a key action was to ‘improve the planning of the curriculum so there is a clear framework for teachers to provide learning that systematically builds pupils’ knowledge and understanding across year groups and a range of subjects.

The English long term plan document maps out writing expectations and genres to be covered, steps in spelling, punctuation and grammar, breaks down reading skills and opportunities for spoken language. Where possible, the English long term plan document directly relates to the IPC (International Primary School Curriculum) topic being taught. Writing opportunities and where possible, reading opportunities relate to the teaching of this IPC unit. This gives opportunity to develop cultural capital. The English long term plan is supplemented by our ‘Early Reading/Phonics Policy’, ‘Reading Policy’ and ‘English Policy’.

Following the school Ofsted visit in May 2021, where the key action was to:

‘refine the curriculum for phonics so that it demonstrates high expectations of what pupils will learn each term.’

coupled with the Year 2 phonics results in December 2021 (81% of the cohort achieved a score of 32 plus), the decision was made to implement the ‘Little Wandle’ systematic synthetic phonics programme (SSP) in January 2022. As stipulated in the ‘Reading Framework’, all members of staff, from across the school, participated in the training.

2. How has the subject curriculum been adapted to meet our needs?

We have organised our curriculum around the IPC units.

The International Primary Curriculum (IPC) was chosen for the school in 2016 based on our local context and school make up. With a high white British cohort (currently 80%), it is important for us to provide a rich and diverse curriculum that ensures that are children are well prepared for the world beyond Deanshanger and are increasingly aware of other countries, cultures and religions. Developing cultural capital and constantly pushing aspiration are very important.

Our current curriculum in English, as shown above, has directly built on previous OfSTED feedback. The long-term plan document is built using statutory guidance from the national curriculum. For example, SPaG outcomes are matched.

Our writing pathways, based on ITAFs (Interim Teacher Assessment Frameworks) for the end of Key Stages 1 and 2 from the DfE, help to inform us about the end points we are working towards in writing. There are termly opportunities for us to moderate written work across all phases of the school. One of our English co-ordinators is a trained KS2 moderator who leads whole school training.

We assess children in reading termly across the school. This is using previous SATS papers, NFER assessments and Little Wandle phonic assessments. These results are shared across the school and with governors in milepost documents.

If any gaps are identified, interventions are put in place to address them.

3 - How do you know your curriculum is working?

In school year 2020/2019, we received two Ofsted inspections.

In March 2021, inspectors stated that:

‘Pupils at home and at school continue to take part in reading lessons. You have continued to develop the reading curriculum and provide staff training on phonics, despite the current circumstances. Parents of children in the early years who are being educated at home can post videos of their children reading with them. This enables teachers to talk with parents about how they can further help their children with reading. Teachers use their checks on pupils’ phonics skills to make sure that books match pupils’ reading ability. You have provided electronic versions of the wide range of books available in school so that pupils can enjoy these books remotely’

‘Following the previous inspection, you changed the content and organisation of the curriculum. You are continuing to put these changes into practice. This means that pupils are continuing to receive an education. You have developed further the expertise of and partnership between leaders of subjects. Teachers now understand, more clearly than they did previously, precisely what you intend pupils to learn.’

In June 2020, inspectors commented that:

‘Leaders have raised their expectations of what all pupils will be able to read. Teachers have chosen books to share with pupils. They have picked particular texts to enrich pupils’ awareness of the world around them. Pupils speak with enthusiasm about their reading. They say that they need to ‘practise, practise, practise’ to become better readers. Younger pupils enjoy the chance to read in ‘Huxley’s horse box’ and older pupils describe what has influenced them to choose the authors that they like to read. Teachers and leaders have worked together to prioritise reading. Staff like working together in teams. This helps them to share their knowledge of what sounds pupils remember and what they have forgotten. Staff value the training that they have had. Leaders know that more training is still needed to make sure that staff subject knowledge is completely consistent. Leaders have begun to establish a curriculum which builds pupils’ knowledge of sounds. However, the curriculum does not yet precisely show what teachers expect pupils to know each term. Many pupils become fluent early readers. Most books match the sounds pupils know, but some contain sounds that pupils have not yet mastered.’

Data from Milepost 3 (July 2021)

Reading

End of Key Stage 2 – Year 6 Outcomes

80% of children achieved the expected standard; 39% of children were working at greater depth within the expected standard.

Papers were marked by a Year 6 teacher outside the school and year group.

End of Key Stage 1 – Year 2 Outcomes

68% of children achieved the expected standard; 18% of children were working at greater depth within the expected standard.

End of Early Years

79% of children achieved the expected standard: 14% of children were exceeding

Data from Milepost 1 (September 2021)

Reading

Year 6 Data

61% of children achieved the expected standard; 11% of children were working at greater depth within the expected standard.

Year 2 Data

35% of children achieved the expected standard; 15% of children were working at greater depth within the expected standard.

Reception Baseline

54% of children at 2; 46% of children at 1

Writing

Year 6 Data

51% of children achieved the expected standard; 0% of children were working at greater depth within the expected standard.

Year 2 Data

27% of children achieved the expected standard; 6% of children were working at greater depth within the expected standard.

Reception Baseline

46% of children at 2; 54% of children at 1

SPaG

Year 6 Data

48% of children achieved the expected standard; 3% of children were working at greater depth within the expected standard.

Year 2 Data

37% of children achieved the expected standard; 23% of children were working at greater depth within the expected standard.

All Milepost 1 targets for October 2021 were met

We complete assessments termly and all data is presented in a milepost document. This is shared with staff and governors.

Throughout Lockdown we encouraged author visits. For example, visits from children’s author, Nik Larcombe. This academic year, we have hosted a visit from Tom Palmer and Holly Ryan in Year One. This has strengthened teaching of the IPC and cultural capital.

Pupil voice during the OfSTED inspections was strong with children sharing their enjoyment of reading and interest in books available within school.

4 – What has been the impact of lockdown etc on the subject and what positive examples can we share about the subject and its remote delivery?

During lockdown, provision for reading was strong. We subscribed to Collins e-books and an online library - MyOn. MyOn is connected to Accelerated Reader so enabled children to read, undertake tests on books they had read participating in Accelerated Reader. Myon also had the capacity to enable us to create projects of non-fiction books linked to IPC topics. During Lockdown, we continued to celebrate Accelerated Reader and our ‘Word Millionaire’ challenge. These individuals were acknowledged during celebration assemblies.

As stated above from the Ofsted inspection in March 2021:

As we were using electronic reading platforms, we were able to monitor carefully which children were reading and which were not. We were able to chase up children who were not reading and speak to parents to suggest strategies to help with learning. In Early Years and Year One, Tapestry and Collins e-books were used to track progress with phonics and Early Reading.

During Lockdown, we continued our whole school journey to change and improve our phonics scheme and Early Reading strategy.

We also had one child who wrote a collection of stories during Lockdown. These were later published and sold to children and parents.

These are positive examples of learning, in this area, during Lockdown.

Data from Milepost 3 would indicate that writing was the area that suffered during Lockdown. Governors have undertaken visits with all year groups in the school from September to December 2021. Evidence from their visits would suggest that all teachers are aware of this, have planned a comprehensive writing curriculum to engage and interest children to write. This is linked to the IPC. Teachers are also skilled at identifying gaps in learning and putting in place strategies to address these. Conferencing is enabled during French sessions.

5 - What are the strengths of your current subject curriculum?

The subject knowledge and interest of the subject leaders in this area.
The relentless drive to improve this subject area and move forward.
A range of resources. For example, e-books, access to online platforms – SPaG.Com/ Accelerated Reader, Little Wandle, a range of books, school library...
Reading results at the end of Key Stage 2 (Year 6)

Milepost One data across the school
Children able to talk with interest about reading
How English is embedded across the curriculum. For example, writing science reports, accounts in history...

Supporting evidence:

Year 6 data, Ofsted report evidence, evidence from learning walks, physical learning resources

6 - What are the areas of the curriculum that might need development?

Writing - developing stamina and resilience
SPaG - ensuring precision of terms, accuracy of use and inaccuracies being picked up in marking/feedback.
Phonics/Early Reading – ensuring a consistent approach across the school.

Ensuring staff who have recently joined the school know about our approaches towards teaching elements of this subject – use of pathways, toolkits, VIPERS so they are consistently used.
Use of our breakdown of reading skills across the school – similar to writing pathways

7. How do you lead professional development, provide guidance and support colleagues?

In September, we led a staff meeting, outlining strengths and areas for development, summarising the previous academic year so that phase teams could write a coherent whole school action plan.

As an English team, evaluated Early reading provision, within school, against ‘The Reading Framework’.
Attendance on Little Wandle taster session
January 2022 – Led whole school Little Wandle training.
Coaching of colleagues following the Little Wandle training.
Demo teaching for colleagues – Phonic sessions, how to teach writing for ECT teacher, modelling VIPER sessions...

Attended LA KS2 moderation training.
Undertaken and led moderation visits for KS1 and KS2 writing across the Grand Union MAT. Also, internally across school.
National College CPD
Visit to other Schools delivering Little Wandle

8 – What does resourcing in English look like?

How do you ensure that appropriate resources are in place to deliver a rich and challenging curriculum? Have new resources have been bought to improve teaching and learning in your subject?
We have significantly invested in ‘Big Cat Letters and Sounds’ readers over the last two years. This has involved writing and submitting bids to the local ‘Reading Hub’ at Roade Primary School.
We have subscribed to the Little Wandle learning platform.
We have purchased a range of Little Wandle resources – friezes, flash cards...
We have purchased some texts that connect to the IPC. These are recommended by the Centre for Literacy Education.
We have purchased a textbook related to ‘The Write Stuff’ by Jane Considine.

9. What would an external visitor see in English?

A visible and tangible reading environment that inspires children to read for enjoyment.
A consistent approach towards teaching Early reading/phonics.

A consistent approach towards teaching guided reading from Year Two onwards.
Writing at length with good content.
A range of spoken language opportunities.
Children engaged and happy to talk about their reading.
Staff who feel they have been well-trained and have a good understanding of school approaches.

10 – How are the needs of the lowest 20% and higher ability pupils supported?

Children identified on short term planning and clear differentiation when delivering quality first teaching
Daily Reading for bottom 20%
NELI in Reception
Little Wandle Daily support sessions to keep up!

Additional intervention support – To support and deliver interventions in Reception, Year 1, Year 2
Year 3-6 Reading comprehension groups that focus on the development of inference.
Year 4-6, children have access to CGP workbooks to support home learning in reading comprehension and SPAG
Years 3-6 children SPAG intervention groups to support gaps in learning
Year 2-6 conferencing to address gaps in learning in writing.

HAPS: Additional workshops, Quality first teaching, teacher led differentiation, Challenging texts in library.
A range of Barrington Stokes Books for dyslexic learners.
Lynn Mildren is able to undertake initial dyslexia screening tests, if high probability results, children are referred to level 7-9 screening by outside specialist. Their advice is then used to inform IEP targets and practice.
Dyslexia friendly dictionaries and other resources
Yellow paged exercise books for dyslexic learners.

SEND training
Chris Rutter – Speech and language
Access to Nessy Phonics.
Use of technology to support
Additional access arrangements for SATS for example. 25% extra time, scribe, amuensis, enlarged script, rest breaks. These arrangements are replicated in daily classroom practice.

11 – How does your subject support children with SEND, PP and the most able?

Children identified on short term planning and clear differentiation when delivering quality first teaching
Daily Reading for bottom 20%
NELI in Reception
Little Wandle Daily support sessions to keep up!
Steph Mazey – To support and deliver interventions in Reception, Year 1, Year 2
Year 36 Reading comprehension groups that focus on the development of inference.
Year 46, children have access to CGP workbooks to support home learning in reading comprehension and SPAG
Years 36 children SPAG intervention groups to support gaps in learning
Year 26 conferencing to address gaps in learning in writing.
HAPS: Additional workshops, Quality first teaching, teacher led differentiation, Challenging texts in library.
A range of Barrington Stokes Books for dyslexic learners.
Lynn Mildren is able to undertake initial dyslexia screening tests, if high probability results, children are referred to level 79 screening by an outside specialist. Their advice is then used to inform IEP targets and practice.
Dyslexia-friendly dictionaries and other resources
Yellow paged exercise books for dyslexic learners.
SEND training
Chris Rutter – Speech and language
Access to Nessy Phonics.
Use of technology to support
Additional access arrangements for SATS for example. 25% extra time, scribe, amuensis, enlarged script, rest breaks. These arrangements are replicated in daily classroom practice.

2022-2023-English-Year-Long-Progression-Plan
PDF File