English at St Christopher’s
Reading
Curriculum Intent
At St Christopher’s Primary School, we believe that reading has the power to unlock every child’s potential. Our rich English curriculum encourages our children to explore the scope and depth of quality literature by equipping them with the skills necessary to read and analyse challenging texts. Reading teaches children about the world around them – through reading, they learn about people, places and events outside their own experience. Reading improves a child’s vocabulary, leads to more highly-developed language skills, improves the child’s ability to write well, leads to increased independence and opens the door to understanding the rest of the curriculum.
Implementation
Teachers use the school’s whole class shared reading planning format and reading content domains to ensure the study of a variety of genres and text types, along with the coverage of National Curriculum expectations relevant to each year group. Quality picture books, poetry, children’s fiction and non-fiction are chosen to engage pupils and build up the reading strategies required for accessing rich and complex children’s literature.
In Key Stage 1, we teach a whole class shared reading session for a minimum of 20-30 minutes a day, at least twice a week, with three other sessions per week of small group/individual reading to develop decoding and fluency. As pupils’ early reading skills increase through the academic year, this shifts to more whole class shared reading sessions. In Key Stage 2, we teach a whole class shared reading session for a minimum of 30 minutes a day, every day.
Within each class, there is an additional 15 minutes a day for individual reading, reading for pleasure, and sharing class novels and poems. Individual reading is tracked by the class teacher and recorded in reading records, which may be filled in by the children in upper KS2, and which are sent home. Every child is heard read by the class teacher at least once a week; children in KS1 and those identified as needing reading support in KS2 are heard read more regularly by the teacher or another adult.
In our books you will see:
- Record of children progressing to read increasingly challenging books (closely matched to the phonics phase young and struggling readers have attained)
- Evidence of a wide range of texts being read and discussed as a class.
- Evidence of children practising key reading skills (including explaining the meaning of words in context; using prediction, inference, retrieval, and summarising skills; making comparisons within a text).
Tracking attainment and progress
- Termly PiRA tests for years 1-6.
- Targeted questioning in 1:1, small group and whole class shared reading sessions.
- All the above informs teachers’ assessments on Target Tracker.
Phonics
Intent
At St Christopher’s we are committed to providing great reading provision and developing pupils’ proficiency in, and love of, reading. We ensure that all children have the skills, knowledge and understanding to become confident and enthusiastic readers and writers. We believe that high-quality phonics teaching improves literacy levels and gives all children a solid base on which to build and develop their reading habits so that they read widely and often for reading and information. Through daily, systematic and consistent high-quality phonics teaching, children learn to blend and segment words for reading and spelling. To allow our children to develop a strong phonemic awareness and effective blending, decoding and comprehension skills, we have chosen to use a DfE Validated synthetic phonics programme (SSP) called FFT Success for All Phonics from FFT. The programme supports our intentions to teach children to read and write independently so that they are able to access a broad and exciting curriculum and flourish as learners throughout their time at our school.
Implementation
We maintain fidelity in the implementation of our phonics teaching by using FFT Success for All Phonics which allows the children to learn phonics through a highly structured programme of daily lessons across FS/KS1, using a variety of fun activities in multi-sensory and systematic ways. Each session gives an opportunity for children to revisit their previous experience, be taught new skills, practice together and apply what they have learned and celebrate their achievements. It follows the teaching principles of:
- Revisit and Review
- Teach and Model
- Practise and Apply
- Celebrate Achievement and Assess
Time is incorporated to allow for consolidation so that children can secure their skills, knowledge and understanding.
The programme is underpinned by a set of seven core principles designed to support all teachers and children.
Core principles:
- Systematic Progression
- Regular Assessment
- Early Intervention
- Multisensory Approach
- Co-operative Learning
- Application of Skills
- Reduced Workload and Collegiate Approach
Reading materials have been designed to support rapid and sustained progress and are well-matched to the scope and sequence of the programme. A comprehensive set of 68 decodable shared readers is provided by the programme and supplemented by additional reading materials that match the teaching sequence.
The FFT Success for All Phonics Scope and Sequence is set out clearly and provides detailed guidance and support for teachers to plan and deliver high quality lessons. A synthetic approach to teaching ‘pure sounds’ and the skills of segmenting and blending are incorporated into the teaching and learning materials. Lessons are planned so that children build on their skills sequentially and systematically and can be adapted and modified to meet the needs of the children accordingly.
Impact
Through the consistent, systematic and daily teaching of the FFT Success for All Phonics programme, our aim is for children to become fluent, confident readers by the end of Key Stage One.
Children are regularly assessed informally by the teacher within the lessons and over a sequence of lessons to ensure they keep up. If children need additional support, they are provided with keep-up sessions to ensure they stay on track with the rest of the class. More formal assessments are completed every half term using FFT’s Reading Assessment Programme (RAP) which covers all KS1 assessments including phonics skills, decoding, reading fluency, comprehension and the Year 1 phonics screening check.
Children who require further additional support (catch-up) are identified using a range of assessment information and will be supported through small group or one-to-one interventions.
At the end of Year 1 children are statutorily assessed using the Phonics Screening Check. This screening check confirms whether the child has met the appropriate phonics standard and can be used diagnostically to identify areas that need further attention going forward. Children who do not meet the required standard will continue their phonics lessons so that they are ready to retake the screening at the end of Year 2.
Through the FFT Success for All Phonics programme and our commitment to phonics teaching, children will be equipped with the skills, knowledge and understanding to decode unfamiliar words using a range of strategies. They will have a firm phonic base to support them on their literacy journey through school. They will develop their fluency and comprehension skills, take pleasure in exploring the rich literary world around them, acquire a love of reading and flourish as readers.
Phonics Weekly Scope and Sequence
Writing
Curriculum Intent
At St Christopher’s Primary School, we strive to create a learning environment where writing is valued, celebrated, and enjoyed. We recognise that writing is a vital tool for communication and proficiency in this area is essential for enabling learners to flourish in all aspects of life. The school’s writing curriculum encourages all children to express themselves creatively, develop higher-order thinking skills and write for a range of purposes and audiences in different styles. Writing is given a high profile in our school and children are given meaningful opportunities to apply their learning across the curriculum. We are committed to cultivating the children’s confidence in spoken and written English, so that each child may go on to fulfil their potential and participate fully in society.
Implementation
St Christopher’s rich English curriculum exposes our children to challenging and quality literature that opens possibilities for developing the children’s writing skills. Each unit of work emerges from core texts that provide excellent examples for further writing opportunities. Across each year, a variety of genres within fiction, non-fiction and poetry are explored, so that children can practice writing according to the conventions of each text type. Children are clear on the purpose for writing (to discuss, entertain, inform or persuade) and who the audience for their writing will be. For example, year 1 use the adventure story ‘Lost in a Toy Museum’ by David Lucas as a launching pad for writing fact files of their own favourite toys, invitations to parents for a virtual tour of their own toy museum and signs and notices for the objects on display. Year 5 respond to the epic poem ‘Beowulf’ by creating a job advertisement calling for Danish heroes to fight Grendel, Kennings for a ballad in praise of Beowulf and a prequel to the Beowulf saga for a fantasy film production.
Each unit of work also teaches the complete writing process (planning, drafting, sharing, evaluating, revising, editing, publishing) and maps out the relevant national curriculum objectives for each year group. In line with the concept of a ‘spiral curriculum’, learning objectives and conventions of specific genres are reinforced throughout the year in what we call ‘writing reviews’. Children’s writing skills progress as they move up the school and revisit the ‘writing tools’ required for different text types. For example, after reading ‘Dear Fairy Godmother’ by Michael Rosen, year 2 write in role as Cinderella and send a postcard from her honeymoon in the Maldives. Following their exploration of the classic novel ‘A Christmas Carol’, Year 3 write in role as a member of Mr Scrooge’s family and send a telegram persuading Scrooge to spend Christmas together with them. Year 4 also write persuasive letters when they write in character as The Ancient Child, the main protagonist of Colin Thompson’s text ‘How to Live Forever’.
In our books you will see:
- Daily or weekly targets with clear learning objectives, related success criteria and an opportunity for children to reflect on their learning.
- Toolkits for each unit of work prompting children to assess their use of structure, grammatical features and vocabulary in their writing.
- Evidence of children developing their knowledge of grammar, punctuation, phonics and/or key spelling patterns for their year group.
- At least one piece of extended writing completed independently for each unit of work.
Tracking attainment and progress
- Termly grammar tests from the Rising Stars Scheme for years 1-6.
- Termly spelling tests from Somerset Literacy Network for years 3-6.
- Termly writing assessments using Alison Philipson assessment grids.
- Writing moderation in year groups and across phases every long term.
- Targeted questioning and observation of written work across the term.
- All the above informs teachers’ assessments on Target Tracker.