English

At Adlington St Paul's Primary School we follow Ruth Miskin's Read Write Inc and Language and Literacy Programme. Please find additional information and helpful videos below. If you have any questions about our English curriculum or how you can help your child at home, please contact our English lead Mrs J Chidgey.

Intent

Our curriculum here at St. Paul’s is driven by our vision and values.

Learning Together. Following Jesus.

Christian values are the heartbeat of our school. Seeking to be respectful, responsible, and empowering global citizens, we follow the words of St Paul, 'Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart.' In this context, rejoicing in Jesus' love and compassion for all, we pursue excellence as we celebrate everyone's uniqueness in a broad, rich and balanced curriculum.

At Adlington St. Paul’s, our English curriculum is ambitious for all and provides the foundations for developing our children’s passion for reading, writing and discussion. Our curriculum is designed to develop a secure knowledge base in English, which follows a clear pathway of progression and closely follows the aims of the National Curriculum. We strive to enable the children to:

develop phonological knowledge to be able to read and spell a wide range of words accurately.
develop understanding of the importance of interesting and technical vocabulary choices by providing a language rich education in English and across all areas of the curriculum.
become equipped with the knowledge required to structure different types of sentences correctly and include the organisational features necessary to produce high quality writing in a range of genre.

Our English curriculum begins in Reception and is built upon throughout the school up until Year 6. The curriculum is planned to build the children’s phonic knowledge, reading accuracy, reading fluency and comprehension of text which then directly impacts on the children’s spelling competency, sentence structure and organisation of text to create high quality pieces of writing across a wide range of genres.

We intend to motivate, inspire and engage learners with a bespoke curriculum tailored to meet the needs of our children in order to develop the knowledge, skills and vocabulary that will equip our children for the future. We want our children to foster an appreciation of literature and a habit of reading widely and often. We recognise the importance of nurturing a culture where children take pride in their writing, can write clearly and accurately and can adapt their language and style for a range of contexts. We want to inspire children to be confident in the art of speaking and listening and to use discussion to communicate and further their learning. The curriculum is sequenced so that the pupils are able to continually embed prior knowledge while developing the set of skills and understanding needed in order to make good progress, based upon their individual starting points.

Our aim is for all learners to make effective progress within the English curriculum so they are competent at reading, writing, speaking and listening and they can apply their knowledge and skills to aid their learning in all other areas of the curriculum. We believe this secure basis in literacy skills is crucial to a high-quality education and will give our children the tools they need to participate fully as members of society.

Implementation

At St. Paul’s implement a sequenced and progressive English curriculum inclusive for all learners from Reception to Year 6, through the use of Read Write Inc. in EYFS and KS1 and Language and Literacy scheme in KS2 which is delivered through highly effective ‘quality first teaching’. Both of these schemes provide well sequenced units of work which engage learners by reading a text, then provide opportunities to explore the content, vocabulary, grammar and sentence structures contained within the text and allow the children to apply their knowledge by creating their own piece of writing at the end of each unit. The Teachers adapt the RWI and L&L schemes, to directly meet the needs of the children in their class ensuring the content, presentation strategies and tasks are differentiated as needed, to ensure everyone can access the teaching and learning in lessons. We regularly review the English provision offered in school, to ensure it addresses any gaps in pupils’ learning that may be revealed through the use of regular formative and summative assessment. To further enhance these well planned units of work in English, teachers ensure opportunities for exploring subject specific vocabulary, reading, writing and discussion are untilised across the wider curriculum through concurrent topic work to make meaningful links within a range of contexts. By doing this we have ensured that we have a rigorous and well organised English curriculum that provides many purposeful opportunities for reading, writing and discussion.

Read Write Inc. Phonics

The RWI programme is used to develop early reading skills and strategies from Reception to Year 2 and into KS2 if needed. All children complete a baseline assessment as they start in Reception and then follow our regular assessment cycle each half term (or more regularly if required). After each half termly assessment, the data is analysed by the Reading Leader, Headteacher and RWI consultant and used to stream the children accessing the RWI scheme. This ensures that the children work at a level that directly matches their phonic knowledge and reading ability. To offer further support to our slowest progress children, we provide additional daily coaching sessions following the Fast Track Turtoring guidance provided by the RWI scheme. This enables us to create a bespoke tutoring programme tailored to meet the individual needs of each child which are identified through the rigorous assessment strategies used. This additional support could be in the form of Virtual Classroom sessions from RWI or delivered 1:1 by an adult in school, depending on their individual requirements. The children in Reception and KS1 access regular review sessions of the sounds they are taught in RWI to help them make rapid progress through the programme. We also support our slowest progress readers, children with SEND, pupil premium and frequent non-readers at home, by providing opportunities for them to read to an adult in school to help them to consolidate their learning.

Once the children are ready to move on from the RWI programme they are taught through Comprehension Modules. These modules, produced by RWI, aid the transition from the RWI programme to the L&L scheme used throughout KS2. Each module is taught over two weeks and provides a language rich balance of reading and writing opportunities linked to a specific text. This follows the same rigorous strategies used in the L&L scheme but over a shorted time frame to allow the children to become familiar with this new style of working in small steps.

Language and Literacy

The L&L programme continues to develop the reading, writing and discussion skills for our children in Year 3 to Year 6, when they are ready to come off the RWI programme. The L&L units of work are developed around a number of high-quality, language-rich texts which we have linked to the Cornerstones topics for each year group to encourage wider reading opportunities, and cross curricular writing. The L&L scheme continues to develop the children’s use of adventurous vocabulary and provides opportunities to explore the texts being studied by completing a range of daily reading, spelling, grammar, and vocabulary-based activities before moving on to planning a piece of writing to be completed. The scheme ensures the children are given opportunities to proofread and edit each piece of writing they produce. We further enhance the English provision from L&L by completing two book study units of work linked to a high-quality text recommended by our Cornerstones scheme of work linked to our topics to keep our provision relevant and purposeful for our children. They continue to follow the same rigorous strategies used in the L&L scheme but in the context of this exciting new book. The long-term plan for English in Key Stage 2 has identified writing opportunities in the wider curriculum in addition to the range of fiction units and non-fiction units taught through L&L and our new book studies. This is to ensure we cover a wide range of genres and have opportunities to apply our skills in a range of contexts outside English lessons too which provides children with regular opportunities to apply their developing understanding of a range of genres in relevant contexts.

Spelling and Handwriting

Spelling in Reception and Year 1 is taught through our RWI scheme following the daily speed sound strategies outlined in the programme. Spelling in Year 2 to Year 6 is taught through the RWI spelling programme for 15 minutes each day. It gives children the opportunity to learn and practice the spelling patterns and spelling lists specific to their year groups as well as reflecting on their individual common spelling errors to try to close their individual spelling gaps. Handwriting in Reception and Year 1 follows the strategies taught through RWI using visual representations of letters and simple phrases to help the children to form the letters correctly. In Year 2 to Year 6 children begin to learn cursive script and follow the Nelson handwriting scheme, following the joins outlined in the programme.

Reading for Pleasure

Teachers in EYFS and KS1 promote a love of reading through high quality daily story time sessions and Talk Through Story Sessions and teachers in KS2 use class novels daily to further develop the children’s love of reading. The children respond to the stories they hear in different ways and each class has an area to display the class novel or story and the recommended text for the week. We ensure our wider curriculum is literacy rich providing many high-quality texts which link directly to our Cornerstones topics and Religious Education lessons across the school. Each class has its own library with books dedicated to fiction, non-fiction, poetry, emotional and mental health, diversity and links to topic which the children are free to access and borrow books from. The texts that we provide promote children’s Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development, ensuring that they are reflective and responsible citizens. Fundamental British Values and the protected characteristics are actively promoted through the stories we have available in school in order to prepare the children for life in Modern Britain. In EYFS and KS1 the children vote for the stories they want to hear each day and we ensure there is a wide coverage throughout the year. We provide books outside at playtimes for the children who may want to enjoy reading or hearing during this time of the day. We are very proud to have local author Jen Carney as our Patron of Reading this year. She regularly pops into school to work with children, promote reading for pleasure across the school and to set the children different competitions and challenges to complete.

Home School Links

We understand that home and school must work in partnership to support children to become confident readers, promote reading for a variety of purposes and to fully embed a love of reading for pleasure. To enable this partnership to be successful for our children we provide regular curriculum links between home and school linked to English:

Reading workshops are held annually for parents in KS1 and parents in KS2 which explains the importance of reading at home and how parents can support their child and help to develop their reading skills.
An introduction to RWI and phonics workshop is held for the parents of our new starters in Reception class so they understand the strategies used in school which will help them to consolidate their children’s development at home.
Later in the year phonics screening and KS1 and KS2 SATs meetings are held to make parents aware of how they can support their child in the run up to these assessment points and what they entail.
Weekly home reading opportunities are provided for all children. In Reception (when the children are ready) and KS1 and KS2 children will have:
- a levelled reading book (Read Write Inc book bag book or other approved reading scheme book)
- A class library book they have chosen for themselves (this may not be at their level)

In addition to this child accessing the RWI programme will also have:

An individual login to Oxford Owl (so they can access the levelled reading book they are working on in school for further practise at home and a short reading quiz to develop their comprehension skills)
Links to RWI Virtual Classroom so the children can watch additional speed sound sessions to consolidate their phonic knowledge being taught in school (these links will be assigned weekly on Dojo).
A copy of the ‘speedy green’ linked to their reading level for them to practise reading at home.

Regular reading is promoted through our 100-club competition which runs throughout the year.
In addition, ‘Pick and Mix’ projects are sent home, linked to the Cornerstones topic each class is studying, which promote topic-based reading and writing activities and tasks outside of school. These are then brought into school and celebrated by adults and children.
Weekly tasks linked to spelling and grammar are set for children in Years 1-6 through the online learning platform Purple Mash.

Enrichment

Throughout the year we also provide a range of enrichment opportunities at a variety of different levels such as school, Trust or National. This year we have a set of Literacy Ambassadors who have been elected by each Year group from 1 to 6 to help promote the wider reading and writing competitions and challenges provided within school such as those set by our Patron of Reading, to link to our recommended authors or to celebrate national events such as World Book Day or Non-fiction November. At Trust level, we will be taking part in a poetry festival in the autumn term and a literacy festival in the summer term which will see all the schools in the Learning Together Trust come together to celebrate the work they have created. At national level, we will take part in a selection of reading and writing competitions over the course of the year.

In addition to these opportunities, we also enhance our English curriculum with drama workshops linked to our Cornerstones topics or our Christmas pantomime, provide opportunities for children to create and deliver presentations and collective worships to be shared across school and the local community, visits to our local library, live Zoom sessions with well-loved authors as well as other trips and visitors over the course of the year.

Impact

Our well-planned English curriculum ensures that children are given essential knowledge, skills and understanding to develop their reading, writing and discussion skills. Children achieve well and enjoy their learning at Adlington St. Paul’s, they aspire to be the best that they can be, building perseverance and resilience and show that they know more and remember more. As a result, we have a community of children who are becoming enthusiastic readers and writers and are developing more confidence to showcase their improving literacy knowledge and skills. They are increasingly confident to take risks in their reading and writing and are keen to discuss and share their ideas.