English at Evelyn CP School

Intent:

At Evelyn CP School our English curriculum is designed to develop children’s love of reading, writing and discussion to prepare our learners for life as successful, valuable and socially responsible citizens. We aim to set children’s curiosities ablaze through the immersive world of literature and are dedicated to providing English experiences which will live on in our pupils' memories long after they leave our corridors.

We nurture a culture where children take pride in their writing, can write clearly, imaginatively and accurately and adapt their language and style for a range of contexts. We inspire children to be confident in the art of speaking and listening and to use discussion to communicate and further their learning in all areas of the curriculum.

We believe that children need to develop a secure knowledge-base in Literacy, which follows a clear pathway of progression as they advance through the primary curriculum. Our carefully sequenced, broad and balanced ARCS curriculum, aims to provide our children with the opportunity to build on their experiences in order to achieve their goals.

We believe that a secure basis in literacy skills is crucial to a high quality education across the curriculum. We whole-heartedly ‘promote high standards of literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written word, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment.' (National Curriculum 2014)

Implementation:

Our English curriculum is implemented through the use of rich texts and engaging pupils with a cross-curricular approach. Texts are chosen to link with the topics pupils are learning about and these are used as a springboard to inspire pupils to read and write. We believe that choosing the right context and starting point to engage our children in their learning is vital in fostering a love for reading and writing.

Our English curriculum aims to provide many purposeful opportunities for reading, writing and discussion. We want all of our pupils to be proficient readers, writers, spellers and speakers, who can transfer their English skills to other curriculum subjects and who are prepared for the next steps in their education. 
Our English lessons develop pupils’ spoken language, reading, writing, grammar and vocabulary, teaching them how to write within specific genres and which structural and language features to include to be successful.  Example texts are used to start this process to enable pupils to use other similar writing as models for their own.  Lessons also focus on teaching specific spelling, grammar and punctuation skills to enable our pupils to apply the skills they have been taught to their extended writing and writing across the curriculum. We teach our pupils to speak clearly, to convey their ideas fluently and confidently and to ask questions.

Quality children's literature is at the heart of our pupils’ learning.

Reading:
’Today a reader, tomorrow a leader’ Margaret Fuller

• Rigorous approach to phonic acquisition to support early reading.
• Letters and sounds programme in EYFS
• Streamed daily systematic, synthetic phonics programme (Read Write Inc) in KS1 - For our early readers and pupils not yet off the phonics program, books are matched to the grapheme-phoneme correspondences pupils have been taught.
• Project X Code - ‘Catch up’ programme at an age appropriate level.
• Reading Ambassador Programme – (Please see Reading ambassador booklet)
• ERIC Everyone Reading in Class – Pupils read books at their own reading and interest levels, enabling a greater sense of enjoyment and success. Best of all, they learn and grow at their own pace
• Weekly library sessions – Gives children opportunity to select a range of fiction, non fiction and poetry.
• Guided reading sessions - daily sessions run on a carousel system to give pupils the opportunity to take part in a range of reading activities including pre-reading, guided reading, comprehension activities and reading for pleasure.
• Individual reading time with teacher
• Comprehension guidance tools - APE (Answer it, prove it, explain it) VIPERS (Vocab, Infer, Predict, Explain, Retrieve, summarise)
• Enrichment opportunities – hosting author workshops, participating in Book Week and celebrating World Book Day and running poetry and creative writing competitions. This ensures that children benefit from access to positive role models from the local and wider locality as well as being inspired by what surrounds them.

Writing:
‘You can make anything by writing.’ C.S.Lewis

All children from Reception to Year 6 are provided with many opportunities to develop and apply their writing skills across the curriculum. Initially, pupils need to be able to form the letters needed and then be able to express one’s ideas using these letters.  Through shared and guided writing opportunities, we equip children to develop the skills of writing clearly and legibly.  When the child is confident with these basic skills, they work towards being able to write with a greater sense of purpose and learn to organize their writing according to this purpose.  Children are equipped with the necessary tools to do this, being given daily opportunities to focus on spelling and/or grammatical structures.

We develop our pupils writing skills so that they have the stamina and ability to write at length, applying the skills set out in the English National Curriculum. To support children in moving towards independent writing we provide a wide range of activities including the use of film and imagery, music, ICT, modelled, shared and guided writing, peer assessment and discussion. We provide varied and exciting opportunities for writing for purpose and we encourage pupils to see themselves as authors and poets. We promote the importance of written work by providing a writing purpose and opportunities for children’s writing to be read aloud and listened to by an audience.
We have a range of extra activities which are used to promote English within the school including: whole school writing challenges and competitions; Work shared with Head teacher, pupils’ writing celebrated on our ‘Writing Hall of Fame’ board; mastery English examples whole school shared writing of a narrative, as well as taking pupils out into the immediate and local area as a stimulus to inspire writing.

SPAG:
‘Of course words are magic, that’s why they call it spelling.’ Brian Holguin

At Evelyn we aim for our pupils to become fluent and effective writers. Accurate use of spelling, punctuation and grammar is essential to this. We use the National Curriculum 2014 as a basis for teaching Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar by introducing patterns or conventions and continually practising those already introduced.

• Weekly spellings tests
• SPAG planning overviews

Handwriting:

Cursive handwriting is taught with a sequential and progressive approach with teachers and teaching assistants modelling the handwriting style. We believe that children’s self-esteem and pride in their work can be raised by good quality presentation. Handwriting sessions are taught discretely in Reception and KS1 and regularly incorporated into the English lessons in KS2.  Where pupils are off-track, extra handwriting practice opportunities will be given. Resources such as handwriting slopes and pencil grips are provided when needed. 

• Handwriting assemblies
• Termly whole school handwriting tasks

Spoken Language:
‘Everything becomes a little bit different, especially when spoken out loud.’ –Herman Hesse
This underpins the development of reading and writing and is vital for pupils' development across all aspects of the school curriculum. We provide our pupils with a wide range of opportunities to hear and use good quality and adventurous vocabulary, focusing also on variety. Correct, standard English is always modelled by the teachers and teaching assistants.  Children are encouraged to ask questions, discuss in pairs and groups and to use conventions for discussion as well as debate. Opportunities for drama are sought throughout our curriculum as it is recognised that the skills that are developed through this medium are unique.

• Talk frames – guidance to support pupils
• Speak Out! – Pupils presenting to their peers
• School elections – pupils to write and ‘perform’ their own manifestos
• Subject specific vocabulary
• Prescot loves to talk – Community wide speech and language incentive.
• Talk card homework – Global, cultural, entrepreneurial tasks to engage home engagemenmt
• School based experts in residence – Working weekly in small groups to support language acquisition.
• Community links with Shakespeare society
• SALT therapist trainee support.

Impact:

Children leave Evelyn CP School as happy, confident learners who have developed a love of reading and writing with the key skills and knowledge necessary for the next stage of their learning. 

Grounded in knowledge of cultural capital our pupils have high aspirations, and are confident in the art of speaking and listening, able to successfully use discussion to communicate and further their learning.  This is evidenced through work books, displays and our school environment.

Pupils can, confidently share their knowledge of a range authors, poets, genres and are equipped with wide and varied opportunities to delight in Shakespearean classics.

Children in the Foundation Stage are assessed within Literacy area of learning  and their progress is tracked using the terminology ‘on track and Not on track.’