Our English Curriculum

Intent

At St Nicolas’ we believe that a secure basis in literacy skills is crucial to a high-quality education. Our English curriculum prepares all pupils to lead an enriched, fulfilling life by teaching them the skills they need to communicate effectively and confidently with others, using the spoken and written word. We aim to promote a life-long love of reading which develops their cultural, social, emotional, spiritual and intellectual awareness so they can participate fully, thrive and be ready to face the challenges of life.

Aims for our pupils

• To develop the ability to communicate effectively in speech and writing
• To use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas
• To listen with understanding
• To become fluent and responsive readers
• To develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information.
• To acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language
• To appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage
• To write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences
• Every child leaves this school as a reader and a writer

Implementation

We have a rigorous and well-organised English curriculum that provides many purposeful opportunities for reading, writing and discussion.

Spoken language

We work hard to offer rich and varied spoken language opportunities across the curriculum, from role-play in Reception; ensuring time is built into every lesson to talk; class assemblies; carol concerts; presentations (e.g. ‘The big science event’) and other special events throughout the year.

Reading

Enjoyment of and engagement with quality texts is at the heart of our English curriculum and at least ten minutes each day is spent with an adult reading to the class. Our reading curriculum map ensures that children listen to a wide range of diverse texts, including poetry and non-fiction. Once a week, children participate in a weekly 'book talk' with their class, discussing and recommending books.

Children follow the Read Write Inc (RWI) Phonics programme until they have learnt to decode. The reading lead assesses these children each half term to ensure progress is being made and to work with teachers on children that are starting to fall behind. Fast track tutoring is used to support these children. Whilst on the RWI programme, we make sure that pupils read books that are closely matched to their increasing knowledge of phonics. This is so that, early on, they experience success and gain confidence that they are readers. Re-reading and discussing these books supports their increasingly fluent decoding and understanding.

Once off the RWI programme, children take part in whole class reading lessons. Our whole class reading lessons are designed to help children infer, summarise, question, clarify, predict and argue a point of view. Pupils are encouraged to take their own meaning from each text, becoming independent and critical thinkers.  The children also make connections between the texts and their own experiences.

Writing

Children are encouraged to write from EYFS; a variety of role play and activity areas are designed for children to see purpose in their writing - from emergent writing in the garden to make a mud pie to writing their name on their work. Children in EYFS also have a writing book which is used for teaching letter formation, application of spellings from sounds taught in RWI and dictation sentences. In KS1, the focus is securing the basic grammar needed for KS2. We use the Mighty Writer boards to support children in composing sentences orally and then writing them down. High quality texts are used to support children's motivation of writing. We encourage children to compose each sentence aloud until they are confident to write it independently. In KS2, they continue to have high quality teaching through a consistent writing process:  hook – WAGOLL  -gathering ideas – plan – draft – edit – publish. Lessons are sequenced to build progressively towards an extended piece of purposeful writing, with an intended audience. This ensures that the writing is meaningful to the children. The quality of the vocabulary the children use in their writing reflects the language they have heard in the books the teacher has read to them.

Handwriting begins in EYFS with mark-making, patterns, posture and pencil grip. Children are taught to form letters correctly using the RWI letter formation sayings. In year 1 they progress to pre-cursive letter formation where each letter is correctly formed with a lead in, and lead out. The focus continues on correct posture and pencil grip. Children, once secure on letter formation, begin to join at the end of year 2 and the beginning of year 3. Please refer to the handwriting policy for further detail and progression.

Pupils are taught the importance of using grammar and punctuation correctly, so they can communicate clearly and convey their meaning effectively. For spelling we follow the Read, Write Inc. Spelling programme. The programme enables children to recap on the previous years’ spelling patterns and then introduces new patterns progressively from Y2 to Y6. Grammar is taught within our writing lessons and our grammar progression map shows how children develop these skills each year.

Writing is celebrated in whole school ‘wonderful writing’ assemblies, on the ‘wonderful writing’ display in the hall, in corridor displays, writing themed days and in the newsletter.

Impact

We want all our children to leave St Nicolas as a fluent reader and writer, who enjoys the English language and is set up for the demands of the Key Stage 3 curriculum.

• Children will make good progress in their reading and writing from EYFS to year 6
• Through spoken language, children know that their voices matter and can ensure that their voice is heard
• Our children are confident, fluent readers and they realise the importance of reading for pleasure along with reading for information and knowledge. 
• The consistent teaching approach to writing means that by Upper Key Stage 2, children can focus on the writer’s craft and manipulation of grammar and punctuation for effect
• Children will use their English knowledge and skills, in all curriculum areas, to enable them to know more, remember more and understand more

Impact is measured through: analysis of data; pupil voice; book monitoring; learning walks; photos of work and evidence of events throughout the year.