English

Reading and Phonics Curriculum 

Intent 

At Combe Down Primary School, we believe that developing reading skills is one of the core purposes of primary education. For pupils to succeed in education, reading has got to be a priority. Children need to be confident, fluent readers who find enjoyment through books and can use their skills to access all areas of the curriculum. A recent review of research (Castles, Rastle and Nation, 2018) synthesised over 300 studies to highlight best practice: a phonics-based approach to help young children crack the alphabetic code; immersion in text to develop word-recognition skills and the influence of knowledge, processing and cognition on a wider comprehension. 

The use of phonics is one of the many skills needed to be able to be a reader and writer. Understanding that the letters on the page represent the sounds in spoken words underpins successful word reading. Children’s knowledge of the English alphabetic code – how letters or groups of letters represent the sounds of the language – supports their reading and spelling. 

At Combe Down Primary School we aim to teach high quality phonics to ensure the children have the best start possible in reading and writing. The learning of phonics is the beginning of children’s body of knowledge, skills and understanding that are an essential part of learning to read. In order to read and understand texts children must learn to recognise/decode the words on the page. Good quality phonics teaching allows the child to be secure in the skills of word recognition and decoding which allows children to read fluently. This will result in children being able to read for pleasure and will allow them to move onto developing higher order reading for meaning skills. These phonic skills need to be taught systematically and with variety.  For example, multi-sensory resources are used for all learners. 

In taking these aspects into consideration, our aim is for all pupils- irrespective of their needs, abilities or background – to learn to read fluently and with understanding. We aim to meet, and where possible exceed, the expectations laid out in the Early Learning Goals and National Curriculum, with pupils progressing appropriately. Once children can decode text effectively, we aim to build word recognition and develop comprehension skills in order to produce secure and confident readers who enjoy and understand the benefits of reading.  

Our children are entitled to a Phonics curriculum which enables them to: 

• gain a progressively deeper understanding of the phonetic structure of the English language. 

• apply their phonic knowledge and skills to decode unfamiliar words fluently and accurately. 

• read rapidly to apply what they have learned across the whole curriculum. 

•  create fluent readers, confident speakers and willing writers. 

• develop a life-long love of reading. 

Implementation: 

The reading curriculum is broadly planned from the National Curriculum Programmes of study in conjunction with the end of year expectations stated on Insight. In the Foundation Stage, the curriculum is planned using the requirements set out in the revised Early Years Foundation Stage document. Our curriculum planning for reading and phonics, focuses on the Early Learning Goals and on developing children’s skills and experiences through texts, as set out in the Development Matters document.  

The direct teaching of reading starts with oracy and phonics. Phonics is a body of knowledge that is necessary for children to learn to read and spell. Because of the complex alphabetic code of English, children are taught explicitly the correspondences between letters and sounds (graphemes and phonemes), as well as the skill of blending the individual sounds together to read. 

In line with the School’s policy and commitment to excellence in Phonics, each class in Foundation Stage and KS1 will teach phonics as a discrete lesson every day and will include phonics as part of teaching and learning throughout other curriculum lessons on a daily basis. The structure of each lesson at Combe Down Primary and the journey of phonics across the week enables all aspects of the blending and segmenting of phonemes/graphemes; lessons are uniquely planned and tailored to meet the needs of all our learners. 

In Foundation Stage and Year 1 we follow a DfE-validated systematic synthetic phonics programme: Little Wandle Letters and Sounds. Little Wandle is an organised and engaging approach to teaching literacy through synthetic phonics.  Learning opportunities are carefully chosen to ensure that children develop their skills in aural discrimination and phonemic and rhyme awareness, blending and segmenting as well as grapheme-phoneme correspondence. The Little Wandle programme is continued into Key Stage 2, where necessary to support those children who do not yet have the phonic knowledge and skills they need.   

Once the children have completed the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds scheme, they progress onto the Little Wandle Fluency programme in Year 2.  This programme provides a balance of fiction and non-fiction reading, gently progressing the children to longer and more challenging texts to read independently.  Once the end of the reading scheme has been reached, children are encouraged to choose their own reading material from either school or home and they become a ‘free reader’.  All children also have regular visits to our school library, to provide them with the opportunity to choose interesting texts around their interests. Teachers will monitor the choice of books for free readers to ensure that children read a range of texts at a suitably challenging level.  Children choose books from school which they take home to practice reading skills. In Foundation Stage and Key Stage One, children will read aloud to an adult at school every week. 

Parents and teachers keep a record of progress and make comments in a reading record book. From Y3, we encourage children to record their own personal reactions to the material they have read. We encourage parents to hear their child read regularly at home. 

Reading takes place daily in school in EYFS and KS1. This looks like three group reads per week for all children, following the structure: ‘revisit and review’, ‘teach and practise’, and ‘practise and apply’. Children may also read with an adult at school individually when appropriate. The children are assessed at regular checkpoints to ensure they are making excellent progress and have a good match of reading material with ability.  Pupils will read a book more than once to encourage confidence and familiarity, as well as taking home books for further practise.  Further resources and information are available here on the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds website. 

By KS2, we expect all pupils to be ready for whole-class reading comprehension sessions. All children will have whole-class reading comprehension every day. The focus here is on vocabulary development, the development of specific reading skills and immersion in a wide range of texts. These lessons use class novels as a stimulus for deeper thinking and link a range of fiction and non-fiction texts from across the wider curriculum  to these in order to further develop contextual knowledge and understanding. We also aim to promote reading for pleasure and to expose children to a wide range of high-quality texts and this plays a major role within reading development. We are aware that promoting reading in this way can also provide our pupils with a creative outlet and an alternative to the digital distractions that can affect their personal well-being. 

Impact 

We measure impact through learning walks, book scrutiny, formative and summative data and pupil/parent/teacher voice. Subject leaders evaluate impact and assess pupils’ learning.  We analyse teacher assessment data to identify pupils who need further support with reading, and ensure the equity of our offer for reading.  Books are readily available in all classrooms for the children to borrow and read at home, including a range of books designed especially for readers with dyslexic traits, and accessible books at an interest level suitable for older readers.   

All children are encouraged to read for pleasure during the school week.  School events, such as World Book Day and Storytelling week support children in growing a love of reading through book sales and second-hand book swaps, as well as author visits and online author events. 

Writing Curriculum 

Intent 

The aim for English in the 2014 National Curriculum is to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written language, and to develop their love of literature through reading for pleasure. 

The National Curriculum aims for English are to ensure that all pupils: 

• read easily, fluently and with good understanding 

• develop the habit of reading widely, and often, for pleasure and information 

• acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language 

• appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage 

• write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style for a range of contexts, purposes and audience 

• use discussion to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas 

• are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentation, demonstrating to others and participating in debate 

At Combe Down Primary School, our English curriculum is driven by a range of quality texts which seek to challenge and lead the development of the personal and cultural capital of the children attending our school. Texts provide a stimulus and opportunity to be immersed in rich vocabulary – one that will support development and nurture a genuine love of reading. We believe all children are authors and that the links between reading and writing are heavily intertwined.  

Using the Oracy skills we teach throughout the curriculum, children are encouraged to question author’s choices and explore the context in which a text is written. We enrich English with visits from authors, trips and experiences that provide a real purpose for reading and writing. 

Implementation: 

English is taught through our Trust’s writing framework. The children use high quality texts each term, and writing is genre specific dependent on the writing outcome.  

Learning is planned over a 4-week sequence and ensures there is a balance of skills and application. The sequence begins with a focus on vocabulary, then moves to text structure, sentence structures and finally the opportunity to write independently using the knowledge and skills acquired in the previous 3 weeks.  Well-planned learning objectives are mapped out over a complete sequence to ensure all grammar and punctuation objectives are incorporated into the lessons over the academic year. Children are provided with experiences and stimuli in order to inspire them and immerse them in a text. They are encouraged to innovate the text and create their own texts, through lots of discussion, drama and shared/modelled writing. 

Through our high-quality texts, children will be taught specific grammar and sentence level features as well as how to explore how authors’ language choices and the techniques that contribute to the effectiveness of writing. This expectation is in all year groups and aims to develop a deeper understanding of language choice and composition. 

Our writing curriculum is heavily supported by our reading curriculum. We promote a love of reading and children are exposed to a variety of authors from the past through to the present, promoting a range of genres with non-fiction and fiction texts. 

Handwriting is taught throughout the curriculum, across all subjects and opportunities to write.  Pre-cursive writing is introduced in Year 1, and joining (cursive) is encouraged from Year 1 onwards to improve composition fluency and clarity.  

Spelling is taught both discreetly and interwoven into English lessons.  We follow the National Curriculum Appendix 1 The national curriculum in England - English Appendix 1: Spelling (publishing.service.gov.uk) for the progression of spellings taught from Year 1 to Year 6.  These are revisited, taught and practised throughout the week, with a weekly checkpoint or test to monitor progress and retention of spelling patterns.  Children who find it difficult to learn spellings, or apply them in their writing, receive additional support from their class teacher or TA.  This could include revisiting spelling patterns, learning fewer spellings each week than peers, additional time practising spellings or the use of different strategies for learning spellings eg. Mnemonics or letter patterns. 

Impact 

All children will produce at least one extended piece of writing each short term, with opportunities to write across the wider curriculum subjects. Children should be exposed to a rich diet of genre-specific texts within each unit and have the opportunity to explore author’s language choices. There will be opportunities for shared writing and modelled writing. Children will take pride in their presentation using a cursive script for handwriting, valuing the editing and revising process as part of the writing journey. 

We measure impact through learning walks, work scrutiny, formative assessment and pupil/parent/teacher voice. Subject leaders meet termly to evaluate impact and assess pupils’ learning. 

Grammar is incorporated into daily English lessons, with particular focus on key objectives in the third week of each four-week writing unit. For more information for each year group see the appendix in the National Curriculum document below:

National Curriculum for English 2014