National Curriculum 

The overarching aim for English in the national curriculum is to promote high standards of language and 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. 

The national curriculum for English aims to ensure that all pupils:  

• read easily, fluently and with good understanding;
• develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both 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 in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences;  
• use discussion in order 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 presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate.

DfE English Programmes of Study, September 2013

Intent

Through the teaching of English, we aim to establish an environment where children access a rich variety of texts and are able to write using a broad range of vocabulary. We aim to create a culture of reading and writing and to encourage independent learning.

• Through using a prescribed phonics scheme, FFT, we will begin early phonics learning in the pre-school and this will continue into Reception. We aim to foster a love of books and reading and the use of high-quality texts to guide writing will encourage our children to gain the skills to become confident writers.  We want to create a positive culture for writing for a variety of purposes across all subjects.
• Our Pre-school children will begin their early reading and writing development supported by excellent synthetic phonics teaching. This will give them the foundational skills needed to confidently segment, decode and build words. During their time at Upton-upon-Severn Primary School, all pupils will be given the opportunity to immerse themselves in a wide variety of high-quality texts from a range of different cultures. Through shared texts and the explicit teaching of Word Aware, they will experience a wide range of vocabulary, giving them the understanding and power of language that they need to flourish. 
• Our intent is for every child to leave our school as able and independent communicators, with the confidence and skills required to read and write fluently. They will be thoroughly prepared in all aspects of English and fully equipped for the next step in their educational journey.
• Our intent is that in promoting excellence in reading and writing we are preparing our pupils to access other areas of the curriculum with confidence.

Implementation

Our English curriculum at Upton Primary School is delivered with the support of the FFT Phonics Scheme, Literacy Tree Spelling Shed and Classroom Secrets grammar resources. These schemes support teachers to deliver well-structured and exciting learning opportunities that enable our children to learn, revisit and progressively develop their skills in English at an age-appropriate level. Teachers use a high-quality text to plan a scheme of learning which includes writing and reading activities. (see separate document for writing and reading spines)

Phonics 

The teaching of phonics supports children in EYFS and year 1 to develop their phonic knowledge. We use a synthetic approach from FFT which guides them step by step, from learning initial sounds to reading and writing sentences with confidence and fluency. Children who fall behind in their phonics learning will receive interventions to target specific issues. Children who do not pass their phonics test in year 1 will continue to have phonics lesson into year 2 to prepare them for re-testing. As part of this, children in EYFS and KS1 also begin to learn correct letter formation and early joins, which help them to form a fluent and correctly joined handwriting style. Teachers in these year groups are regularly given CPD opportunities to update and refresh their phonics teaching in line with the school approach. Training is given to new staff to ensure continuity of delivery.

Reading

Our reading scheme in EYFS and KS1 ensures that the books children are reading at home match with their phonic ability and reading level. These follow FFT scheme for reading in school and is supported by Collins Big Cat fully decodable books for home. Teachers also provide pupils with books from the banded reading scheme to share with adults at home. With weekly reading 1:1, teachers and TAs will use the 5 Ws to support comprehension skills. Teachers deliver daily guided reading sessions using FFT phonics books to meet the needs of groups of learners and to practise essential comprehension skills. as well as building confidence and fluency. Guided reading in year 2m takes the form of whole class reading through the class text following the Literacy Tree Literary Leaves scheme.

In KS2 staff support children who are still on the reading scheme. Children are encouraged to stay on scheme as long as is necessary. Children working below expectations will use reading intervention programme Lexia to support closing the gap. Book bands extend into Level 14+. Whole class guided reading is delivered through the Literacy Tree Literary Leaves which link, where possible, with the Writing Roots texts. Staff may use resources from other places such as Literacy Shed, to provide additional reading opportunities.

The delivery of reading scheme allows ongoing assessment and learning opportunities for teachers to regularly check pupil progress and adapt the teaching of reading as necessary. Teachers use Epiphany tracking to support their judgements.

Writing

Writing is taught through the Literacy Tree scheme where a high quality text is used to develop writing skills and opportunities.  Text may tie to topic areas, but this is not always appropriate. The long-term plan sets out for teachers the genres of writing that they are teaching each term and the progression of skills throughout a children time in school. Grammar is taught discretely in these lessons but also daily in SPAG lessons.

High quality texts are used which challenge all abilities. Scaffolding is available through differentiation, TA support and variation of task.

The expectations of the national Curriculum are achieved through a combination of the following:

• Shared writing
• Guided writing
• Modelled writing
• Planning, drafting and editing
• Writing for different text types
• Writing in different curriculum areas
• Daily  grammar work
• Handwriting practice

A love of writing is encouraged through a varied curriculum which gives children many opportunities to write for a range of purposes. It encourages children to re-visit their work to make improvements and to see the value in re-working writing to make it better. Children are encouraged to read their work aloud and to peer review for development.

At the end of each term teachers use the writing TAFs to assess writing and to inform their judgements on Epiphany Tracker. Teachers make children aware of their next steps during marking and verbal feedback.

Vocabulary

Our vocabulary teaching is supported through the Word Aware Scheme and all classrooms display topic words and use Word Aware techniques to introduced new words. Within all curriculum areas there is a focus on vocabulary, discussing and supporting the use of new words in context. Pre-teach techniques are used to support learners to acquire vocabulary ahead of contextual learning. Vocabulary is displayed in classrooms for reference. Word lists are supplied to support usage in lessons.

Developing Oracy 

Before we learn to read, we speak. The spoken word will underpin our literacy development. Within lessons, children will develop their speaking and listening skills with a focus on reading for an audience and reading for fluency sessions. Pupils regularly perform their own work in front of their peers, Teachers model effective oral communication. Demonstrate good listening, appropriate tone and intonation and positive body language. Questions posed by teachers engage talking to learning partners and group work to ensure all pupils are actively engaged. Children from EY to KS1 are encouraged to rehearse orally before they write. FFT phonics encourages speaking sentences before writing and using our phonics sounds aloud. Role play, debates and hot seating take place within classes, while our school assemblies, opportunities to speak and perform in church, and sharing learning with parents are just some of the ways we ensure that performance has real audiences and purpose.

Handwriting

Children in EY are taught pre-cursive handwriting with selected ‘lead outs’ where appropriate. Correct pencil grip is taught in reception. Children from Y1-6 are taught cursive handwriting using Letterjoin resources. Joining is introduced initially in year 2. Handwriting is assessed using the schools  own handwriting certificate scheme where children achieve levels of success and are awarded bronze, silver, gold, pen and fountain pen certificates which are awarded in classrooms. All children in year 6 are permitted to use handwriting pen in preparation for high school. Children who struggle with handwriting may have handwriting intervention using a variety of resources including Letter join and Warwickshire handwriting intervention.

Grammar and Spelling

Grammar and spelling are taught explicitly through writing lessons where children can identify how authors have used specific grammar in their writing. Grammar and punctuation is planned and taught using the 2014 national Curriculum year group expectations and children are expected to apply their knowledge in their writing. The Literacy Tree Scheme, which has been modified for school, ensures full coverage of grammar skills in each year group.

Spelling is taught in year R and 1 through the FFT phonics scheme. In year 2 children move to Jungle club which is the FFT development from the phonics scheme. It ensures that children in year 2 can still uses their phonics in decoding and spelling words.

From year 3 to 6 children follow Spelling Shed for weekly spelling. Children are set spellings weekly and are tested every week. To support learning, teachers will do spelling activities 2-3 times per week. Children who struggle with spellings are supported through differentiated spellings and spelling interventions.

 
Impact

Teachers use assessment as an integral part of the teaching and learning process and link it clearly to the children’s next steps. Teachers track and record children progress through the Epiphany Tracker and use this to consider next steps. They use a variety of formative assessment methods and constructive marking strategies. In addition, children also complete:

• Opportunities for daily writing often extending into other subjects such as History, science or RE.

• Ene of unit Big Writes
• Weekly spelling tests
• Comprehension exercises.

The impact on our children is that they have the knowledge and skills to be able to write successfully for a range of purposes and audiences. With the use of quality texts through Literacy Tree to support the learning sequence, children are becoming more confident writers and have the ability to plan, draft and edit their own work. The use of purple pen to indicated corrections and improvements gives the children a chance to up level their own work and become more independent writers. By the end of key stage 2, children have developed their writing ability, they enjoy sustained writing and can manipulate language, grammar and vocabulary to create great effect. As all aspects of English are used across the curriculum, writing standards have also improved across other subjects; this shows consolidation of skills, an ability to transfer knowledge and skills and a deeper understanding of how and when to use specific language and styles.

Statement of Impact

At Upton upon Severn primary school all children make excellent progress  in English. This starts with a firm foundation in EYFS with 76% of pupils reaching GLD 82% success for the word reading and writing ELG’s.
 

A high number of pupils passed the phonics screening check at the end of year 1, with a 78% pass rate. This is a direct result of our excellent phonics curriculum - FFT and teaching. Of the 4 children who did not pass the previous year we had 50% passed in year 2. 

Our end of KS1 assessments for 2023/24 show that the percentage of pupils achieving expected outcomes in Reading is 76% and for Writing it is 64%.

The vast majority of our older pupils are equipped with the English skills they need to succeed at secondary school when they leave us. This is reflected in our end of KS2 assessments for 2023/24, with 75 % of pupils meeting expected outcomes in Reading and 70 % of pupils meeting expected outcomes in Writing.