English

Intent

At Croxby Primary School, we believe that our English curriculum should develop children’s love of reading and writing.  Our aim is that by the end of Year 6, children will transition to their secondary school having a love of reading with a good understanding of the English language – both written and verbal and be able to write with meaning for a range of purposes and audiences. 

Our curriculum ensures that all children have plenty of opportunities to write for different purposes. We encourage writing through all curriculum areas and use quality reading texts to model examples of good writing. Writing is taught through a number of different strategies. We believe that children need lots of rich speaking activities to give them the imagination and the experiences that will equip them to become good writers.

Throughout their time with us at Croxby, we aim to expose pupils to a range of genres, styles and authors to broaden their life experiences and develop reading for pleasure.

Implementation

Reading

We love reading at Croxby! Speak to our children, and you will find out why it is important to read lots! Reading means so much to us that we have named our academy house teams after authors.

The love of reading begins in EYFS with a diverse range of high-quality texts used for an inspiring story time which focuses on building knowledge and language coupled with twice daily discrete phonics lessons using Bug Club Phonics. In EYFS, the children spend the first few weeks of the academy absorbing themselves in picture books to give a focus of speaking and listening and attention.  Once they have secured knowledge of the first set of sounds taught in phonics, the children are assigned reading books via Bug Club Phonics that match their phonics acquisition. 

In Year 1, children use texts from the scheme Bug Club Phonics and books used match their phonic acquisition ability. Reading lessons are an extension of their phonics lesson and a stimulus for their writing lessons. Children read a book over a week, orally rehearsing the sounds which will be taught throughout the book and keywords daily. Teachers will model reading the book using expression and children will imitate this and read out loud in order to develop fluency. Below is a link to an external site which explains how to use the Bug Club site as a parent.

(1) Overview of Bug Club Phonics for parents and carers - YouTube

The teaching of reading in Year 2-6 follows CUSP Curriculum and children study a diverse range of literature throughout the years. You can find a list of the texts studied by clicking the link here. Children take part in a whole class reading session. In those sessions your will find our children reading by themselves, reading with a partner, reading as a whole class or listening to the class teacher model reading.

Children are taught new vocabulary and are provided the opportunity to explore words deeply before reading the text. Each lesson has a focus on developing fluency for reading as well as a reading skill.

Once a week the children complete an independent reading response activity. In addition to this, children use Reading Plus, which is an online reading scheme designed to develop fluency in reading as well as vocabulary, comprehension skills, stamina and motivation for reading.

If you were to visit 'Croxby Way' lessons in the afternoon you would see the children reading to develop knowledge in the foundation subjects. Every class ends each day with story time.

Whole class reading books are carefully selected throughout the school to ensure we are able to create a language rich environment which develops oracy skills. Books are chosen for a variety of reasons incluidng repetition of phrases and sentences and books which focus upon elements of the curriculum to develop the children’s cultural capital

Writing

This journey begins in EYFS through the immersion of stories to develop communication and language skills. Handwriting encourages accuracy in letter formation and prepares them to become a writer and take small steps into lessons similar to those seen in Year 1.

In Year 1, children use a reading book, which is matched to their current phonic ability, as a stimulus for the week. They orally rehearse sentences to write ensuring that the focus is on the structure of a sentence and uses their current phonic knowledge to enable accurate encoding. Vocabulary and discussion skills are explored and practised daily through an immersion of a story during the afternoon. These sessions create a language rich environment where children can explore their imagination and creativity to prepare themselves to become creative writers.

In Year 2-6, we have adopted “The Write Stuff” by Jane Considine to bring clarity to the mechanics of writing.  “The Write Stuff” follows a method called “Sentence Stacking” which refers to the fact that sentences are stacked together and organised to engage children with short, intensive moments of learning that they can then immediately apply to their own writing.  An individual lesson is based on a sentence model, broken in to three chunks:

1. Initiate section – a stimulus to capture the children’s imagination and set up a sentence.
2. Model section – the teacher close models a sentence that outlines clear writing features and techniques.
3. Enable section – the children write their sentence, following the model.

This teaching sequence integrates prior knowledge, reading exemplars, exploring vocabulary and explicitly teaching spelling and grammar objectives in context to what children are learning. It provides a gradual release from shared and guided writing allowing children to produce their own independent writing. All children receive daily feedback through whole class or one to one conversations to address and cover misconceptions. Children are also given further opportunity to demonstrate their learning and understanding through edit and improve lessons, where they independently edit their work and write it into their writing books.

Impact

Success is not only achieved through children’s attainment, but through their engagement with, and enthusiasm for, the many English opportunities that have been provided throughout their time with us. Through our inclusive culture of learning, regardless of children’s starting point on their journey with us; particularly those with early developing English speaking skills, are all challenged in their own thinking and problem solving. We give children the skills and knowledge to communicate effectively to make valuable contributions.

Assessment in Reading

• Year 1 complete phonics screening mock assessments prior to the assessment at the end of Year 1
• Years 3, 4 and 5 complete summative assessment through NFER papers once per term.
• Year 6 complete past papers in the Autumn term and Spring before completing SATs in May of each year.
• Formative assessment as feedback is given during reading lessons and may be written or verbal.

Assessment in Writing

• Each class teacher assesses pupils’ writing every term by looking at a broad range of written work. Class teachers use statements to agree on pupils’ levels.
• Formative assessment in the way of verbal feedback is given during every lesson.

All of the above will be monitored and discussed during pupil progress meeting and staff performance management.

Our aim is that children can read fluently and widely, with a thirst for reading a range of genres and text types; including poetry. We inspire children to appreciate the joy and wonder of reading and are able to express preferences and opinions about the literature that they read.