English

At St William’s Catholic Primary School, the teaching of English is the foundation of our curriculum. We believe in teaching an English Curriculum that provides pupils with the opportunity to reach their full potential and develop skills which are transferable into the world around them, preparing them for the future and providing skills for life. Our main aim is to ensure every single child becomes primary literate and progresses in the areas of reading, writing, speaking and listening. 

English at St. William’s will not only be a daily discrete lesson but is at the cornerstone of the entire curriculum.  It is embedded within all our lessons and we will strive for a high level of English for all. Through using high-quality texts, immersing children in vocabulary rich learning environments and ensuring new curriculum expectations and the progression of skills are met, the children at St. William’s will be exposed to a language heavy, creative and continuous English curriculum which will not only enable them to become primary literate but will also develop a love of reading, creative writing and purposeful speaking and listening.

Our vision is for creativity to be at the centre of our English curriculum and for children to learn new skills in a fun and engaging way.

Our objectives in the teaching of English are:

• to enable children to speak clearly and audibly, and to take account of their listeners;

• to encourage children to listen with concentration, in order to identify the main points of what

            they have heard;

• to show children how to adapt their speech to a wide range of circumstances and demands;

• to teach children effective communication, both verbal and non-verbal, through a variety of drama

            activities;

• to help them to become confident, independent readers, through an appropriate focus on word,

            sentence and text-level knowledge;

• to develop enthusiastic and reflective readers, through contact with challenging and substantial

            texts;

• to foster the enjoyment of writing, and a recognition of its value;

• to encourage accurate and meaningful writing, be it narrative or non-fiction;

• to improve the planning, drafting and editing of their written work;

• Develop as independent readers who read accurately and fluently;

• Experience the pleasure and satisfaction to be had from reading;

• Develop the ability to read from a variety of sources/ text types for a variety of purposes;

• Learn the specialist knowledge and language needed to read in particular subject areas;

• Develop reading strategies appropriate for a range of reading activities including both fiction and non-fiction;

• Develop comprehension skills to respond to questions on a variety of genres.

We use a variety of teaching and learning styles in our English lessons, as recommended by the National Curriculum 2014. Our principal aim is to develop the children’s knowledge, skills, and understanding.  Pupils are consistently exposed to quality literature and are offered a variety of resources, such as dictionaries, thesauruses, word banks and internet sources to support their English work.  Children also use ICT in English lessons where it enhances their learning, as in drafting their work and in using multimedia as a presentation tool. Wherever possible, we encourage children to use and apply their learning in other areas of the curriculum.

English curriculum planning 

Early Years Foundation Stage 

Early Years Foundation Stage has a carefully planned curriculum which aims for all children to achieve the Early Learning Goals by the end of the EYFS. It Involves creating adult and child-initiated opportunities that will encourage children to explore, create, investigate, rehearse, practise, repeat and discover.

We encourage cross-curricular links to ensure a seamless transition into Key Stage One by building on previous experiences and planning those for the future. The required English skills are built in to this. We relate the English aspects of the children’s work to the objectives set out in the Early Learning Goals, which underpin the curriculum planning for children aged three to five. 

Key Stage 1 and 2 

We use the National Curriculum 2014 as the basis for implementing the statutory requirements of the programme of study for English. Planning for English is carried out in three phases (long-term, medium-term and short-term). Teachers use the Lancashire LPDS National Curriculum Support Materials to inform their planning. English units are taught within half termly topics (long term planning). Our medium-term plans give details of the main teaching objectives for each term. Each unit outlines the ‘Reading’, ‘Collecting’ and ‘Writing’ phases within topics that are varied and engaging. Class teachers must ensure that all year group objectives, that are outlined in the 2014 English Curriculum, are encompassed within these units. These plans define what we teach, ensure an appropriate balance and distribution of skills and year group objectives across each term.

Reading

At St William’s Catholic Primary School, we teach phonics using a systematic synthetic phonics programme called, ‘Supersonic Phonic Friends’. It is engaging, interactive and pacey, with clear progression that takes children through six phases from the Firm Foundations in Nursery to the Year 2 Spelling Rules.  Children progress through the phases at different speeds. In order to make this learning relevant to all children, we have grouped them according to the phase they are at. Phonics is taught in daily twenty-thirty minute sessions with opportunities for pre teach, post teach and embedding learning throughout the day. 

Whole Class Reading 

All pupils in Key Stage 1 and 2 participate in whole class reading. This is completed either as daily 20-30 minute sessions or weekly in a longer session dependent on the needs of the cohort. 

In Key Stage 1 pupils will use the same text for two weeks and in Key Stage 2 the same text can be used for 2-4 weeks. Pupils will be exposed to a variety of texts which enables them to develop their ability to: 

- predict 

- retrieve 

- sequence/Summarise 

- infer 

- visualise 

- clarify 

- question 

- use a wide range of vocabulary. 

Building a Reading Culture 

We provide opportunities for literacy elsewhere in the school with importance given to information boards, interactive displays, ‘working walls’, posters, notices and examples of pupils’ work in a variety of styles. 

Within the school, a wide variety of quality texts of different genre, format and sophistication 

are used immersing pupils in aspirational vocabulary and language. Children are provided exciting and stimulating collections of books with each year group. Having a range of texts with appropriate interest levels for more able young readers. 

Every class has a designated time to access the school library, which is regularly updated with high quality fiction and non-fiction texts.

We regularly hold a book exchange for both pupils and their families.

• Long Term class progression maps will need to be attached documents 

• Colour coded writing will need to be an attached document

Monitoring in English includes, book scrutinies, lesson observations and/or learning walks, pupil

and/or staff voice and data analysis. This provides an accurate and comprehensive understanding of the quality of education in English.

Assessment for learning

Teachers assess children’s work in English in three phases. The short-term assessments that teachers make as part of every lesson help them to adjust their daily plans.  They match these short-term assessments closely to the teaching objectives. The traffic light system is used to assess each piece of work and written or Quality verbal feedback is given to help guide children’s progress. Longer pieces of writing are marked using six ticks. Older children are encouraged to make judgements about how they can improve their own work. Children are encouraged to positively evaluate their peers work.

Teachers use on-going assessments to measure progress against the key objectives, and to help them plan for the next unit of work. Teachers make long-term assessments towards the end of the school year, and they use these to assess progress against school and national year group expectations and targets. With the help of these long-term assessments, we are able to set targets for the next school year, and to summarise the progress of each child before discussing it with the child’s parents or carers. The next teacher then uses these long-term assessments as the planning basis for the new school year. These long-term assessments are based on end-of-year tests and teacher assessments. 

Children undertake the national tests at the end of Year 2 and Year 6. Reporting of teacher assessment is also

statutory in these year groups.

Children’s work is moderated termly - this is taken from a range of subjects to secure consistency and consolidated application. Teachers are encouraged to enlist the support of their colleges when making judgements.

Staff are keen to improve their subject knowledge and the subject leader takes an active role in disseminating best practice and making recommendations for staff development. Effective resources are shared and update meetings are arranged to monitor progress.

The impact on our children is clear: progress, sustained learning and transferrable skills.  With the implementation of the writing journey being well established and taught thoroughly in both key stages, children are becoming more confident writers and by the time they are in upper Key Stage 2, most genres of writing are familiar to them and the teaching can focus on creativity, writer’s craft, sustained writing and manipulation of grammar and punctuation skills.

As all aspects of English are an integral part of the curriculum, cross curricular writing standards have also improved and skills taught in the English lesson are transferred into other subjects; this shows consolidation of skills and a deeper understanding of how and when to use specific grammar, punctuation and grammar objectives.  

We hope that as children move on to their chosen further education establishment that their creativity, passion for English and high aspirations travel with them and continue to grow and develop as they do.

English as a subject is not just learnt within the classroom, it is a partnership between the child’s home and school and there are lots of things you can do as a parent/carer to support your child.

• Ask open ended questions.

• Share books with your child daily.

• Listen to your child read and ask questions about what they have read.

• Encourage imaginative play.

• Introduce your child to a wide range of vocabulary.

• Provide opportunities to develop fine motor skills through play, drawing and writing.

For additional and information, you might felt helpful, please see our ‘Useful Links’ section 

https://www.wigan.gov.uk/Resident/Libraries/eMagazines.aspx 

www.oxfordowl.co.uk 

www.booktrust.org.uk

www.lovereading4kids.co.uk

www.ourfp.org