English
Our Vision
Children will:- Become confident and fluent readers
- Enjoy reading for pleasure
- Develop a varied and broad vocabulary
- Be able to write clearly, accurately and coherently for a range of purposes
- Be able to articulate information, ideas and opinions
- Become confident and competent spellers
Intent
At Pennington, our English curriculum is designed to develop children’s love of reading, writing and discussion.
Children will become confident and fluent readers. They will develop a love of reading for pleasure and enjoy reading a wide range of texts. Children will enjoy and take pride in their writing and be able to write accurately. They will develop a broad and varied vocabulary and understand how to use this when writing for different purposes.
We want the children to be confident in the art of speaking and listening, being able to discuss and communicate their ideas on a range of topics.
Implementation
At Pennington, we teach daily phonics lessons through the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds scheme. In Reception, children are taught to read and spell words using Phase 2 and 3 GPCs, and words with adjacent consonants (Phase 4) with fluency and accuracy.
Children in Year 1 review Phase 3 and 4 and are taught to read and spell words using Phase 5 GPCs with fluency and accuracy. In Year 2, phonics is taught for the first half term, before beginning the Little Wandle spelling programme. We timetable phonics lessons for any child in Year 2 and KS2 who is not fully fluent at reading or has not passed the Phonics screening check.
These children urgently need to catch up, so the gap between themselves and their peers does not widen. We use the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessments to identify the gaps in their phonic knowledge and teach to these using the Keep-up resources – at pace.
Children in Reception and KS1 learn to read in reading practice sessions. We use books matched to the children’s secure phonic knowledge and each reading practice session has a clear focus, so that the demands of the session do not overload the children’s working memory. The sessions focus on three key areas of reading – decoding, prosody and comprehension. Once children have completed their Little Wandle phonics journey, they begin reading the Little Wandle Fluency Programme books. In KS2, children access daily whole class reading lessons. Two of these sessions focus on fluency. Children requiring additional support access an appropriate Little Wandle book and read in a small group. Some children in school follow the Little Wandle SEND programme. This is a 1:1 programme which follows the graduated approach.
It consists of grapheme-by-grapheme planning for all phases allowing learning at a pace that’s right for each child. Children in all year groups have daily story time to help them to develop a love of reading.
We follow The Literacy Company’s ‘Pathways to Write’ from EYFS to Year 6 and teach sessions daily. This is a proven methodology built around units of work which develop vocabulary, reading and writing skills through the mastery approach. The units, for use with pupils from EYFS to Y6, provide clear detailed lesson plans and resources, linked to high-quality texts to ensure engaging and purposeful English lessons. Effective teaching strategies to challenge greater depth writers are included within each unit of work.
Within each unit, there are new age-related skills for children to work on and master through a variety of activities and writing opportunities. By limiting the number of skills the units contain, children can really hone their writing techniques, providing excellent, focused assessment opportunities. In KS2, we also follow The Literacy Company’s Pathways to Spell to deliver the statutory content of the national curriculum. Through weekly teaching of spelling objectives the programme enables children to become confident and competent spellers, whilst also developing an enthusiasm for words and language.
Committed and enthusiastic staff members use our English schemes to develop a consistent approach, whilst also having the flexibility to adapt lessons to meet the needs of the children. Staff have access to a range of training and resources to support their subject knowledge.
Impact
In all areas of English, formative assessment is used on a daily basis to identify children requiring additional support. In phonics, summative assessment takes place every 6 weeks. This data is then reviewed by the class teacher and subject leader to ensure support is in place for identified children. Children in keep up or catch up sessions are assessed regularly.
The data from these assessments informs planning to ensure the children can make good progress. Once children have exited Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Phonics, their fluency is assessed termly. The assessment above ensures that children are able to become fluent and confident readers. Writing is assessed half termly, following the Pathways to Write assessment. This allows any key gaps in learning to be identified and for planning to be adapted.
With a clear vision to our English curriculum, children at Pennington will become fluent and confident readers with a love of reading for pleasure. They will learn to write clearly and accurately for a range of purposes.
They will be able to articulate their thoughts and ideas, developing and understanding how to use a wide range of vocabulary.