English

Legal Framework

The Statutory Communication and Language and Literacy section of the Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage (2017) and the content of the National Curriculum English Programmes of Study (Key Stages 1 and 2) form the basis of the English curriculum here at Huttoft Primary and Nursery School. From this statutory national documentation, our English curriculum has been devised, developed and personalised to our school community.

Intent

Language and English is fundamental to the overall development of the child and their access to all areas of the curriculum. We understand how the acquisition of English, both spoken and written, will empower our pupils and provide the foundation for all future learning. We promote a culture of reading, not simply as a life skill, but also to develop a love of books and literature that will not only support their learning across the curriculum, but also enrich their lives, a passion which we hope will continue into adulthood.

We believe that our children learn best when given the opportunity to apply their skills across the entire curriculum in rich and varied ways. We aim to develop pupils’ abilities within an integrated programme of different English elements: phonics, reading, writing, grammar, punctuation, spelling, handwriting and oracy. We teach our pupils to speak clearly, to convey their ideas fluently and confidently and to ask questions. Their vocabulary is developed systematically.

We aim for all readers and writers to:

Read and write with confidence, fluency and understanding, with a range of independent strategies to reflect and correct.
Have a positive interest in books and read for enjoyment.
Have an interest in words, their meanings; develop a growing and diverse vocabulary in spoken and written forms and be courageous in its use.
Understand a range of text types and genres and be adaptable when writing in a variety of styles and forms appropriate to the situation.
Understand grammar and linguistic conventions for writing and be resilient when using these.
Have a suitable technical vocabulary to articulate their responses, demonstrating respect and kindness in their assertions.

Our Vision for Reading

Reading underpins our curriculum and provides the gateway to accessing other areas.

We ensure that all children become successful, fluent readers by the end of Key Stage One through daily, high quality, discrete phonics teaching using the Monster Phonics programme, combined with a whole language approach that promotes a ‘Reading for Pleasure’ culture. We teach children to apply these skills to tackle unfamiliar texts and to express themselves in written form, supported by Literacy Tree, thus becoming more independent readers and writers in preparation for new challenges in KS2.

Phonics & Early Reading – EYFS and KS1

https://monsterphonics.com

We use the DfE validated SSP programme Monster Phonics to teach daily sessions in Reception, Year One and Year Two. Our Nursery also uses Monster Phonics.

Nursery – Foundations in Phonics - Phase 1
Reception - Phases 2/3/4
Y1 – Phase 5
Y2 – Phase 6

Nursery – Foundations in Phonics - Phase 1

Monster Phonics begins in our Nursery. The Foundations Programme develops speaking and listening skills. Children learn to become attuned to the sounds and begin to develop oral blending and segmenting skills. This teaching lays the foundations for teaching of systematic synthetic phonics.

The government Phase 1 curriculum consists of 7 aspects:

Aspect 1 – Environmental
Aspect 2 – Instrumental
Aspect 3 – Body Percussion
Aspect 4 – Rhythm and Rhyme
Aspect 5 – Alliteration
Aspect 6 – Voice Sounds
Aspect 7 – Oral Blending and Segmenting

Each aspect contains 3 strands:

Tuning into sounds (auditory discrimination)
Listening and remembering sounds (auditory memory and sequencing)
Talking about sounds (developing vocabulary and language comprehension)

Reception (Phase 2, 3 and 4)

Phase 2 - Pupils will be taught:

19 letters of the alphabet and one sound for each.
Blending sounds together to make words.
Segmenting words into their separate sounds.
Beginning to read simple captions.

Phase 3 - Pupils will be taught:

The remaining 7 letters of the alphabet, one sound for each.
Graphemes such as ch, oo, th representing the remaining phonemes not covered by single letters.
Reading captions, sentences and questions.

Phase 4 - Pupils will be taught:

To blend and segment longer words with adjacent consonants, e.g. swim, clap, jump.

What this looks like using the Monster Phonics programme:

Term 1 teaches initial sounds and Reception Decodable and Tricky words. Consonant digraphs are introduced, as are some vowel digraphs. Each lesson follows the simple routine of an introductory teacher-led PowerPoint, song and an activity. Each lesson focuses only on words that use graphemes that have been taught so far.

Term 2 continues to teach vowel digraphs and Reception decodable and tricky words. Lessons follow a routine format with familiar activities being used across the term. Well-known repetitive traditional stories and songs provide a focus for activities to develop reading and writing in sentences. The aim is to provide real and meaningful contexts for practising blending and segmenting graphemes.

Term 3 focus is on the skills of blending and segmenting CCVC, CVCC, CCVCC, CVC+ previously taught digraphs. Lessons continue to follow the routine format taught across Term 2. Well-known traditional repetitive stories and songs provide a focus for activities to blending and segmenting skills, whilst increasing automaticity to read and write captions and sentences.

Year One (Phase 5) Pupils will be taught:

New graphemes and alternative pronunciations for the graphemes they already know.
To select the correct grapheme to represent phonemes when spelling.

What this looks like using the Monster Phonics programme:

Term 1 teaches the National Curriculum Year 1 graphemes, all of the Year 1 CEWs and the first 100 HFWs. The addition of suffixes ed, s/es, ing, er and est (with no change to the root word) is introduced in specific spelling lessons and continues to be taught and reinforced in grapheme lessons.
In Term 2 all National Curriculum Year 1 graphemes are taught by week 9 of term 2. At this point, revision lessons commence. The daily activities set out in the Revision Worksheets check for gaps in learning, further reinforce word lists, practise grammatical rules and dictation. Videos and PowerPoints from term 1 reinforce word lists and rules. Term 2 teaches the remainder of the National Curriculum Year 1 graphemes, the next 200 HFWs, the prefix un and the k before e, i and y rule. All of the first 300 HFWs have been taught by the end of this term.
Term 3 begins with the preparation for the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check, using real and nonsense word reading activities and a mock phonics screen. The remainder of the term focuses on the revision of the Year 1 graphemes. Spelling rules, HFWs and CEWs are recapped in the last 3 weeks.

Year Two (Phase 6) Pupils will be taught:

By the beginning of Phase Six, children should know most of the common grapheme– phoneme correspondences (GPCs). They should be able to read hundreds of words, doing this in three ways:

Reading the words automatically if they are very familiar.
Decoding them quickly and silently because their sounding and blending routine is now well established.
Decoding them aloud. Children’s spelling should be phonemically accurate, although it may still be a little unconventional at times.

What this looks like using the Monster Phonics programme:

Term 1 teaches all National Curriculum Year 2 graphemes, the Year 2 CEW and the majority of the spelling rules, including the rules for adding vowel suffixes – the drop e, double consonant and y to an i rule. Homophones/near homophone are also taught in term 1.
Term 2 completes the teaching of spelling rules with a focus on consonant suffixes, contractions and possessive apostrophes. After a formative assessment, grapheme revision lessons commence. The daily activities set out in the Worksheet check for gaps in learning, further reinforce word lists, practise grammatical rules and dictation. Videos and PowerPoints from term 1 reinforce word lists and rules. The weekly plan for each grapheme culminates in a writing task that encourages children to use their phonics and grammatical knowledge in their free writing.
Term 3 completes the revision of the National Curriculum Year 2 graphemes. The focus for the remaining 4 weeks is on spelling rules and CEW, with opportunities to practise reinforcement activities and use these in a free writing task.

Reading Books

Reading books are aligned to the phonics phases which are taught in a progressive order throughout EYFS and KS1.

One reading book is given each week, with 3 x weekly reads in school focusing on decoding text fluency, prosody and comprehension before the same book is sent home for the rest of the week to practise and apply these learned skills.

Yearly Progression Maps across YR-Y2

Learning is regularly monitored at ‘Assessment Points’ which are built into the Yearly Progression Maps:

Reception Progression Map (PDF)

Year 1 Progression Map (PDF) Year 2 Progression Map (PDF)

Monster Phonics Assessment

Formative Assessments

Regular and efficient monitoring of children’s development in phonics is essential if they are to become competent and confident readers, and subsequently writers. The Monster Phonics programme has a clearly mapped set of assessments which allows for checking children’s grapheme-phoneme correspondence (GPC), knowledge of High-Frequency Words (HFWs) and Common Exception Words (CEWs) for reading and writing. The assessment schedule for Monster Phonics is broken down for each year group; Reception, Year One and Year Two. Each year group has a set of graphemes, CEWs and HFWs to be learnt and then assessed.

Daily Formative Assessments

The first and most frequently used assessment will take place daily by the adult delivering the phonics session. Children who have not met the daily objective, as stated in the planning document for the lesson, are noted, and any gaps are addressed with a short recap at some point before the next discrete phonics session. Teachers regularly review the children’s achievements in the application of newly taught skills and knowledge in reading and writing throughout the rest of the curriculum (independently, guided or 1:1). This allows for any misconceptions or problems to be quickly identified and intervention to be given to fill potential gaps.

Assessments Built into the Progression Map

In addition to the ongoing weekly in-class assessment of learning outcome, formative reading assessments regularly track progress. These take place during the relevant assessment points across YR, Y1 and Y2 and can be seen on the Progression Maps for all three year groups. They are tested 1 to 1 with an adult.

Monster Phonics Intervention:

Effective formative assessment is at the heart of our daily phonics teaching. By quickly identifying children that are struggling or who have misunderstood, and then taking immediate action, can make all the difference in supporting our children to achieve and progress with early reading and writing.

It is so important to assess and respond quickly, whether that is using scheduled summative assessments or through ‘on the spot’ assessments made during the phonics lesson itself.

Early identification of children at risk of falling behind, together with an effective intervention programme is paramount to ensure that every child learns to read and write. Using formative assessment will help children to keep pace with the teaching and the phonics programme and allow them to reach yearly expectations.

Using Formative Assessment in Monster Phonics Flowchart

Reading is at the core of our curriculum at Huttoft Primary School and Nursery. Our pupils are encouraged to read for pleasure and to read widely.

We teach whole class guided reading, which has many benefits including: higher engagement, wider discussions, increased exposure to challenging texts and increased time for deep exploration of a text. This is supported by research from the Educational Endowment Foundation and the Open University.

Reading - Year 2 to Year 6

We use Literacy Tree, a book-based platform for primary English, created by teachers for teachers. This scheme of work supports in the teaching, learning and assessment of Reading and Writing using a ‘teach through a text approach’.

Through Literacy Tree reading lessons, children are exposed to high quality reading texts, chosen for their diverse nature; as we feel it is imperative that each child can see themselves within a book and that they reflect our school values of Friendship, Respect, Resilience, Individuality and Ambition and effective questioning, along with high quality resources.

Our daily whole class reading lessons have many benefits including: higher engagement, wider discussions, increased exposure to challenging and contemporary texts and new authors and increased time for deep exploration of a text.
Each class works on 2 texts each small term, with each text lasting between 2-4 weeks. This ensures children are exposed to different text types and genres, with a structured lesson progression.
The books are chosen for their diverse nature as we feel it is imperative that each child can see themselves within a book and that they reflect our school values of friendship, respect, resilience, individuality, and ambition.

The Reading Curriculum Map (Y2-Y6) sets out all texts across the year for each cohort and outlines text type, genre and themes. Some of these texts are used for both Reading and Writing lessons.

Reading Curriculum Map - Y2-Y6

Steps in Progression

Reading Curriculum Overviews for each cohort ensure that all NC content domains are being covered across each unit:

Reading for Pleasure

To help foster a life-long love of reading, at Huttoft Primary and Nursery School, reading for pleasure is encouraged by:

All staff acting as role models by promoting a life-long love of reading.
Recommended Reading Bookmarks are placed into well-read and much-loved texts, by all staff members, to introduce children to a wider variety of genres they may never have experienced before.
Children in Years 5 and 6 having the opportunity to apply for a Reading Rep position, which involves promoting a love of a reading and supporting children in finding appropriate reading material; being involved in the organisation of reading events such as Book Fayre, Reading Breakfasts/Afternoons; helping to organise reading events; being involved in reading assemblies; leading local Library Summer Reading Challenge promotional assemblies and looking after the school library.
World Book Day being celebrated annually. Staff and children are encouraged to embrace the theme and dress accordingly as a character from a beloved book. World Book Day offers cross-curricular opportunities, and all children receive a free book token from school.
Holding Book Fayres twice yearly – one of these being close to World Book Day.
Holding Reading Breakfasts and Reading Afternoons, for children and their families to attend, which are timetabled into the school year and often coincides with one of our Book Fayre weeks.
Holding a Summer Booknic for children and their families on the school field.
Celebrating World Nursery Rhyme Week in our Nursery and Reception Classes where staff and children are encouraged to dress up as a favourite nursery rhyme character.
Celebrating National Story Telling Week to encourage the children to understand the importance of oracy skills as well as reading.
Classes having a weekly timetabled slot in the school library where they can peruse a variety of text types and choose one that interests them, to take home each week and share with their families.
Having a cosy reading area in all classrooms for children to access when they want to enjoy a book.

Our Vision for Writing

Writing is an instrumental part of expression at Huttoft. Pupils learn to craft their text and understand the concepts of drafting, editing and publishing their work to create exemplary pieces of writing.

We strive for all our children to be confident and creative writers who write for a range of audiences and purposes. In Key Stages One and Two there are daily writing lessons based on a Literacy Tree text. Our writing process generally lasts between 3-4 weeks and the class text is used as inspiration for two writing units per half term. Early in the writing sequence, teachers and children establish the purpose and audience for writing to ensure the writing is meaningful and relevant.

In addition to daily writing lessons, writing opportunities are embedded across the curriculum with opportunities for the application and progression of writing skills in cross-curricular contexts.

Writing - Year 1 to Year 6

We strive for all our children to be confident and creative writers who write with increased stamina, for a range of audiences and purposes. In Key Stages One and Two there are daily writing lessons based on a Literacy Tree text. Our writing process generally lasts three weeks and the class text is used as inspiration for two writing units per half term. Early into the writing sequence, teachers and children establish the purpose and audience for writing to ensure the writing is meaningful and relevant.

You can view the progress maps for each year below:

Year 1 Writing Curriculum Map Year 2 Writing Curriculum Map Year 3 Writing Curriculum Map Year 4 Writing Curriculum Map Year 5 Writing Curriculum Map Year 6 Writing Curriculum Map

Steps in Progression documents for Y1-Y6 includes:

Grammar, Composition, Word Reading, Comprehension, Transcription Spelling, Transcription Handwriting

You can view the steps in progression documents for each year below.

Literacy Tree - Steps in Progression

Reading and Writing Assessment

Literacy Tree Reading and Writing Assessments are completed using RATE Assessment Tool (Reporting and Assessment Tool for English) which is accessed by teachers through the online platform.