English

As Linguists, our INTENT is

      to provide an engaging English curriculum which will develop children’s love of reading, writing and discussion. We aim to inspire an appreciation of our rich and varied literary heritage and a habit of reading for pleasure, widely and often.

      We recognise the importance of nurturing a culture where children take pride in their writing, can write clearly and accurately, using the mechanics of good literacy and adapt their language and style to suit range of contexts. Children will explain their authorial choices and the impact these have on the reader.

      Opportunities are embedded throughout the curriculum to inspire children to be confident in the art of speaking and listening; encouraging them to use discussion to communicate and further their learning.

       We believe that children need to develop a secure grasp of skills and knowledge in English; following a clear pathway of progression as they advance through the primary curriculum. We believe that a firm grasp of literacy skills is crucial to accessing all education and these will give our children the tools they need to enjoy learning and to participate fully as a member of society.

We IMPLEMENT this through:

Reading

At Chawton CE Primary School, children learn to read in English sessions and to apply and develop these skills across the entire curriculum. In whole class discussions (Book Talk) and in small guided groups, children learn to discuss and develop their understanding of fiction and non-fiction texts. Classroom book corners are well resourced with engaging, up to date texts which invite the children to read widely and develop a love of reading. We also have a very well-equipped, inviting library which is open to children during lunch breaks and for classes to visit regularly.

Early Reading: Phonics

Reading is taught at Chawton CE Primary School using the Read Write Inc programme.

From Reception, children are taught the sounds in English, the letters that represent them, and how to form the letters when writing. The Read Write Inc approach includes reading books written using only the letters and sounds they have learnt at each level (and a small number of separately taught 'tricky words'). The programme continues through Key Stage One, where children attend a daily session in smaller groups tailored to their individual learning stages. 

The children read a variety of texts from the sets of brightly illustrated books that accompany the programme. Each session includes comprehension skills, spelling and sentence dictations ('holding a sentence') in order to support their reading and writing. 

Reading Records

Our bespoke reading records have been designed to support our parents and children with every step of their reading journey. This starts with support with the graphemes children will use to decode their closely matched reading book with to starting to develop their comprehension skills further.

There are example questions throughout the reading record to support our parents in encouraging their child/ren and in fostering a  deep-rooted love for reading. 

Writing

Stimulate and Generate: is an opportunity to delve into the text driver (this can be a film, a poem, an advert, a novel, a non-fiction text etc.) and become immersed in the world through discussion, drama and book talk.

Capture, Sift and Sort is a time for children to practise the skills needed to write. This includes grammar, sentence construction, spelling and phonics as well as the opportunity to write at length during one, or more apprentice writes.

During the Create, Refine and Evaluate stage, children will draft, write and evaluate their ‘final’ outcome; teachers will model as appropriate and address misconceptions throughout.

Spelling

Once our children have completed our Read, Write Inc phonics programme, they are ready to learn how to spell words with more complex spelling rules and patterns. To support our children with this we use the Read, Write Inc Spelling programme. This is taught at least 3x a week from year 2 onwards. To complement this, children also use multi-sensory approaches to strengthen muscle memory and ensure they have rapid recall of high frequency words and Common Exception Words.

Parental support is vital for this aspect of English and each term, parents are supported through a leaflet to help them support their child in learning spellings in interesting, multi-sensory ways. 

Handwriting

At Chawton we are very proud of our pupil’s handwriting and take particular care in our handwriting style.

We use Letter-join’s on-line handwriting resource and Lesson Planners as the basis of our handwriting policy as it covers all the requirements of the National Curriculum.

Please encourage your child to use this letter formation in all writing.

Handwriting is a basic skill that influences the quality of work throughout the curriculum. By the end of Key Stage 2 all pupils should have the ability to produce fluent, legible and, eventually, speedy joined up handwriting, and to understand the different forms of handwriting used for different purposes.

Our intention is to make handwriting an automatic process that does not interfere with creative and mental thinking. This is why we teach cursive handwriting from reception.

Letter-join is a whole school handwriting scheme offering a combination of traditional and digital resources. These include classroom presentations, handwriting activities, online games and hundreds of worksheets using either a printed font ( for those in the early stages of writing), and then our chosen  cursive font with a lead-in line. 

https://www.letterjoin.co.uk/

Fluency – Clarity – Accuracy – Coherence

The Aims of the Primary English Programme of Study

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

IMPACT