English

Intent:

At Pathfinder C of E Primary School we believe all our children are entitled to an ambitious English curriculum that ensures they will become fluent readers and writers who are able to confidently access the demands of the secondary school curriculum.  Our English curriculum is driven by a canon of carefully selected, high-quality texts which provide the stimulus for our reading and writing.  We believe that children learn best when they are excited by the texts they read. We aim to inspire our children to read texts across a range of genres and authors, sometimes revisiting favourite authors with a critical eye and sometimes discovering new authors to add to book shelves at home. We want our children to leave Pathfinder as successful learners and having a life-long love of reading. 

Implementation:

Spelling

As children move through Key Stage One, they are taught to apply their phonic knowledge to spelling and in Year 2 begin to learn spelling patterns and rules and how to apply these with their writing. Throughout Key Stage Two, children study National Curriculum spelling patterns which they can then use to apply to unfamiliar words. New vocabulary is introduced and explained in every lesson so that the children build a bank of knowledge about spelling, punctuation and grammar (SPAG) The government produces lists of statutory spellings which children are expected to be able to spell. These lists can be found in the children’s home learning books. 

Reading 

Being able to read quickly and fluently unlocks comprehension of the written texts. Anything that occupies our attention limits our ability to think; if we have to spend too much time thinking about how to decode the words on the page, we will have reduced capacity to consider the meaning of those words. In order to optimise reading fluency, all children read aloud in whole class reading lessons. This may be individually, or supported as a whole class. 

Reading is more than lifting the words from the page; children need a rich vocabulary and background knowledge to help them understand the words they are reading. Our reading canon has been carefully selected to ensure all children develop a broad and deep vocabulary and background knowledge to develop their reading comprehension. We also read in all curriculum areas to further develop this. 

Across the whole school, specific reading techniques are used to ensure that all children join in with reading aloud. These include repeated reading and close reading of sections of text. Additional scaffolding may be required for example, the teacher may inform a child in advance which part they are expected to read, and children may pre-read the text with an adult ahead of the whole class lesson.

In Reception, and Key Stage 1 children are taught to phonetically decode words using our programme 'Sounds-Write'. The books are phonically controlled to ensure they are practising previously taught sound-spelling correspondences. It is vital that children develop their code knowledge to automaticity, so they will practise reading from the same decodable text for several days until they are completely fluent. As their code knowledge increases, children begin to read aloud texts from the reading canon. When learning to decode, children will take home a phonically controlled text to practise the mechanics of reading, and they will also take home another text, which includes code not yet taught, for a family member to share with them, giving opportunity for comprehension building and fluency modelling. Once children have learnt sufficient code, the texts they take home will be selected by them with support from their class teacher. 

In Key Stage 2 children continue to develop their reading fluency through exposure to appropriately assigned Banded Books. This allows children to embed their code and apply their understanding of phonetical rules and continue to expand their vocabulary. Children are encouraged to foster their love of reading by taking these books home as well as having access to a range of high quality, diverse, texts in the classroom.

There is an expectation that children read at home five times a week.

Writing 

Writing is a complex process that we build using a step by step approach. Children are taught basic grammatical skills. Once secure, children use these to compose extended pieces of writing.

At The Pathfinder, we focus on teaching a range of text types in a well-sequenced curriculum. This allows the children to utilise their broader knowledge and vocabulary and apply that learning to their writing. The core grammar knowledge for each Key Stage is carefully sequenced and taught in the context of text types so that children have plentiful opportunities to practise them to automaticity.  The writing outcomes are based on content from the text read and discussed in the whole class reading lessons or from previously taught content in foundation subjects. 

Children are taught explicitly how to plan their writing with identifying the purpose for writing – to entertain, to inform, to persuade or to discuss.  Extensive time is spent re-drafting, so that all children carefully consider the choices they are making. This ensures that every child can become a competent and successful writer. We believe in improving the writer rather than improving a single piece of writing. The cycle of drafting, responding to feedback and redrafting is repeated until children publish a piece of extended writing. The true assessment of a child’s writing ability comes when teachers observe how they are applying the English learning in other curriculum areas, as well as future English writing. 

In Early Years, the focus is on oral language development. Children will be exposed to writing through encoding the sounds they hear in their phonics lessons. There are opportunities for writing within continuous provision, but children will not be expected to write extended pieces until they are developmentally ready. 

Handwriting 

Fluent handwriting is crucial to allow children to think about what, not how, they are writing. We teach and practise handwriting discretely to the point where children no longer have to think about how they are forming, and later joining, their letters.  In our modern world, surrounded by technology, handwriting is still an invaluable skill.  Fluid, automatic handwriting with a correct pencil hold and posture and position is key to writing fluency. 

Impact: 

Children's progress is continually monitored within lessons to check their understanding. Furthermore, children complete one assessed piece of writing a half term. Spellings are tested weekly in relation to the prescribed spelling rule. Children have termly phonics assessment to check for decoding ability and fluency testing using DIBELS.