Intent

At All Saints, we believe that English has a pre-eminent place in education and in society and that our English curriculum will develop children’s love of reading, writing and discussion. A high-quality education in English will teach pupils to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others, and through their reading and listening, others can communicate with them. Immersed within our English curriculum, children will develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. 

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 language, 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.

Implementation

At All Saints, we provide a literacy-rich environment for all children which consists of high quality texts and a wide range of inspiring learning opportunities for all.

Our aims are embedded throughout the English and wider curriculum. We have implemented a comprehensive, evidence-based, ambitious scheme which is meticulously sequenced and progressive.  We place quality literature at its core and all units are planned to enable access for all children, regardless of their individual need or ability.  The curriculum also promotes whole school consistency and strong curriculum implementation.

In EYFS and Year 1, we provide a range of activities through continuous provision and small group immersive teaching inspiring children from an early age.  From Years 1 – 6, we study a text for 6 weeks and fully immerse children whilst also developing their knowledge and understanding of the topic, along with its focused outcomes.  Additionally, we use various high-quality texts, with a range of genres, to ensure children are exposed to fiction, non-fiction and poetry texts.  For children who are working below expectations, lessons are adapted and targeted interventions are provided to support and ensure the gap between those children and their peers is narrowed.  Additionally, we ensure that all children are challenged appropriately to ensure each individual child reaches their full potential.

Reading

Learning to read is one of the most important aspects of a child’s school experience and it lays the foundations for life. Children at All Saints are encouraged to become confident, enthusiastic, critical and independent readers who develop a love for reading.  The programmes of study for reading at Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 consists of two dimensions:

• Word reading
• Comprehension

We recognise that both of these elements are essential to success and we support the acquisition of these skills through various methods.

In EYFS and Key Stage One, early reading and phonics is taught through ‘Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised,’ which is a systematic and synthetic Phonics programme.  This approach ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school.

EYFS and Year 1

In EYFS and Year 1,  children use the ‘Big Cat Little Wandle’ reading books.  These books are fully decodable and meticulously matched to children’s ability, the Little Wandle programme of progression and promote progression and challenge for all.  All Big Cat Little Wandle Reading Books present only GPCs and tricky words that have been taught. 

Reading Practice sessions are timetabled in accordance with Little Wandle Scheme. They are taught by a trained teacher or teaching assistant in small group.

In Reception, reading books with words are sent home as soon as the child can blend. Prior to this wordless books are used.

For more information on the Little Wandle programme progression, click here

Once children have mastered Phonics, they progress onto the ‘Big Cat Collins’ reading scheme and books are allocated based on the appropriate reading level for each individual child.
For more information on the ‘Big Cat Collins’ reading scheme, click here

Year 2

Throughout Year 2, children will transition from the decodable Little Wandle Big Cat books to Collins Big Cat reading books.  These books are leveled based on each individual child’s reading level and children are continually assessed to ensure they are progressing and appropriately challenged.

Years 3-6

Children in Year 3 – 6 continue on the Collins Big Cat reading books and, once fluency and comprehension has reached the appropriate level, children then access Reading Plus.

Additionally, in Years 3-6, the teaching of whole class shared reading is implemented using ‘Ready, Steady, Comprehension.’ This framework enables us to teach all aspects of word reading and comprehension through high quality fiction, non-fiction and poetry texts. 

For more information on Ready Steady Comprehension, Click here

We enrich reading experiences with events like World Book Day, reading festivals, author visits and storytelling, both online and in person. We have dedicated time each day to read aloud to children and use our class reading areas and school library as a haven for children to access high-quality texts. 
Our English Reading Curriculum Map Overview can be found here

Home Reading

Children take home reading books and are encouraged to read each night in order to consolidate learning and promote a love of reading.  Once children are ready, they are also encouraged to access Reading Plus at home to develop fluency and comprehension skills.

Reading for pleasure

‘Once you learn to read, you will be forever free’ 

Frederick Douglas, 2010

At All Saints, we strongly encourage reading for pleasure and are dedicated to growing our reading for pleasure pedagogy.

We ensure children have access to books that link to the local and wider community and enable our children to learn about cultural differences, experiences and beliefs throughout the world.

Promoting reading for pleasure at All Saints

We implement a number of activities and reading opportunities to promote a love of reading throughout our school. 

• We expose children to a global curriculum based on a core text approach, where topics are taught through high quality texts that contain relatable themes and protagonists that immerse, ignite and excite our children’s thinking and imagination.
• We have dedicated time in every class each day for an adult to read aloud to them from a carefully selected book, in order to model fluency and immerse children into a range of stories and texts.
• Daily opportunities to read as part of the curriculum. 
• Weekly library time to include discussion of key authors and opportunities for book talk modelled by staff. 
• An engaging, well structured reading area in every classroom with a range of books that caters for a variety of needs and interests.
• Teacher, child and year group recommended books in our school library.
• Lunchtime outdoor book club led by children and open to all year groups.

Enrichment

• Participation in enrichment events such as author visits and storytelling in person and online. 
• Termly reading school events with different year groups joining together to share books/stories in a warm, welcoming environment.

SEND Learners and children who require additional reading support

All children are assessed using the assessment tool appropriate to their stage of reading: Little Wandle, Big Cats accuracy and fluency test and Reading Plus, along with termly year group reading assessments. Children are then placed on a programme of support which directly supports their specific needs.  This can be rapid catch up phonics intervention, IDL or other programmes as advised by external agencies. These programmes are carefully monitored by the English lead and SENCO. 

Phonics

At All Saints, it is our priority that our approach to teaching Phonics and early reading is research based, accessible to all learners regardless of their individual needs, progressive and based on current best practice. We want our children to enjoy learning to read and therefore develop a love for reading throughout their life.

Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised 

Phonics lessons are taught daily from EYFS through the systematic synthetic phonics programme, ‘Little Wandle.’

The programme, ‘Little Wandle Foundation for Phonics,’ begins in our two-year old Nursery in provision.  Those children who meet the curriculum expectations for ‘Communication and language’ and ‘Literacy’ are provided with child-led and adult-led experiences. These include sharing high-quality stories and poems; learning a range of nursery rhymes and action rhymes; activities that develop focused listening and attention, including oral blending, and attention to high-quality language.

The phonics sessions support children to:

• develop their phonological awareness, including rhyme, alliteration, syllables, initial and voice sounds, and oral blending
• love stories and rhymes, and learn, by heart, a bank of familiar favourites
• increase their vocabulary and confidence to talk
• improve their listening and ability to take part in back-and-forth conversations

From our Three-Year-old through to Reception, we continue the ‘Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised’ progression, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to be able to read and spell effectively as they move through school. 

Daily phonics sessions are taught in Reception and Year 1 for 30 minutes. Any child in Reception and Year 1 who needs additional practice has Daily Keep-up support and is taught by a fully trained adult. 

Year 2 begins by using assessment to ensure that children have completed the Little Wandle Year 1 progression programme. Any gaps in teaching are addressed through daily phonics lessons until the programme is completed.

In Key Stage 2, for those children who require additional phonics intervention, Rapid Catch Up is implemented through daily 20 minute phonics sessions and are delivered by a fully trained adult..

More information on ‘Little Wandle’ can he found here
Information for parents and carers can be found here

Writing

At All Saints we follow the writing scheme ‘Ready, Steady, Write’. Ready Steady Write is a dynamic, high- quality programme which covers the teaching of writing through children’s high-quality literature. The units of work centre on engaging, vocabulary-rich texts with a wealth of writing opportunities within and across the curriculum.

Children are given daily sentence accuracy which allows teachers to explicitly model word, sentence, and punctuation from the statutory National Curriculum Programme of Study. This daily practice helps build fluency and stamina for writing. Children write for a range of purposes and audiences and they are taught explicitly how to edit and redraft writing. All children are challenged and encouraged to enhance their writing skills in every lesson to ensure they reach their full potential.

The core principles of this method of teaching are:

• Pupils understand how to apply sentence scaffolds to their independent writing as they develop their expertise.
• Standards improve because many worked examples are provided over the year that extend understanding through a wide range of genres and non-fiction text types.
• Children have a clear view of what high quality writing looks like and their learning is structured clearly and misconceptions dealt with.
• Pupils know how to improve their writing and make it more focused and actionable feedback is provided to guide their learning.
• Children have a concept of how to build, plan and complete a piece of writing due to narrative maps and non-fiction shapes.

For more information on Ready Steady Write, click here

We know that some of the vocabulary around Primary English can be very confusing, so please click on the link below to see a handy grammar and vocabulary jargon buster:  Jargon Buster

For our whole school writing progression overview, click here

For individual year group writing progression overviews, please click on the appropriate year group:

Reception

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Year 6

Spelling

At All Saints, children in Reception and Year 1 follow Little Wandle phonics scheme which includes spelling. Children in Year 2 move on to Little ‘Wandle Spelling’ which follow the familiar structure of Little Wandle phonics lessons, supporting children to make links to their phonics learning.   For more information on the Little wandle Spelling, please click here

Key Stage 2 children are taught using the Spelling Shed scheme which focuses on ‘English Language Arts’ and develops a deeper understanding of the relationship between sounds and written symbols, as well as using etymology and morphology to help spell through meaning.

For more information on Spelling Shed,  Click Here

Handwriting

At All Saints, we know that handwriting can develop critical thinking, organisational skills and memory retention and it is important that all children learn to communicate through writing.  In EYFS and KS1, children use Little Wandle formation phrases in order to support them in forming letters correctly.  Once children have developed and consolidated the skills to form all letters correctly, they progress onto our handwriting programme, ‘Letterjoin’.  This programme allows children to build their fine motor skills in preparation for writing, moving to cursive writing when appropriate, and consolidating cursive writing throughout KS2. 

Our handwriting policy can be found here

The phoneme formation phrases for Little Wandle can be found below:

Phase 2.1 

Phase 2.2

Capital Letter Formation Rhymes

Oracy

At All Saints, we are committed to promoting the key skills of Oracy: Reasoning and Evidence; Organisation and Prioritisation; Listening and Response; and Expression and Delivery in order to develop children’s ability to articulate ideas, develop understanding and engage with others through spoken language.  By enabling children to become more confident speakers and effective listeners, we enable them to better understand themselves, each other and the world around them.

At All Saints, Oracy underpins everything we do; lessons are designed to enhance opportunities for children to talk in meaningful contexts using ambitious vocabulary and sentence stems.  Children are supported and encouraged to perform and speak to a variety of audiences for a range of purposes through our whole school curriculum and extra-curricular activities.

Impact

The impact focus for all of our children is to progress, thrive in their continuous learning journey and develop transferable skills.  We aim that, by the end of KS2, all of our children have made considerable progress from their starting points in EYFS.  With the implementation of our English learning journey being well established and taught consistently in both key stages, our children are becoming more confident, technical writers.  When children reach upper Key Stage 2, all genres and purposes for writing techniques are embedded and teaching can then focus on creativity, writer’s craft, sustained writing and manipulation of grammar and punctuation skills.

English is an integral part of our All Saints curriculum and cross curricular writing standards have improved; skills taught in the English lesson are transferred into other subjects which demonstrates consolidation of skills, progression and a deeper understanding of how and when to apply specific spelling, grammar and punctuation rules.  

Continuous teacher and termly assessment is showing that children at All Saints are making at least expected progress and the gap between those not working at age related expectations and those who are, is narrowing. 

Reading is at the heart of All Saints school. We recognise that reading is an important life skill, but we also wish for our children to leave the school with a love of reading that will stay with them for life. 

Oracy being embedded within our whole school curriculum ensures children can express issues and ideas, speak clearly, listen carefully, contribute to discussion, respond to questions and comments and use a range of vocabulary for a variety of purposes. When children explore learning through the immersed oracy strategies, they become more resilient, use more technical vocabulary and develop a deeper understanding of higher level language when writing or presenting.

English Curriculum Documents