Curriculum

English Rationale for The Federation of Kirkby Malzeard and St Nicholas C of E Primary Schools
 
Statement of Intent
At Kirkby Malzeard C of E Primary and St Nicholas C of E Primary schools our intent is that all children will:

• become confident, enthusiastic and motivated speakers, readers and writers
• be fluent, life-long readers and writers
• have a love of language and literature alongside an enjoyment of reading and writing for pleasure
• have developed English skills to support them in being confident communicators

 
We believe that a quality English curriculum should develop children’s love of reading, writing and discussion.  We aim to inspire an appreciation of diverse literature and a habit of reading widely and often.  We nurture a culture in where children take pride in their writing, can write clearly and accurately and adapt their style for a range of contexts.  It is our goal to inspire children to be confident in the art of speaking and listening, using discussion to communicate and further their learning.  Our intent is to deliver an English curriculum that will support children to develop secure knowledge of English skills, which follows a clear pathway of progression throughout the primary curriculum; secure knowledge of these skills is crucial to a high quality education and we intend to deliver this learning in order to give pupils the tools they need to participate fully in society.
 
It is therefore our intention that this will be reflected in our results from national tests, in order that we meet and exceed government expectations in English.
 
Implementation:
These aims are embedded in all English lessons and the wider curriculum.  We are developing a rigorous curriculum that provides purposeful opportunities for reading, writing and discussion.  Teaching staff use ‘Little Wandle’ to teach phonics & early reading, the Jane Considine ‘Write Stuff’ approach for writing and currently the ‘Philip Webb’ approach for reading.  Teaching staff in years 2-6 are currently completing Jane Considine ‘Book Talk’ training and are currently introducing this approach to their classes whilst receiving their training.  Teachers plan for opportunities across the curriculum to implement English skills and these are woven into foundation subject curriculum plans.  The English curriculum follows the aims of the National Curriculum for English 2014.
 
Reading
Children begin their early reading journey in reception class through the Little Wandle systematic synthetic phonics (SSP) teaching programme.  Little Wandle decodable reading books that link to the appropriate phonic phase, allows for progression in reading throughout each year group.  All staff are trained in the use of Little Wandle.
 
The Philip Webb approach to reading is followed in Y2-6, ensuring consistency in the teaching of reading skills throughout the school. Teachers use ‘The Literacy Curriculum’ reading leaves to provide exciting stimuli and planning ideas.  Classes are beginning to use ‘Book Talk’ and are moving toward the Jane Considine ‘Hooked on Books’ approach, with the intention of this being embedded by the Spring term 2023. 
 
Children enjoy two types of reading books: their ‘Reading for Practice Book’ and their ‘Reading for Pleasure Book’, which are taken home daily.   
 
‘Reading for Practice’ Books are books from either the Little Wandle, Little Wandle Rapid or KS2 schemes.  Please click here for further information regarding reading for practice books. 
 
Pupils are also encouraged to select a book of their own choosing, their ‘Reading for Pleasure Book’, which can be selected from the school library, class library or from home. Please click here for further information regarding reading for pleasure books. 
 
Pupils are encouraged to read and listen to stories every day – through 1-1 reading, whole-class guided reading, class stories and their ‘reading for pleasure’ book.
 
Reading is strongly encouraged through home-school communication and children read each week to get their weekly star on the Reading Galaxy. 
 
The impact of Reading for Pleasure
Having developed our focus on ‘Reading for Pleasure’ pupils can:
 

• be part of a community of readers
• talk with love and enjoyment about books
• recommend books to one another
• transfer reading skills and knowledge to other areas of the curriculum

Reading at the Federation of Kirkby Malzeard & St Nicholas Primary Schools
 

	EYFS	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3/4	Year 5/6
Phonics	Daily Little Wandle Letters & Sounds Revised phonics lessons Phase 1-4 Children expected to be secure in Phase 3	Daily Little Wandle Letters & Sounds Revised phonics lessons Phase 4-5 Children expected to be secure in Phase 5	Daily Little Wandle Letters & Sounds Revised phonics lessons Phase 5-6 Children expected to read words in the past and progressive tenses Children expected to be fluent readers	Daily phonics revision sessions Children expected to use phonics with automaticity in all reading	Children expected to use phonics with automaticity in all reading
Reading Practice Books (Read in school and at home)	Phonetically matched Little Wandle Revised Letters & Sounds reading practice book (Collins) read 3 x in school weekly (Mon-Weds) Read 2 x at home weekly (Weds-Thurs) Recorded in class reading log & home reading record book Lowest 20% access daily ‘Keep Up’ and ‘Catch Up’ programmes		Autumn Term: 3 x weekly LW reads with trained adult Spring/Summer Term: Children work with a trained adult at least 1 x week Recorded in class reading log & home reading record book Lowest 20% access Little Wandle programme	Reading scheme reading practice book to build automaticity, fluency, prosody & confidence 4 x weekly at home Children work with a trained adult at least 1 x week Recorded in class reading log & home reading record book Lowest 20% access Little Wandle Rapid programme
Reading for Pleasure Independent Book (Read in school and at home)	Independently chosen book from curated class library Time allocated throughout the school day to read		Independently chosen book from curated class library and/or independently selected book from school library Time allocated throughout the school day to read
Whole-class/group guided reading	Little Wandle Letters & Sounds Revised programme – 3 x weekly small group reading sessions		Autumn Term: Little Wandle Letters & Sounds Revised programme – 3 x weekly small group reading sessions Spring& Summer Term: 2-3 x weekly Guided Reading sessions	3-4 x weekly Philip Webb/Book Talk Reading sessions (currently moving from Phillip Webb approach to Jane Considine Book Talk approach)
Whole-class Reading for pleasure	Whole-class poetry and stories led by an adult read daily to the children and timetabled into the school day At least 10 mins daily
Reading provision	Curated class library Live display Decodable non-fiction & books Non-fiction, fiction & poetry books created by children Author of the month linked books Recommended reading books (by teacher & children) Access to school library Annual Readathon Life-long readers golden thread opps Reading Galaxy Recognition Board			Curated class library Live display Decodable non-fiction & books Non-fiction, fiction & poetry books created by children Author of the month linked books Recommended reading books (by teacher & children) Access to school library Librarian responsibilities Annual Readathon Life-long readers golden thread opps Reading Galaxy Recognition Board Reading Buddies

Types of Reading Books at our federation:

• Reading for Practice Book (little Wandle, Rapid, KS2 scheme)
• Reading for Pleasure Book (class library, school library, home)
• Class Story Book (teacher-led)
• Book Talk Text (teacher-led)

 
Writing
In The Write Stuff approach to writing, the children explore high level, rich vocabulary and are taught grammar in context through different writing lenses on the Writing Rainbow.
 
There are three lenses that are used in each lesson to support children with their writing:
Fantastics – ideas for writing
Grammaristics – tools for writing
Boomtastics – writing techniques
 
The Write Stuff is based on two guiding principles; teaching sequences that slide between experience days and sentence stacking lessons.
 
As part of the teaching sequence, teachers plan experience days; sentence stacking lessons and independent writing sequences. Experience days immerse children in experiences linked to their writing and drench them in vocabulary linked to the lenses in ‘The Writing Rainbow’. From the experience days, children take part in the sentence stacking lessons. Sentence stacking lessons focus on writing three sentences which focus on three lenses of the rainbow.
 
‘The Write Stuff’ follows a method called ‘Sentence Stacking’ which refers to the fact that sentences are stacked together and organised to engage children with short, intensive moments of learning that they can then immediately apply to their own writing.
 
Writing sessions focus on Sentence Stacking and each session aims to cover three learning chunks that relate to the ‘Writing Rainbow’. 
 
Each learning chunk consists of three parts: 

• Step 1; Initiate: A stimulus for writing is used for writing; e.g. a picture, sound-scape, freeze-frame or part of the story.  A word bank is then created for pupils to use in their own sentences.  Lots of discussion takes place during this part of the session.
• Step 2; Model: The teacher shares a modelled example of a sentence.  This sentence contains carefully selected vocabulary and structure.   Key aspects and purpose of the sentence are highlighted and explained.
• Step 3; Enable: Pupils use the vocabulary and model to create their own sentence. In the Enable section pupils write their own sentences, taking the opportunity to deepen the moment. ‘Deepen the Moment’ is where children are challenged to independently draw upon previously learnt skills and apply them to their writing during that chunk.

 
Following this sequence of learning, pupils are given the opportunity to show what they have learnt by planning and writing their own independent piece of writing.
 
The teacher uses a ‘Purpose for Writing’ approach to explore the purpose and audience for the final piece of writing.
   
Once pupils have worked through their modelled text they then draft, re-draft and edit their writing.


The Impact of The Write Stuff
Having followed the Write Stuff approach to developing their writing skills children can:

• write for a range of purposes including diary entries, persuasive letters, stories, poems and recounts to name but a few.
• use their vast knowledge of vocabulary to excite, inform or entertain the reader.
• understand a range of punctuation and the effect it can have on the reader in both writing and reading.
• understand and be able to use a range of grammatical devices.
• understand the various sentence types that can be used to support different genres.
• spell accurately using their phonetic knowledge and apply spelling rules.
• speak clearly, fluently and coherently, to be able to listen attentively with understanding, pleasure and empathy and contribute to group discussions

Cross-curricular Writing:
We are currently developing cross-curricular writing and opportunities to write are harnessed at every opportunity in other curriculum subjects, enabling pupils to translate their skills in other subject areas.


Spelling:

Little Wandle  
No Nonsense Spelling (Y2-6) 

Handwriting:

Letter Join 

Enrichment throughout the English Curriculum
Enrichment is sought and harnessed at every possible opportunity, which over the years has ranged from attendance at literary festivals, enjoying author visits and running the local book shop for the day! Purposeful speaking, reading and writing prospects are implemented through competitions and active involvement in local and national events.  All of the events planned offer the children access to positive role models from the local and wider community.
 
Both schools house engaging and exciting library spaces in classrooms, as well as a central library at each site.  Reading ambassadors and librarians run our whole-school libraries, alongside other exciting reading events.
 
 
Our Vision:
As a result, we will have a community of enthusiastic readers and writers who enjoy sharing their developing literacy skills.  Our pupils will be life-long readers, who have the will to read a rich, diverse canon of literature. They have the confidence to take risks in their writing, and love discussing and sharing their ideas.  Every child in school will be a reader by the end of KS1(by the age of 7) and English attainment in all key stages will be above national average.  Y1 phonics data will be above the national average.  All pupils will make expected or above progress in reading and writing at the end of KS1 and KS2.
 
Whole-school English Progression Maps & Long Term Plans:


  Writing Progression & LTP 

  Spoken Language Progression Map & LTP

  Reading Progression Map & LTP