English

At St Lawrence we recognise that the ability to communicate is fundamental to learning. Our aim is to provide a high quality education in English through a broad and rich curriculum that will stimulate and support pupils to read, write and speak fluently. Wherever possible we plan units of work which give the children opportunities to apply their English learning across the curriculum, providing them with real-life contexts. Much of the learning is based around high quality books which excite and engage the children.

‘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.’

National Curriculum 2014

English Reading

At St Lawrence Primary school our intent is:

To create confident and fluent readers who develop a life-long love of a wide range of quality fiction, non-fiction, rhymes and poetry.
To centre our curriculum on quality texts to embed a culture of reading for pleasure that allows our children to develop creatively, educationally and spiritually.

Implementation:

Children develop their early reading through the rigor of a well-sequenced synthetic phonics teaching following the guidance of Letters and Sounds
Emergent readers progress to become confident and fluent readers through our choice of DfE recommended reading schemes (Bug Club Phonics and Floppy’s Phonics) that are fully decodable and matched our phonics programme, providing the children with complete practice of the required phonemes.
We foster a love of reading with reading scheme books on a wide range of age-appropriate topics and a variety of high-quality fiction, non-fiction and poetry in English lessons.
A bespoke small-step progression through our reading schemes ensures children are matched, not just to the correct phase, but also a smaller unit of phonemes within each phase to give targeted levelling.
Continuous assessment of our phonics teaching and reading bench marking by units and phases allows our teachers to match children to the correct phase and unit and to target intervention when necessary.
Phonetically decodable and highly engaging phonics schemes ensure children who fall behind in KS2 are able to progress quickly through age-appropriate and enjoyable texts.

Impact:

Because our book scheme is fully decodable, our children quickly gain confidence in reading
Due to the variation in our schemes and engaging English texts, children read a wide range of literature and appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage.
Children are able to access non-fiction text to develop their own learning and develop their cultural and spiritual experiences.
Children discuss our text with enthusiasm and develop a habit of reading for pleasure.
Data shows that our Phonics teaching in KS1 is consistently above national figures
In the last recorded collection, data shows that at the end of KS2 81% of children reached the expected standard but we strive to do more.

Progression:

Year 1 - Progression of skills in English - Reading

Year 2 - Progression of skills in English - Reading

Year 3 - Progression of skills in English - Reading

Year 4 - Progression of skills in English - Reading

Year 5 - Progression of skills in English - Reading

Year 6 - Progression of skills in English - Reading

English Writing

At St Lawrence Primary school our intent is:

All children develop a love of the written word, using their experiences of rich texts to write confidently and coherently.
Children write with a strong sense of audience, matching their style to the purpose of each piece.
Models from rich texts provide examples of vivid vocabulary and accurate grammar, punctuation and spelling.

Implementation:

Each class bases an English unit around a high quality fiction or non-fiction text or poem. This exposes children to higher tier vocabulary and models of correct grammar, punctuation and spelling.
Teachers use a variety of techniques to immerse the children in the written word including oracy and drama in Talk for Writing and the CLPE Power of Reading sequences.
Teachers model writing skills to pupils allowing them to hear ‘think aloud’ strategies that real writers employ.
Early spelling is driven by a growing knowledge of the grapheme-phoneme correspondences taught through phonics lessons. Later on, the sequenced spelling programme, No Nonsense Spelling builds on the children’s knowledge of root words, prefixes and suffixes.
Fluent and legible cursive handwriting is taught through our whole-school spelling programme Letter Join.

Impact:

Children write for a variety of purposes considering how changes to style and structure can impact on the reader
The children write in a neat cursive style by the end of KS2
Children are able to communicate key ideas using the correct written form across the curriculum
The children attempt spelling using their knowledge of all grapheme-phoneme correspondence and growing knowledge of prefix, suffixes and root words.

Progression:

Year 1 - Progression of skills in English - Writing

Year 2 - Progression of skills in English - Writing

Year 3 - Progression of skills in English - Writing

Year 4 - Progression of skills in English - Writing

Year 5 - Progression of skills in English - Writing

Year 6 - Progression of skills in English - Writing