English Curriculum Overview
Our English Intent is based upon our Curriculum Intent. As an Infant School, we believe it is our responsibility to develop the core literacy skills of all pupils as they are the basis for all future learning and development. Using the Early Years Foundation Stage Strategy and National Curriculum as a basis, age appropriate progression for each core subject has been identified. This has been mapped out to ensure that coverage of identified knowledge is secured across EYFS and KS1. We carefully select the sequence of when, what and how knowledge is taught, revised and embedded. Our curriculum is firmly based upon the development of key literacy as dictated by the needs of our children. As part of this, links between phonics, reading and writing are explored and developed regularly.
Our Phonics Offer
We use Unlocking Letters and Sounds which was validated by the DfE in December 2021. We begin teaching phonics in the first few weeks of term 1 in Reception and children make rapid progress in their reading journey. Children begin to learn the main sounds heard in the English Language and how they can be represented, as well as learning ‘Common Exception’ words for Phases 2, 3 and 4. They use these sounds to read and write simple words, captions and sentences. Children leave Reception being able to apply the phonemes taught within Phase 2, 3 and 4.
In Year 1 through Phase 5a, b and c, they learn any alternative spellings and pronunciations for the graphemes and additional Common Exception Words. By the end of Year 1 children will have mastered using phonics to decode and blend when reading and segment when spelling. In Year 1 all children are screened using the national Phonics Screening Check. In Year 2, phonics continues to be revisited to ensure mastery of the phonetic code and any child who does not meet age related expectations will continue to receive
To ensure no child is left behind at any point in the progression, children are regularly assessed and supported to keep up through bespoke 1-1 interventions. These include GPC recognition and blending and segmenting interventions. The lowest attaining 20% of pupils are closely monitored to ensure these interventions have an impact.
Our Reading Offer
At Clarendon Federation, we promote a 'phonics first' approach and in both our guided reading sessions at school and in the books children take home, texts are very closely matched to a child's current phonics knowledge so that every child can experience real success in their reading. In these crucial early stages of reading we primarily use books from Ransom Reading Stars Phonics to ensure complete fidelity to the Unlocking Letters and Sounds progression we follow. Once children progress beyond decodable texts, they move onto our book scheme so that they can continue to progress in their decoding, fluency and comprehension skills to become avid, expert readers.
Love of Reading
At Clarendon Federation, we believe in sharing a love of reading for all children. To inspire this, we use the Pie Corbett Reading Spine to develop children's exposure to different texts. Throughout the day, the children are given opportunities to explore, discuss and immerse themselves in different books. All children are given the opportunity to visit the library and see new books they might not have discovered before. Also, we hold regular reading days where the children can explore and share their new favourite books!
The children are encouraged to become passionate readers who have a life long love of reading. We believe every child is a reader and should be given opportunities to show this.
Reading Spine
At Clarendon Federation, we have developed a ‘Reading Spine’ of core, high quality texts for each year group from EYFS to Year 6. It consists of wide range of books to inspire and enthuse children’s reading. We are incredibly passionate about providing children with high quality texts to help them become confident, lifelong readers. They are shared with all the children in different ways – they may be read to the children, used a stimulus for writing in English lessons or during Reading celebration days.
The books on the spine are a range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry to ensure children explore a breadth of text types and genres to help them find their favourite. This spine has been inspired by the 5 plagues of reading which ensures children are exposed to different text types such as: archaic language, non-linear narrative, symbolism, complexity of narrator and resistant texts. We have also included texts which are diverse, encourage oral storytelling and promote wellbeing.
Our Writing Offer
At Clarendon Federation, Writing is seen as an extension of our Reading offer. We value reading and writing as essential skills and, to that end, ensure that all children progress well in literacy so they are prepared for the next stage of their education. Our approach to English and Writing specifically, is an equitable one: we achieve equity by ensuring that research informs the development of our universal offer for Writing. In addition, we supplement our universal offer with targeted support for those children who may need further help. Targeted support will be deployed to ensure all children are meeting or exceeding their potential. This means that our targeted support will secure important transcription skills (foundational knowledge), and target excellence in Writing.
The design of our Writing curriculum is built around high-quality inclusive texts and animations. We aim to select texts that foster strong links with other curriculum subjects to support children’s working memory. We are research informed in our approach to choosing texts, using organisations such as Book Trust, CLPE and The Literacy Trust to support our selections. We know that texts provide us with powerful contexts in which to explore diversity, social justice and British Values so we purposely seek out texts that help to enrich our children’s personal development and build cultural capital.
The design and delivery of Writing skills has been developed around the principles of foundational knowledge: children need to be secure in the basics of writing - transcription (sentence level grammar, basic punctuation, phonics for spelling and handwriting) before they embark on composing more complex pieces of writing. In Key Stage Two, our curriculum progressively develops the skill of composition whilst securing foundational knowledge through our slow release teaching sequence.
Early Writing
At Clarendon Federation we know that Early Writing development starts with a secure knowledge of phonics and the ability to use phonics to decode for reading and encode for spelling.
IN EYFS and Year 1, we prioritise the teaching of phonics and use texts, animations and provocations in the provision to inspire our young writers to mark make using learned phonics skills.
Drawing Club
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w that children require explicit teaching of writing in order to thrive. In EYFS and early in Year 1, we use Greg Botrill’s DRAWING CLUB. This strategy allows teachers to immerse children in a chosen high quality text focusing on the most interesting elements (plot, character, setting). The teacher will then model drawing and writing about that element. Children will then use this scaffold to write words, captions, phrases, sentences and eventually, a series of linked sentences. By using this strategy, we manage the cognitive load by prioritising transcription over composition. Children can enjoy writing about high-interest parts of a text or animation.
During Year 1 into Year 2, we then introduce a slow release teaching sequence. This sequence is built on the principles of Drawing Club, but allows the class teacher to extend the children’s learning so that age-appropriate grammar can be explicitly taught in context. At this stage, the teacher will still be securing transcription skills through explicit teaching including dictation. The teacher will deliberately be managing the complexity of the written outcomes; ensuring that children write accurately and purposefully rather than at length but incorrectly.
Handwriting Approach
Good handwriting is critical to children's writing progress. It is essential that handwriting is practised until it is fluent and effortless so that the children can put all their effort into thinking about what they are writing. As a Federation, we use Unlocking Letters and Sounds Handwriting to discretely teach letter formation. Unlocking Handwriting is a whole school handwriting programme. The progression used in Unlocking Handwriting follows the National Curriculum progression, with some additional content included based upon a wealth of experience of teaching handwriting in schools, feedback from schools seeking a comprehensive, progressive handwriting programme and updated guidance (including requirements from the National Curriculum).
The progression Is structured broadly in units which are broken down into multiple sessions, offering a clear focus for each discrete handwriting lesson. Similar to the structure of Unlocking Letters and Sounds, Unlocking Handwriting provides ‘Mastery’ units for children to embed and secure the knowledge they have previously learnt. The programme also provides frequent opportunities for children to revisit previous learning and embed this before further refining their handwriting skills.
