Intent
At the Trent-Rylands Federation, we aim to deliver a creative, exciting and innovative English curriculum which enables and empowers pupils’ reading comprehension, as well as written and oral communication. We strive to inspire a love of reading, writing and discussion throughout our school, where children read for pleasure and information, having had access to a wide range of text types, genres and authors. We understand the importance of fostering a culture where children take pride in their writing and are confident in writing clearly, effectively and coherently. In order to achieve this, children should be competent in the art of speaking and listening through discussions and debates. They should also be able to adapt their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences, whilst refining their work and developing their own individual flair. Embedded within this, we want our children to be able to write with grammatical accuracy and be able to apply phonics and spelling patterns correctly using a neat handwriting style. We intend to expose our children to a wide range of vocabulary so that they can decipher new words and successfully use these in their writing. Furthermore, we also aim for our children to apply all of these English skills to the wider curriculum and appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage.
Implementation
The Federation follows the objectives from the National Curriculum and EYFS. English planning is tailor-made to suit the needs of children in individual classes. The school believes that the teaching and learning of English should be cross-curricular. Our curriculum focuses on engaging our pupils in their learning. It is based on inspiring themes which are supported by the use of high-quality texts and what is relevant to our children. Skills such as reading, writing and speaking and listening permeate other subjects and therefore recognition of their value should not be solely confined to English sessions.
Writing is planned in accordance with the national curriculum objectives, whilst considering the purpose of writing. Where possible writing units will be linked to the topic, so that children can benefit from the links and deepen their understanding. Where possible ICT will be used, to improve children’s communication skills and to give a different platform to present / perform their work. The use of ‘Talk for Writing’ strategies ensures a consistent and systematic approach to teaching the skills of writing across all cohorts.
In Key Stage 1, we use Little Wandle for our phonics programme. Phonic awareness helps the development of reading by segmenting and blending sounds. In F2 and Year 1 (and some children in Year 2 and Year 3) the children will take part in reading practice sessions three times per week. This is to practice decoding, prosody and comprehension. In Year 2, once children are fluent with decoding, they will read books from the National Book Banding System. . Pupil will also be taught reading through a whole class approach. Pupils will learn how to read books with fluency and expression. They will explore vocabulary, prediction, sequencing, making inferences and retrieving information.
In Key Stage 2, we teach reading through a whole class approach focusing on the curriculum domains. We use VIPERS where pupils explore vocabulary, prediction, sequencing, making inferences and retrieving information, ensuring that they are able to make justified responses using evidence from the text. Pupils explore a wide range of fiction and non-fiction texts in their foundation lessons, which are based around age appropriate texts linked to the topic being studied.
Impact
Attainment in writing is measured consistently throughout the year. At the three assessment checkpoints, progress is tracked, using the Family Of School writing statements, which have been taken from the National Curriculum. Termly moderations take place, to quality assure judgements made. These are either in house, or as part of a cluster of local schools. End of Early Years Foundation Stage writing and End of Key Stage writing: teachers will assess a selection of pieces of writing in Years F2, Year 2 and Year 6, using this to inform reported Teacher assessment judgements. Exemplification materials are used to support judgements made. Children will be taught to self-correct, edit and improve their writing and that of others. Evidence of this can be found in books.
Through the teaching of systematic phonics, our aim is for children to become fluent readers by the end of Key Stage One. This way, children
can focus on developing their fluency and comprehension as they move through the school. Attainment in reading is measured using the statutory assessments at the end of Key Stage One and Two.
These results are measured against the reading attainment of children nationally.
Phonics:
• Phonics Screening Test at the end of Year 1.
• Half termly checks to ensure that pupils are places within the correct teaching group and that progress is being made
The National Curriculum For English
CLICK HERE to read the English Cycle Overview
CLICK HERE to read the T- RF Progression Map English
READING
Year 1 Reading Progression TRF
Year 2 Reading Progression TRF
Year 3 Reading Progression TRF
Year 4 Reading Progression TRF
Year 5 Reading Progression TRF
Year 6 Reading Progression TRF
WRITING
Phonics and Early Reading at the Trent Rylands Federation
We follow the Little Wandle Synthetic Phonics Scheme
Click here to view a power point on how we teach Phonics And Reading Sept 22
