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Curriculum Intent

Shustoke C.E. Primary School Reading Provision

INTENT

At Shustoke Primary School, we aim to provide learners with a literacy rich environment, high quality texts and inspiring learning opportunities, which help pupils to

  • Read with confidence, expression, fluency, accuracy and understanding.
  • Develop life-long enjoyment of reading and books, by reading widely and for pleasure.
  • Apply a knowledge of synthetic phonics in order to decode unfamiliar words with increasing automaticity, accuracy and speed.
  • Gain new knowledge and insights into the world around them by reading across genre such as poetry, fiction, non-fiction and picture books.
  • Apply reading skills across the curriculum.
  • Develop a rich and varied vocabulary and linguistic knowledge by reading and listening to others read, and by engaging in high quality discussions and storytelling with both adults and peers.
  • Develop an awareness and appreciation of literature from a range of authors, cultures and heritage.

IMPLEMENTATION

Class texts

 

Our curriculum has been mapped to ensure that every class has a progressive program of high quality and varied texts that are appealing to our learners. These texts are adapted to meet the needs of our children, for example during the COVID pandemic. English work is then planned and delivered through the context of these texts.

Phonics

 

At Shustoke C of E Primary, we believe that all our children can become fluent readers and writers. This is why we teach reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme. We start teaching phonics in Reception and follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised progression, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school.

SPaG

 

SPAG sessions are taught regularly following a structure long term plan using the objectives set out in the National Curriculum. Alongside this, SPAG sessions are taught with our planned literacy units where children have the opportunity to apply these skills to writing. Spelling strategies are explicitly taught, and children have daily opportunities to practise these.

Reading for Pleasure

 

We run events and activities to promote reading for pleasure through the year. Each child is offered access to the local Library subscription, and can access books, magazines and activities.

Children also have access to an online collection of eBooks, which they can read at their leisure. Please see below for more information about how we implement reading for pleasure.

Whole school reading events

 

We celebrate reading with events such as Nursery Rhyme Week, Roald Dahl Day and World Book Day. We organise various story and reading events throughout the year. These events bring the whole school together with a common theme.

Shared and Guided Reading

 

During shared reading sessions, the teacher models the reading process to the whole class as an expert reader, providing a high level of support. Teaching objectives are pre-planned and sessions are characterised by explicit teaching of specific reading strategies, oral response and high levels of collaboration. Children of all abilities are included in discussions by differentiated questions.

During guided reading sessions, referred to as reading practice sessions, the responsibility shifts to the learner. There are three sessions across a week, each with a different focus- fluency, prosody, and comprehension. It is intended that guided reading provides a forum for pupils to demonstrate what they have learned about reading. The focus for the reading is concerned with reinforcing and extending strategies and/or objectives already taught in literacy lessons. By the end of the sessions, we aim for children to be reading with at least 95% fluency.

Reading widely and Reading across the Curriculum

 

 

Reading and writing is taught across the curriculum ensuring that skills taught in these lessons are applied in other subjects.

Our curriculum provides access to a range of text types across different genre. Children develop an appreciation of authors, cultures and heritage through exposure to these texts, and through rich discussion and reading based activities.

IMPACT
  • Early reading is prioritised and children make good progress because of the consistent implementation of our validated phonics programme, Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised across Key Stage 1.
  • Because of the breadth of reading books on offer and the strong reading system across school, reading records show that children read widely, and comments made during reading discussions show that children read for enjoyment and pleasure.
  • Results from fluency assessments using the book banded system show that children read widely and that their reading books match their reading competence.
  • Children are confident to contribute to whole class book talk discussions and are excited about reading. Book trawls identify progress across the curriculum such as cross-curricular reading and strong progression in skills are text coverage across school.
  • Classroom visits evidence inviting reading areas where children regularly choose books that they enjoy reading.
  • Uptake of reading activities such as the Summer Reading Challenge and the Rainbow Reading Challenge demonstrates interest and engagement in reading. Annual whole staff curriculum planning INSET sessions allow school to continually review and adapt the reading curriculum in consultation with the adults working directly with children.
  • We believe that reading is key to all learning, and that the impact of our reading curriculum goes beyond the result of statutory assessments. Children have the opportunity to enter the magical worlds that reading opens up to them. As they develop their own interest in books, a deep love of literature across a range of genres cultures and styles is enhanced.
  • The vast majority of children pass the phonics screening test at the end of Year One, and our results are well above the National percentages year on year. Reading results in EYFS, KS1 and KS2 SATs compare favourably to or are above consortium, county and national reading scores.
  • As a Year 6 reader, transitioning into secondary school, children are fluent, confident and able readers, who can access a range of texts for pleasure and enjoyment, as well as use their reading skills to unlock learning and all areas of the curriculum. We firmly believe that reading is the key to all learning and so the impact of our reading curriculum goes beyond the results of the statutory assessments.

Writing Intention, Implementation and Impact

Our School Vision

At Shustoke C of E Primary School we aim to begin with the child, encouraging and supporting each individual to become a positive member of the community through childhood and into adult life. We seek to ensure all children enjoy their school experience, developing their confidence, self esteem, gifts and talents through a stimulating curriculum in which they initiate learning as active partners, and rise to challenges giving of their best.

We endeavour to prepare the children for the next stage in their education and to make a positive contribution to our rapidly changing world. We believe that all children have the potential to learn, develop academically, socially, morally, spiritually and culturally caring about others and the world in which we live. We work in partnership and welcome all parents, governors, the church and the community in the life of the school, providing education of the highest quality within the context of the Christian belief and practice.

Our Core Values

At Shustoke C of E Primary School, we promote the following core values:

  • Respect
  • Courtesy
  • Honesty
  • Caring
  • Equality
  • Forgiveness

School aims

By fulfilling the following aims we want all our children to be happy, successful, caring and confident,

  • to provide a stimulating learning environment which considers all aspects of a child’s development
  • to encourage every child to develop as an independent, self-motivated learner
  • to recognise and celebrate achievement in all aspects of life
  • to value each individual’s contribution within a climate of mutual care, trust, respect and honesty
  • encourage parents to be fully involved in their children’s learning
  • to enable each child to feel pride and self-worth in contributing to the school’s place in the school community, local community, national community and global community
  • to actively involve the church in the life of the school
  • to actively involve the wider community in the life of the school and promote community cohesion

Curriculum aims

The staff and governors believe that the school curriculum should:

  • be appropriate to the needs, abilities and aptitudes of individual pupils
  • promote intellectual, moral, social, creative, cultural, spiritual, emotional and physical development of pupils
  • seek to develop the knowledge, concepts, skills and attitudes of pupils in ways which are relevant to the needs of individual pupils and the wider community in which they live
  • reflect the multicultural and multi-faith nature of society
  • presume that all pupils may at some time have special educational and emotional needs requiring particular provision
  • seek to ensure equality of opportunity and the recognition that people are entitled to equal opportunities and challenge discrimination.

Intent

At Shustoke, we believe that all pupils should be able to confidently communicate their knowledge, ideas and emotions through their writing. We want pupils to acquire a wide vocabulary, a solid understanding of grammar and be able to spell new words by effectively applying the spelling patterns and rules they learn throughout their time in primary school. We want them to write clearly, accurately, coherently, and creatively, adapting their language and style for a range of meaningful contexts, purposes and audiences.
Handwriting, spelling and grammar will be explicitly taught to ensure that children are able to understand the conventions of writing and manipulate language to create effects for the reader.
We believe that all pupils should be encouraged to take pride in the presentation of their writing. From Y1, children will learn the cursive script and will present their writing in variety of ways and write for a variety of genres for both English lessons and the wider curriculum. Children will acquire and learn the skills to plan, draft and refine their written work over time and are encouraged to develop independence in being able to identify their own areas for improvement.

Implementation

During English lessons, the use of quality differentiated texts is used to teach the core skills in-line with the expectations of the National Curriculum through a combination of approaches/opportunities

  • Shared writing
  • Guided writing
  • Whole class modelled writing
  • Independent writing
  • Writing different text types and narrative styles
  • Writing across a variety of curriculum areas
  • Handwriting Practice
  • Planning, drafting, editing, up-levelling and presenting
  • Stepping out the story using the storytelling strategies
  • Talk 4 Writing approaches

Handwriting

During reception class, children are taught to sit comfortably in order to have the correct posture for writing, hold a pencil and develop a legible handwriting style. From Year One, the school adopts a cursive handwriting style. Teachers role model the school’s handwriting style when marking children’s work, writing on the board and on displays around the school.

Spellings

Through exploring spelling patterns and rules, we aim to create confident and proficient spellers using a discrete teaching approach underpinned by phonics.

  • Children are also taught to
  • Spell accurately and identify reasons for mis-spellings.
  • Proof-read their spellings
  • Recognise and use word origins, families and roots to build their skills
  • Use dictionaries and thesauruses. 

Grammar, Punctuation and Vocabulary 

Grammar, punctuation and vocabulary skills are taught explicitly during writing lessons and the children identify how authors have used them effectively during their reading lessons. Grammar and punctuation is planned and taught using the 2014 National curriculum year group expectations and children are expected to apply their knowledge in their writing. 

Impact

Teachers use assessment as an integral part of the teaching and learning process and link it clearly to the children’s next steps. Teachers record and track each child’s progress. They use a variety of formative assessment methods and constructive marking strategies.

The impact on our children is that they have the knowledge and skills to be able to write successfully for a purpose and audience. With the implementation of the writing sequence being established and taught in both key stages, children are becoming more confident writers and have the ability to plan, draft and edit their own work. By the end of key stage 2 children have developed a writer’s craft, they enjoy sustained writing and can manipulate language, grammar and punctuation to create effect. As all aspects of English are an integral part of the curriculum, cross curricular writing provides opportunities to consolidate skills taught in English lessons and are transferred into other subjects. Children demonstrate consolidation of skills and a deeper understanding of how and when to use specific language, grammar and punctuation.