Intent 

At John Shelton Primary School, our English curriculum is designed to enable our children to become confident readers, writers and communicators to sufficiently prepare them for the wider world. We aim to instil a love of reading by exposing children to a wide range of literature, fostering critical thinking and comprehension skills. In writing, our goal is to develop each pupil's ability to express their thoughts clearly and creatively, understanding the purpose and audience and using correct grammatical techniques. We use high quality texts, interesting stimuli and ensure outcomes are purposeful with the audience in mind. Through Oracy, we prioritise the development of strong speaking and listening skills, enabling our children to communicate effectively and with confidence. Children are given opportunities to regularly practise and review key skills across the wider curriculum. 

Reading

At John Shelton, we teach children to read using phonics. The phonics scheme that we follow is Ruth Miskin’s Read Write Inc. You can find out more information about our phonics teaching and learning here.

Once the children have successfully completed the phonics programme, reading lessons focus on fluency and comprehension.

Our reading programme, which is taught in Years 2-6, follows a 5 part sequence which focuses on reading with fluency and comprehension.

We use VIPERS as our main skill focus teaching strategy which focuses on vocabulary, inference, prediction, explanation, retrieval, sequencing and summarising.

Children read a wide range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry through our reading programme.

Our home-reading books are matched up to children’s reading ability and are progressive.

Reading Spine

Our JS Reading Spine consists of Pie Corbett’s recommended reads in the Early Years and The 5 Plagues of Reading in Years 1-6. The 5 Plagues were created by Doug Lemov and consist of text types that ‘all children should have access to in order to successfully navigate reading with confidence’.

Each year group has their own Reading Spine and these books are read aloud by an adult over the course of the year. Adults read aloud to children every day.

Reading for Pleasure

Reading is at the heart of our school with our fully functional library. All children borrow a library book of their choice once a week, in addition to their home-reading book. The School’s Library Service supports us annually by providing us with new books linked to our curriculum for our children to enjoy reading.

Our classroom book corners are fully stocked with fiction, non-fiction, graphic novels and poetry. The School’s Library Service provides us with a selection of books termly that are new fiction and non-fiction linked with curriculum topics which are age appropriate.

Children and school staff regularly engage in ‘Book Talk’ where books are shared, discussed and recommended. Our monthly ‘Book Talk’ newsletters, also support our parents and carers with reading for pleasure ideas.

Reading Ambassadors

Our Minister of English and our JS Reading Ambassadors support reading across the school in many ways. By supporting with reading events, engaging in pupil voice, listening to readers and sharing their passion for reading, our Reading Ambassadors take their role very seriously.

Writing

In Reception and Year 1, our children follow the RWInc scheme for writing outcomes. Children focus on the fundamentals of ‘say a sentence’, ‘hold a sentence’ and then ‘write a sentence’. Children move on to composing their own pieces of writing linked to the scheme. RWInc meets the writing expectations of the EYFS Statutory Framework and the National Curriculum.

In Year 1, children participate in a ‘Writing Week’ each half term to apply their developing writing skills to a different text type. They are introduced to a text as a hook and then create a written outcome linked to the text which meets the National Curriculum expectations for Year 1.

At John Shelton, we have developed our own writing scheme, which is used in Years 2-6. We use high-quality texts and stimulating resources to engage and inspire our children. Children write a range of narrative, non-narrative and poetry pieces throughout the year. With a selection of writing outcomes being ‘published’ into the children’s ‘Published and Proud’ books and some outcomes presented orally or recorded, we have a strong focus on audience and purpose.

Each unit starts with exploring a text, then moving onto learning and applying specific grammar linked to the text and then composition with planning and creating a final written outcome.

In Years 2-6, grammar is weaved through our writing curriculum with every English lesson opening with a grammar starter. All expectations of grammar learning within the National Curriculum is planned across each year and children have plenty of opportunities to learn, apply and revisit. Year 6 have a focused grammar lesson once a week in addition to the daily grammar starters as part of their English units.

Spelling

At John Shelton, we teach spelling from Reception using Ruth Miskin’s RWInc programme. These spelling lessons are part of the daily phonics lesson. Children are taught to apply the phonemes they learn and the grapheme it matches to. They use ‘Fred Fingers’ to support them with spelling phonetically.

Watch this video which explains how we teach children to spell using ‘Fred Fingers’.

In Years 2-6, we use Read Write Inc Spelling which covers the National Curriculum expectations.

The programme follows a structure of:

• Learn something new​
• Practise​
• Consolidate in context​
• Review​

Children focus on a unit over a 2 week period.

Children also learn the National Curriculum Common Exception Words. These are practised within school, picked up in marking and sent home to learn. Each year group has its own set of words to learn.

Handwriting

Children in Early Years learn the RWInc letter formation to help them form their letters. This happens daily within their phonics lesson.

From Year 1, children follow the Nelson’s Handwriting scheme. Children are taught handwriting weekly and have focused practise sessions daily in their handwriting books. Letter formation and letter joins are explicitly taught and modelled.

Children who demonstrate consistently good handwriting will be awarded a handwriting pen to use in their lessons.

Oracy

We aim for our children to be confident communicators through speaking and listening. We encourage focused learning talk throughout our curriculum inviting children to ask questions, reason with their answers and use ambitious vocabulary.

Some of our English units have oracy outcomes where children develop their skills of spoken language, presentation and performance.