“Write to be understood, speak to be heard, read to grow...”

Lawrence Clark Powell

At King David Primary School, our aim is to develop articulate speakers, inspired writers, and avid readers, who can apply their knowledge of English to communicate successfully in an ever-changing world. We want our children’s aspirations to be limitless as they become the leaders and builders (bonayikh) of the future; we want them to understand that their skills in speaking, reading, and writing will enable them to succeed in whichever path they choose while making a positive contribution to their local community, as well as the global community.

Intent

At King David, we believe that a high-quality education in English will teach pupils to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others and through their reading and listening, others can communicate with them. Literature, especially, plays a key role in helping pupils to acquire knowledge, to know more and remember more, and to build on what they already know. At King David Primary School, we plan to ensure progression and coverage of the curriculum throughout the school and are driven by the purpose for writing. Quality texts are selected carefully and used as a stimulus giving opportunities for the children to explore and be challenged. Careful selection of texts throughout school enables our children to develop a rich and varied understanding of language, with opportunities to transfer this understanding to other areas of the curriculum and to prepare them for their future journey, in education and beyond.

In order to successfully deliver a structured, rich curriculum with clear progression of skills, we follow the statutory requirements of the National Curriculum 2014.

The national curriculum states that: 

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 word, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment. The national curriculum for English aims to ensure that all children:

• read easily, fluently and with good understanding
• develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information
• acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language
• appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage
• write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences
• use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas
• are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate.

Implementation

At King David, we view the teaching of English as a fundamental part of the holistic development of the children, fostering positive behaviours and attitudes toward learning, and providing key knowledge and skills to benefit pupils throughout their education and beyond.

Our English curriculum is derived around a sequence of high quality, age-appropriate model texts which meet the writing standards for each year group. We use each text to create opportunities to develop links between reading and writing. There are opportunities to develop fluency and comprehension with a focus on key reading strategies and skills; develop grammar and punctuation knowledge and understanding to use and apply across the wider curriculum; explore the writing structure and features of different genres, identify the purpose and audience; plan and write an initial piece of writing with a clear context and purpose; and evaluate the effectiveness of writing by editing and redrafting.

In addition to daily English lessons, children excel in early reading through daily Phonics sessions from Reception to Year 2. They continue to develop a range of reading skills, as well as a love of reading, by following our reading scheme before becoming a free reader. We use a wide variety of quality texts and resources to motivate and inspire our children. We also provide a wealth of enrichment opportunities such as book fairs and competitions.

Reading

At King David, we aim to foster a love of language and reading and, therefore, attach great importance to enabling our children to become fluent readers whilst promoting reading for enjoyment. We are determined to develop independence and fluency in all readers to ensure a life-long love of reading and ensuring that the children can achieve their full potential across all areas of the curriculum. We approach reading in three different ways: teaching reading skills explicitly; reading across the curriculum; and developing a reading culture.

Phonics/Early reading

The reading journey begins in Reception, where they follow a phonics based English programme, Read Write Inc (RWI).  Throughout school we prioritise early reading and adopt a consistent approach

• Regular training and development days ensure that staff are equipped to teach with the expertise and skills required to promote excellent progress, as well as a love of reading.
• In EYFS and KS1 (and where necessary KS2) daily phonic sessions form a central part of the teaching of reading. 
• Through the RWI programme, all children learn to read fluently and at speed so they can focus on developing their skills in comprehension, vocabulary and spelling.  The programme is designed for children aged 4-7. However, some children will need to access this programme beyond the age of 7 to meet individual needs. See separate phonics document https://www.kingdavidprimary.co.uk/read-write-inc/

• Children are given access to a wide range of reading materials (books, poems, and other written materials) to ignite their interests.
• Parents are invited to phonics workshops.
• Phonics books are sent home weekly to be read with parents.
• Children are helped to use books and stories to make sense of their physical world and their community through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology, and the environment.
• Lowest 20% are heard daily by TAs, staff and reading volunteers.

Key Stage 1 and 2

• The children have access to a range of different reading books. Each child in Reception and Year 1 will have access to a fully phonetically decodable book matched to their stage of phonics and a reading for pleasure book.

• The concepts of spelling are introduced using Spelling Shed to plan and teach spelling patterns.  The children can access this resource at home to apply and embed the skills they have learnt.
• Pupils who require further support in phonics in KS2 continue with dedicated phonics sessions.

• For children working below their chronological reading age, targeted intervention and support is put in place.
• Reading is taught through exploring age appropriate high quality, vocabulary rich texts. Teachers deliver whole class reading lessons which are progressive, language rich which focus on skills and strategies including comprehension needed to be proficient readers.
• Throughout the week, children will take part in individual reading and group reading. Group Reading may take many forms. It may be done whole class, or in smaller groups. The sessions will focus on a planned comprehension strategy. The sessions will also encourage and promote discussion and debate.
• A large focus on vocabulary within texts to increase word exposure and close the vocabulary gap.
• Comprehension teaching strategies based on content domains.

Reading Comprehension Development

Process of learning:

There will be a fixed 4-day cycle which follows the VIPERS pedagogical process. The cycle contains three strands: the class novel study; reading buffets and a comprehension.  Each session is heavily weighted towards vocabulary, inference, and retrieval. All content domains will be covered throughout the year.

Example of the reading buffet overview

Example of Medium Term Plan

Writing

At King David, we have worked hard with an external agency to design a bespoke English curriculum that has strong and purposeful cross curricular links.

Children are introduced to modelled texts which are the expected standard for each year group, and these are used as a basis for each unit of work.  These texts are used to aid the teaching of GPS as different features are found in the text type and it supports and builds children's specific topic vocabulary.  Following on from this the children are given the opportunity to write their own version of the text type they have been studying.  The children are then given the opportunity to edit and improve their writing, giving them first-hand experiences of being an editor!

 The Writing Journey

Our bespoke curriculum for KS1 and KS2 maps out the unit of writing, the taught spelling rule and any year group specific spellings which are to be taught within the contextualized writing journey. As with our other areas of English, this document is progressive and allows teachers to see previously taught genres, spelling rules and features; it also allows for certain elements of written practice to be repeated to ensure understanding.

Our writing journey ensures children recap text types in different year groups to build on previous skills taught by ensuring text specific features are consistent. Units generally last three weeks consisting of a diagnostic task, text deconstruction using a model text and contextualised teaching of grammar and spelling based upon gaps identified during diagnostic tasks. Writing is then chunked into sections for children to apply their learning from contextualised grammar during reconstruction. Children can edit their work and redraft. The children then complete a final write, which is assessed to inform future planning.

Spelling

Spelling rules from the National Curriculum have been mapped out across the writing units (where possible) to allow the children the opportunity to apply the rule in their writing.  Spelling is taught through a separate spelling lesson and the children are then given the opportunity to practise these spellings. Alongside the spelling rules, children are taught the common exception words for their phase. A mix of the spelling rule spellings and common exception words are sent as home for the children to practise, using spelling shed.

Grammar

As part of our bespoke writing curriculum, we have decided to implement discrete GPS lessons within the writing units to help build the fundamentals of writing. We have mapped out all grammar objectives stated from the National Curriculum into a ‘Place Value of Punctuation’, which allows for new concepts to be ‘layered’ throughout school. This place value of punctuation starts from summer term in reception.

Please click below to view the topic overviews for Year 1-6 to see the curriculum maps for writing.

Whole School Events

We celebrate a range of special events including National Poetry Day, Black History Month and World Book Day. We also plan whole school competitions such as the Eight Days of Chanukah, Poetry Slams and Book World Cups. These events unite all year groups in their enjoyment of reading while giving the children the opportunity to work in their house teams and display our core values.

Impact

By the end of primary school, we aim for our children to have developed a love for writing and to be able to express their thoughts, ideas and imaginations through written word. The writing curriculum at our school encourages children to immerse themselves in different text types, understand the features and impact of these, and realise the importance of them beyond education. A secure knowledge of spelling and grammar and an understanding of how to edit writing is taught throughout the school in a systematic and progressive way. The content of writing lessons is planned to build on children’s previous knowledge, with teachers planning diagnostically to teach what is needed as well as introduce new learning in a fun and memorable way.