English

English in the Early Years:

In Nursery and Reception we follow the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Curriculum 2020, within which English is divided into two key areas of learning. These are then further broken down into core skills: Communication and Language (‘listening, attention and understanding’ and ‘speaking’), and, Literacy (‘comprehension’, ‘word reading’ and ‘writing’).

Intent:

At Holmesdale, English in the Early Years involves providing children with a language rich environment. We feel that language development is integral to the children’s overall progress, and therefore build upon the skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing within the Early Years. We want the children to move into Key Stage 1 with good habits of listening and concentration as well as being able to express themselves clearly. In Reception the children will also begin to further develop their skills in reading and writing, and build upon the learning already achieved to enable them to become fluent readers and writers. Constant assessment through observations allows the children to be supported and challenged at their own individual level as we understand that all children progress differently during their learning journey.

Implementation:

In delivering our English Curriculum within EYFS we offer the following experiences to the children:

• High quality and engaging texts to inspire creativity, which are often repeated and dramatised
• Stories read that are from a wide range of contexts
• Daily dedicated time for stories, poem/rhymes and songs
• Whole class shared reading lessons
• One to one weekly diagnostic reads with an adult
• Carefully planned enhanced provision which supports the development of early reading and writing skills
• Shared and modelled writing
• Independent writing opportunities for children to apply the skills they have been taught
• To promote a love of reading for every child staff regularly model reading for pleasure, we have high quality book corners and reading books throughout the provision
• Inspiring learning through crosscurricular teaching, WOW days, visits etc.
• Planning for questions which develop and help the children explain their thinking
• Giving the children a purpose to writing and opportunities to celebrate their reading and writing around the school
• Plenty of speaking and listening opportunities for all children and partner talk planned into adult led sessions
• School developed systematic synthetic phonics scheme in place which follows the DFE’s Letters and sounds programme
• Phonics phase reading scheme in place which is closely linked to each child’s current phonics level and additional nondecodable ‘read to me’ books which are closely linked to sight/tricky word vocabulary within each phase
• Focus on development of vocabulary through shared reading and conversation within the setting

Impact:

By the end of EYFS children will have been exposed to a whole range of language, developed their reading, writing, speaking and listening skills and be able to transfer these outside of the classroom to the world around them. Children should be fluent with their phonetic knowledge and able to apply this confidently to their reading and writing. This curriculum is providing the children with a well-rounded picture of the purpose of reading and writing and how they are embedded into our everyday lives. Children will be assessed against age related expectations in reading, writing and phonics. This assessment will then directly inform planning to ensure that all children’s needs are being catered to appropriately. Learning will be differentiated effectively to ensure that challenge and achievement is reached at all levels.

Expectation:

Early Learning Goals for Reception

Listening, attention and understanding

• Listen attentively and respond to what they hear with relevant questions, comments and actions when being read to and during whole class discussions and small group interactions;
• Make comments about what they have heard and ask questions to clarify their understanding;
• Hold conversation when engaged in back-and-forth exchanges with their teacher and peers

Speaking

• Participate in small group, class and one-to-one discussions, offering their own ideas, using recently introduced vocabulary;
• Offer explanations for why things might happen, making use of recently introduced vocabulary from stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems when appropriate;
• Express their ideas and feelings about their experiences using full sentences, including use of past, present, and future tenses and making use of conjunctions, with modelling and support from their teacher.

Reading

Comprehension ELG Children at the expected level of development will:

• Demonstrate understanding of what has been read to them by retelling stories and narratives using their own words and recently introduced vocabulary;
• Anticipate – where appropriate – key events in stories;
• Use and understand recently introduced vocabulary during discussions about stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems and during role-play.

Word Reading ELG Children at the expected level of development will:

• Say a sound for each letter in the alphabet and at least 10 digraphs;
• Read words consistent with their phonic knowledge by sound-blending;
• Read aloud simple sentences and books that are consistent with their phonic knowledge, including some common exception words.

Writing

Children at the expected level of development will:

• Write recognisable letters, most of which are correctly formed;
• Spell words by identifying sounds in them and representing the sounds with a letter or letters;
• Write simple phrases and sentences that can be ready by others.

ENGLISH IN KS1

Intent:

In Key Stage 1 we follow the National Curriculum, and within this we consolidate and embed our knowledge/ skills gained from the EYFS and build upon what we have learnt. At Holmesdale School we believe that English and the teaching of English is the foundation of our curriculum. Our main aim is to embed the core English skills; vocabulary, spelling, punctuation and grammar and ensure that children develop the fluency to be able to confidently apply these skills to their own work, building on the language skills the children have developed during the Early Years. We understand that each child has their own starting point upon entry to each year group, and we strive to ensure that all children make good progress no matter where their starting point may be. This is achieved through planning and teaching creative lessons which are differentiated to meet the needs of all children, as well as providing additional support to ensure every child can celebrate success.

Implementation:

In delivering our English Curriculum within Key Stage 1 we offer the following experiences to the children:

• High quality and engaging texts to inspire creativity, which are often repeated and dramatised
• Stories read that are from a wide range of contexts
• Daily dedicated time for stories, poem/rhymes and songs
• Daily whole class shared reading lessons
• One to one weekly diagnostic reads with an adult
• Shared and modelled writing
• Independent writing opportunities for children to apply the skills they have been taught
• To promote a love of reading for every child staff regularly model reading for pleasure, we have high quality book corners and reading books throughout the provision
• Inspiring learning through crosscurricular teaching, WOW days, visits etc.
• Planning for questions which develop and help the children explain their thinking
• Giving the children a purpose to writing and opportunities to celebrate their reading and writing around the school
• Plenty of speaking and listening opportunities for all children
• School developed systematic synthetic phonics scheme in place which follows the DFE’s Letters and sounds programme
• Phonics phase reading scheme in place which is closely linked to each child’s current phonics level and additional nondecodable ‘read to me’ books which are closely linked to sight/tricky word vocabulary within each phase
• Colour banded reading scheme for children working beyond phase 5 in their phonics development

Impact:

By the end of Key Stage 1 children will have been exposed to a whole range of language, developed their reading, writing, speaking and listening skills and be able to transfer these outside of the classroom to the world around them. Children should be fluent with their phonetic knowledge and be able to apply this confidently to their reading and writing. They should be able readers, and read for meaning, purpose and enjoyment. Our curriculum provides the children with a well-rounded picture of what English is and how this is embedded into our everyday lives. Children will be assessed against age related expectations. This assessment with then directly inform planning to ensure that all children’s needs are being catered to appropriately. Learning will be differentiated effectively to ensure that challenge and achievement is reached at all levels.

Expectation:

Year 1

Word Reading

• apply phonic knowledge and skills as the route to decode words
• respond speedily with the correct sound to graphemes (letters or groups of letters) for all 40+ phonemes, including, where applicable, alternative sounds for graphemes
• read accurately by blending sounds in unfamiliar words containing GPCs that have been taught
• read common exception words, noting unusual correspondences between spelling and sound and where these occur in the word
• read words containing taught GPCs and –s, –es, –ing, –ed, –er and –est endings
• read other words of more than one syllable that contain taught GPCs
• read words with contractions [for example, I’m, I’ll, we’ll], and understand that the apostrophe represents the omitted letter(s)
• read books aloud, accurately, that are consistent with their developing phonic knowledge and that do not require them to use other strategies to work out words
• reread these books to build up their fluency and confidence in word reading.

Comprehension

• develop pleasure in reading, motivation to read, vocabulary and understanding by:
• listening to and discussing a wide range of poems, stories and non-fiction at a level beyond that at which they can read independently
• being encouraged to link what they read or hear to their own experiences
• becoming very familiar with key stories, fairy stories and traditional tales, retelling them and considering their particular characteristics
• recognising and joining in with predictable phrases
• learning to appreciate rhymes and poems, and to recite some by heart
• discussing word meanings, linking new meanings to those already known
• understand both the books they can already read accurately and fluently and those they listen to by:
• drawing on what they already know or on background information and vocabulary provided by the teacher
• checking that the text makes sense to them as they read, and correcting inaccurate reading
• discussing the significance of the title and events
• making inferences on the basis of what is being said and done
• predicting what might happen on the basis of what has been read so far
• participate in discussion about what is read to them, taking turns and listening to what others say
• explain clearly their understanding of what is read to them.

Writing

• spell:
  • words containing each of the 40+ phonemes already taught
  • common exception words
  • the days of the week
• name the letters of the alphabet:
  • naming the letters of the alphabet in order
  • using letter names to distinguish between alternative spellings of the same sound
• add prefixes and suffixes:
  • using the spelling rule for adding –s or –es as the plural marker for nouns and the third person singular marker for verbs
  • using the prefix un–
  • using –ing, –ed, –er and –est where no change is needed in the spelling of root words [for example, helping, helped, helper, eating, quicker, quickest]
• apply simple spelling rules and guidance,
• write from memory simple sentences dictated by the teacher that include words using the GPCs and common exception words taught so far.
• sit correctly at a table, holding a pencil comfortably and correctly
• begin to form lower-case letters in the correct direction, starting and finishing in the right place
• form capital letters
• form digits 0-9
• understand which letters belong to which handwriting ‘families’ (ie letters that are formed in similar ways) and to practise these
• write sentences by:
  • saying out loud what they are going to write about
  • composing a sentence orally before writing it
  • sequencing sentences to form short narratives
  • re-reading what they have written to check that it makes sense
• discuss what they have written with the teacher or other pupils
• read their writing aloud, clearly enough to be heard by their peers and the teacher
• develop their understanding of the concepts by:
  • leaving spaces between words
  • joining words and joining clauses using ‘and’
  • beginning to punctuate sentences using a capital letter and a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark
  • using a capital letter for names of people, places, the days of the week, and the personal pronoun ‘I’
  • learning the grammar for year 1
• use the grammatical terminology in discussing their writing

Year 2

Reading

• continue to apply phonic knowledge and skills as the route to decode words until automatic decoding has become embedded and reading is fluent
• read accurately by blending the sounds in words that contain the graphemes taught so far, especially recognising alternative sounds for graphemes
• read accurately words of two or more syllables that contain the same graphemes as above
• read words containing common suffixes
• read further common exception words, noting unusual correspondences between spelling and sound and where these occur in the word
• read most words quickly and accurately, without overt sounding and blending, when they have been frequently encountered
• read aloud books closely matched to their improving phonic knowledge, sounding out unfamiliar words accurately, automatically and without undue hesitation
• reread these books to build up their fluency and confidence in word reading
• develop pleasure in reading, motivation to read, vocabulary and understanding by:
  • listening to, discussing and expressing views about a wide range of contemporary and classic poetry, stories and non-fiction at a level beyond that at which they can read independently
  • discussing the sequence of events in books and how items of information are related
  • becoming increasingly familiar with and retelling a wider range of stories, fairy stories and traditional tales
  • being introduced to non-fiction books that are structured in different ways
  • recognising simple recurring literary language in stories and poetry
  • discussing and clarifying the meanings of words, linking new meanings to known vocabulary
  • discussing their favourite words and phrases
  • continuing to build up a repertoire of poems learnt by heart, appreciating these and reciting some, with appropriate intonation to make the meaning clear
• understand both the books that they can already read accurately and fluently and those that they listen to by:
  • drawing on what they already know or on background information and vocabulary provided by the teacher
  • checking that the text makes sense to them as they read, and correcting inaccurate reading
  • making inferences on the basis of what is being said and done
  • answering and asking questions
  • predicting what might happen on the basis of what has been read so far
• participate in discussion about books, poems and other works that are read to them and those that they can read for themselves, taking turns and listening to what others say
• explain and discuss their understanding of books, poems and other material, both those that they listen to and those that they read for themselves

Writing

• segmenting spoken words into phonemes and representing these by graphemes, spelling many correctly
• learning new ways of spelling phonemes for which 1 or more spellings are already known, and learn some words with each spelling, including a few common homophones
• learning to spell common exception words
• learning to spell more words with contracted forms
• learning the possessive apostrophe (singular) [for example, the girl’s book]
• distinguishing between homophones and near-homophones
• add suffixes to spell longer words including –ment, –ness, –ful, –less, –ly
• apply spelling rules and guidance
• write from memory simple sentences dictated by the teacher that include words using the GPCs, common exception words and punctuation taught so far
• form lower-case letters of the correct size relative to one another
• start using some of the diagonal and horizontal strokes needed to join letters and understand which letters, when adjacent to one another, are best left unjoined
• write capital letters and digits of the correct size, orientation and relationship to one another and to lower-case letters
• use spacing between words that reflects the size of the letters
• develop positive attitudes towards and stamina for writing by:
  • writing narratives about personal experiences and those of others (real and fictional)
  • writing about real events
  • writing poetry
  • writing for different purposes
• consider what they are going to write before beginning by:
  • planning or saying out loud what they are going to write about
  • writing down ideas and/or key words, including new vocabulary
  • encapsulating what they want to say, sentence by sentence
• make simple additions, revisions and corrections to their own writing by:
  • evaluating their writing with the teacher and other pupils
  • rereading to check that their writing makes sense and that verbs to indicate time are used correctly and consistently, including verbs in the continuous form
  • proofreading to check for errors in spelling, grammar and punctuation (for example, ends of sentences punctuated correctly)
• read aloud what they have written with appropriate intonation to make the meaning clear
  • learn how to use both familiar and new punctuation correctly, including full stops, capital letters, exclamation marks, question marks, commas for lists and apostrophes for contracted forms and the possessive (singular)
  • learn how to use:
  • sentences with different forms: statement, question, exclamation, command
  • expanded noun phrases to describe and specify [for example, the blue butterfly]
  • the present and past tenses correctly and consistently, including the progressive form
  • subordination (using when, if, that, or because) and co-ordination (using or, and, or but)
  • the grammar for year 2
  • some features of written Standard English
• use and understand the grammatical terminology in discussing their writing.