English
Reading, writing, speaking and listening are fundamental life skills. At The Olive School, Birmingham, through the English curriculum, our children will develop the skills, knowledge and vocabulary to enable them to communicate effectively and creatively through both spoken and written language. They will leave our school having developed their love of literature, passion for words, confidence to perform and having written for a range of meaningful outcomes.
Reading
We have designed our early reading curriculum with the intent that all children, regardless of background, will become a fluent, insightful readers. We have developed a curriculum that will instil in all children a love of reading that we hope will stay with them for life. We understand that children who are confident adept readers will be empowered to succeed in all other areas. We understand that parents and carers play a vital role in the development of early reading and in nurturing positive habits and attitudes towards reading. We welcome this and their contribution.
Our Early Reading programme provides:
- direct, focused phonics, using the Read Write Inc programme, which is taught every day in Reception and Key Stage 1
- phonics which is taught progressively from Reception to Y2 as an effective way of developing children’s reading and spelling skills.
- the development of sight-recognition of words to complement the teaching of phonics.
- an approach where children read from books with the sounds they know, while they are learning to read
- extra practice with teachers and teaching assistants the day for specific children
Reading is an integral part of our EYFS curriculum. The broad and rich curriculum is based around story and throughout Reception children are immersed in a different story every week with the story being read to them 5 times a day, every day. Children retell the story, read the story in provision, use the story as a basis for writing and use props and puppets from the story within their play. We introduce all children to a wide range of children’s literature, broadening their sense of the wider world.
Phonics is taught systematically through the Read Write Inc. (RWI) synthetic phonics programme. In Reception, children continue to learn how to decode sounds in words. They are assessed every half term and grouped according to their stage of development. Read Write Inc is taught daily with sessions lasting 30 minutes to an hour. The children learn 44 sounds (NOT letter names) and the corresponding letters/letter groups using simple picture prompts. They learn to read words using Fred talk and sound blending. The scheme enables the children to read from a range of storybooks and non-fiction books matched to their phonic knowledge. Through the teaching of phonics, our children begin to develop their comprehension skills.
We use the Wellcomm programme to provide pupils with daily play-based activities that support pupils’ speech and language development.
Key stage 1
Key stage 1 continues to follow the RWI scheme for the teaching of reading. Children are assessed each half term and re-grouped accordingly. Children take home texts which are matched to their current level of development, ensuring they can read them with fluency and confidence. All children in Year 1 read to an adult daily and their reading records are updated. This continues until our children are reading fluently. Children who do not achieve the Expected Standard in the phonics screening test in Year 1 receive follow-up phonics interventions, linked to the RWI scheme.
Our key stage 1 children supplement the RWI sessions with whole class shared reading. Texts for these sessions link to their topic or English book. Children are taught a discrete reading skill in each of these sessions, such as retrieval and inference.
Key stage 2
Reading is taught following the whole class shared reading model, focusing on the development of reading skills, such as vocabulary, inference, predicting, explaining, retrieving and summarising.
We use a wide range of reading stimuli, including film clips, novels and extracts. Children, explore vocabulary and develop their understanding of the text through a range of reading activities which allow children to explore the author’s intent and develop a deeper understanding of characters, plots, and settings.
In addition to the daily reading lesson, children have the opportunity to read for pleasure and develop their love of literature through DEAR (Drop Everything and Read), regular storytelling, poetry recitals and book reviews.
Developing a love for reading
Developing a love for reading is an essential component to our curriculum offer. We enrich our core reading offer by having:
- themed reading weeks
- regular storytelling and class authors
- progressing through the Star Readers challenge
- celebrating national events such as World Book Day, Roald Dahl Day and National Poetry Day – inviting authors to the school
- paired reading
- embedding reading throughout the curriculum
- reading assemblies to share and celebrate literature
- Home school reading supported by books closely matched to pupils’ reading levels
- Engagement with the Star Readers initiative
- Access to a range of non-fiction literature
Writing
We want our children to be purposeful, creative and independent writers, able to write for a range of purposes and audiences.
In reception, our pupils learn to recognise letters, spell words by identifying sounds in them and representing the sounds with a letter(s). Pupils progress on to writing simple phrases and sentences that can be read by others.
From Year 1, pupils are given rich and exciting writing opportunities, systematically building the skills in order to be successful, confident and adaptable writers. Progressing through the essential stages of the writing processes, our children craft meaningful pieces for a purpose, celebrating these by displaying them on our writing galleries throughout the school.
- Become excited, creative and independent writers;
- Write for a range of purposes and across the curriculum, including, for example, a range of story genres, reports, instructions and recounts;
- Develop the stamina and skills to write at length;
- Use accurate spelling, punctuation and grammar, with a purpose;
- Write to support the consolidation of what they have heard or read.
A broad range of exciting and high quality texts are used to support these sequences of learning, according to the following whole school long term plan for writing:
| Fiction | Non-Fiction | Poetry | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | 1. Stories with Predictable and Patterned Language 2. Traditional Stories and Fairy Tales 3. Stories with Familiar Settings 4. Stories About Fantasy Worlds |
1. Labels, Lists and Captions 2. Instructions 3. Recounts – School trip 4. Non-chronological reports |
1. Poetry – Using the Senses 2. Poetry – Patterns and Rhyme 3. Traditional Poetry |
|
| Year 2 | 1. Stories with Familiar Settings 2. Traditional Stories and Fairy Tales 3. Stories from Other Cultures 4. Significant Author |
1. Instructions 2. Non-chronological reports – class topic encyclopaedia 3. Explanation Texts 4. Recounts – diary entry |
1. Poetry – Using the Senses 2. Poetry – Patterns and Rhyme 3. Traditional Poetry |
|
| Year 3 |
1. Stories with familiar settings 2. Traditional Tales |
1. Explanation Texts – with diagrams 2. Recounts 3. Non-chronological reports – Information Leaflets 4. Persuasive texts – book blurb |
1. Performance Poetry 2. Shape Poems and calligrams 3. Poetry- haiku, Tanka & kenning |
|
| Year 4 | 1. Stories from Other Cultures 2. Playscripts 3. Stories with Historical Settings 4. Stories set in Imaginary Worlds 5. Folktales |
1. Instructions 2. Explanation – with questions/answers 3. Persuasive Texts – letters/flier 4. Non-chronological reports – Information Leaflets 5. Recounts diary entry 6. Discussion Texts – write up a debate |
1. Performance Poetry 2. Poetry – The Power of Imagery3. Poetry Exploring Form |
|
| Year 5 | 1. Playscripts 2. Classic Fiction 3. Stories with Mystery Settings 4. Stories with Fantasy Settings 5. Stories with Scary Settings 6. Stories with Dilemmas and Issues |
1. Explanation Text – with complex diagrams – e.g. flow chart 2. Persuasive text – advertisement/letters 3. Discussion Texts – newspaper editorial 4. Recounts – Autobiographies5. Non-chronological reports |
1. Poetry – The Power of Imagery 2. Classic Poetry3. Poetry – Debate Poems |
|
| Year 6 | 1. Stories with Mystery Settings 2. Stories with Fantasy Settings 3. Stories with Flashbacks 4. Stories with Historical Settings |
1. Instructions – recap only 2. Explanation Texts – with multiple cause/effect 3. Recounts – newspaper reports and recap diaries 4. Discussion Texts – formal debate article 5. Recount – Biographies 6. Non-chronological reports 7. Persuasive Texts – formal letters |
1. Narrative Poetry |
Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPAG)
Developing discrete skills in SPAG, which can then be applied to children’s’ creative and extended writing, is essential to effective communication. SPAG is taught discretely and then applied to extended writing, based on the progression in skills as detailed in the SPAG progression map below. These skills are then applied to extended writing, to support the different types of writing.
Speaking and Listening
Speaking and listening underpins all learning. To be able to write competently, our children need to be articulate. We expect children to use Standard English at every opportunity, and for teachers to provide the standard. We promote children’s ability to explain and present their learning in every lesson and believe this deepens their knowledge and understanding. Examples include:
- Cold calling and regular questioning in lessons
- Formal and informal presentations in the classroom and at a whole school level (e.g. assemblies)
- Drama activities such as hot seating and conscience alley
- Opportunities to collaborate with peers across the curriculum
- Participation in plays, performances and debates
- Structured and open-ended opportunities in early years continuous provision to encourage interactions between children and their peers and with adults
Inclusion
We work tirelessly to ensure that all of our children achieve their reading and writing potential. Through the use of additional teacher models, pre-teaching, guided work, vocabulary support, technology, peer support and a personalised curriculum, we ensure that all of our children, including children with SEND, EAL and those new to English, are able to fully access our ambitious English curriculum.
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