English

Intent 

At St. Paul’s Catholic Primary School, we strive to give children the gift of reading for pleasure and believe that reading is the key for academic success. We value reading as a key life skill and are dedicated to enabling pupils to become purposeful lifelong readers. 

We intend that all children: 

• read fluently with a good understanding; 

• become enthusiastic and motivated readers; 

• read often for both pleasure and information; 

• acquire a wide knowledge and vocabulary from a range of genres and text type; 

• use reading to provoke thought and discussion, as well as supporting them emotionally. 

Implementation

Reading begins in Early Years with lots of talk and exploration of stories and themes. A love of books is nurtured as children journey through our school and all the National Curriculum objectives for reading are delivered as outlined in our Progression of Skills for Reading document.  

Phonics and decoding are the essential building blocks for reading and there is detailed information and support about our chosen SSP (Systematic, Synthetic Programme) available on the Phonics Subject Statement tab.    

Even before children are ready to read print, they have a wealth of opportunity to engage with books and print in their environment. Reading fluency is the next key focus and children begin to develop their reading fluency in Read Write Inc sessions, moving onto Whole Class Guided Reading in the Autumn or Spring term of Year 2. 

Reading Comprehension 

Guided Reading Sessions are delivered three times weekly with additional reading instruction across the curriculum. Vipers skills are developed from Y2 (vocabulary, inference, prediction, explanation, retrieval and sequencing/summarising). This approach ensures pupils make good comprehension progress and develop the skills needed to analyse a text. Crucial to this is reading fluency and stamina so a key focus of our guided reading lessons is improving reading fluency as well as sharing a love of books with the children.   

Our reading curriculum ensures knowledge and skills are built upon each year. Teachers use a variety of texts and written material for guided reading lessons, these often link to writing genres being studied or other curriculum areas being taught.  

Assessment 

Read Write Inc assessments are carried out every six weeks. This allows any child falling behind to be supported to catch up. Fluency is also measured as part of these assessments. From Reception to Year 2, we use the online reading platform Reading Eggs where children work through reading skills lessons at their individual level. Pupils in Years 3- 6 use Reading Plus to ensure they are reading a range of engaging texts. Both programmes are used by teachers to support on-going assessment. NFER tests are also used to assess children termly. 

Intervention 

Any children not making the expected progress in reading have additional 1:1 or small group support using appropriate intervention programmes. Precision teaching is another very effective approach that we use to support individuals. Class teachers discuss options with the Reading Leader and report on progress during termly Pupil Progress Meetings. 

Home Reading Books 

At St. Paul’s, we have an effective home-school reading system where children take home a reading books that is appropriately matched to their reading level. Nursery children have a story sack loan system. From Reception to Year 2, children take home a Read Write Inc ‘Book Bag Book’ or blending book to reinforce the phonic phase at which they are working. This phase is reassessed every six weeks to ensure children make rapid progress. Beyond Phonics, children move through ‘book bands’, choosing their own reading books from a wide variety of high-quality texts in the library. 

We request that children read for at least 15 minutes each day at home. Reading Records are used to record home reading and from Y4, children use reading journals to respond to their reading. 

Reading for Pleasure 

There is a buzz about books at St Paul’s which begins with our wonderful Staff who share and model their love of reading every day. Classrooms have recommended reads and texts that and updated regularly. Teachers read with passion and enthusiasm, discussing their own favourite books and authors. At lunchtime, our reading buddies read with our younger children in designated reading zones. ‘Book Club’ is a dedicated time to talk about and share a love of reading when children talk about the books they enjoy and make recommendations to their friends. We also engage in a variety of activities to celebrate reading including virtual author visits, books swaps, competitions and, of course, World Book Day – one of the highlights of the year! 

Impact

• Pupils will develop a love of books and read for pleasure across a range of genres; 

• Pupils of all abilities will be able to succeed in all reading lessons; 

• Pupils will be ready to read in any subject in their forthcoming secondary education 

• Parents and carers will have a good understanding of how they can support reading and home, and contribute regularly to home-school records; 

• ARS will be above national average for expected and at greater depth standards 

• There will be no significant gaps in the progress of different groups of pupils 

• Pupils will be well placed to make good progress at Key Stage 3 

Reading Curriculum

Intent

At St. Paul’s our intent is that every child learns to write with intent.

To do this, we help them to:

• develop the skills of a writer as a lifelong means for communication and expressing one-self;
• write clearly and accurately with purpose, adapting language and style for a range of contexts, always with the reader in mind;
• appreciate the richness and power of the written word.

Implementation

At St. Paul’s, we have designed our writing curriculum to inspire our children to become happy, confident writers. Teaching is supported by the recommendations identified in the EEF’s ‘Improving Literacy’ recommendations at both KS1 & KS2.  Writing outcomes are developed across a 2 week unit, with purposefully selected, high quality texts as the foundation.   Children begin by developing their oracy skills and appropriate tier 2 vocabulary, often learning a text by heart using the Talk for Writing approach. They use short-burst writing activities to really build their confidence with the genre. All grammar and sentence structure teaching is embedded within the context which really helps the children to develop as writers, understanding the impact on their audience.  Teachers also use resources from Literacy Shed + which provides writing units linked to high quality, engaging, age-appropriate texts.

In all year groups, children study a variety of text types and genres; this may include recounts, news reports, explanation texts, poems, plays and stories of all kinds. Lessons during the first week of the unit will focus on identifying the specific features of the text type,  extending vocabulary and teaching specific grammar objectives. Lots of engaging activities are used to really immerse the children in the text, ensuring a vocabulary-rich experience.  The second stage is an opportunity for the children to plan their own  extended  piece of writing, applying and building upon the skills and language patterns they have learnt, drafting, editing and improving their work.

A writing ‘working wall’ is visible and used in all classes. This wall is interactive and updated throughout the English teaching cycle. It is used as a learning tool by the children and displays vocabulary, conjunctions, sentence openers and punctuation (VCOP) to support the children in uplevelling their writing. Model texts and genre toolkits are used where appropriate. Talk for Writing’s ‘Progression in Grammar’ document provides the basis for a range of activities to ensure the children develop their syntactic skills,  supported also by Alan Peat’s sentence types.  

The National Curriculum’s statutory requirements for spelling are taught using Spelling Shed to ensure progress and consistency across the school. In EY and KS1 spellings are linked to the phonics being taught. Spelling homework is accessed through www.spellingshed.co.uk

We encourage our children to always take pride in their writing and to respect their books. They complete writing work in their ‘Writing Profiles’ which reflect the rich variety of writing opportunities in school. We celebrate their achievements weekly with ‘Handwriter of the Week’ and children often share their work with SLT. We always encourage our children to enter competitions such as the BBC 500 Word competition and have seen lots of success.

Impact

• Children make excellent progress in the quality of their writing content, genre and sentence structure.
• Children are confident writers who are able to respond to a stimulus in Y6, in their own choice of genre.
• Children understand the power of the written word and the potential impact on the audience.