Intent, Implementation & Impact
Intent
At Corpus Christi Catholic Primary School, English and the teaching of English is the bedrock to our entire curriculum. English is embedded in all lessons through our curriculum expectations and progression of skills, immersing the pupils in high-quality texts and our vocabulary rich learning environments. Through this we intend to enable all pupils to develop a love of reading and writing and to acquire the fundamental knowledge, skills and understanding to become lifelong learners and linguists. We aim for our pupils to achieve ‘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’ (National Curriculum for English). It is our intention to immerse pupils in the wonders of quality texts to instil a love for reading, a passion for discovery and a confidence to explore their imagination. We also recognise the importance of nurturing a culture where pupils take pride in their writing; can write clearly and accurately and adapt their language and style for a range of contexts.
We believe that re-visiting reading skills in a variety of ways is crucial to pupils’ progression through guided, shared, independent reading and reading comprehension. Our Guided Reading sessions cover a wide variety of both fiction and non-fiction books and support the development of pupils’ comprehension skills focusing the content domains. Pupils’ involvement in reciprocal reading in KS2 Guided Reading sessions, fosters their independent comprehension skills and group discussion of a text.
Our weekly Shared Reading sessions provide pupils with an interactive reading experience through the sharing of a book with the whole class. During these sessions, teachers model the skills of a proficient reader and develop their reading comprehension skills through using a range of Blooms Taxonomy Questions and activities based on the text that has been shared. Where possible, these book link to areas taught in a year group or a school focus such as Science Week.
Reading Comprehension sessions work on a 2 week cycle, where pupils are initially immersed in the text and focus on retrieval, surface based skills before moving onto deeper thinking and inference questioning in week 2. Pupils engage with the text and the skills they are learning through links made to ‘The Pawsome Gang’ content domains.
In Reception, pupils follow the Letters and Sounds Reading Scheme. Pupils are initially given books which do not have any words. This gives the pupils the opportunity to get to know how stories work including the order and direction in which they are read. Pupils are encouraged to look at illustrations to find out what is happening in the story and develop their oracy skills. Letter sounds are then taught each day and the pupils are taught to blend the sounds together to read words. By introducing pupils to the skills of sounding out and blending prior to reading, the pupils will be equipped with the necessary knowledge to confidently and successfully read unfamiliar words in books. As their ability increases the sounds used and the number of sounds in words increases. Magnetic letters, word puzzles and internet games all support learning in an interactive and engaging way. Through guided reading sessions, the pupils are provided with opportunities to learn and practise skills such as left to right directionality, book handling, simple prediction, understanding meaning, matching print to spoken word and locating familiar words.
In Key Stage 2, we continue to provide opportunities for pupils to read books at an age-appropriate interest level. We discuss and introduce pupils to a wide range of texts including stories, poems, plays and non-fiction pieces on a wide range of subjects. Pupils are encouraged to decode new words outside of their spoken vocabulary, making a good attempt at the word’s pronunciation. We model through echo reading, how to read fluently and enthusiastically. As pupils progress up the school these skills are further embedded and pupils continue to expand their vocabulary through exposure to stories, plays, poetry and non-fiction read by them and to them by others.
From EYFS to Year 6, we strive to deliver a range of opportunities to cultivate each pupil, including those who are disadvantaged and pupils with SEND, enabling them to reach their full potential and provide foundations for their future learning. We have high expectations, set ambitious targets and build upon pupil’s prior learning so that they continually develop their confidence and competence in reading, writing and spoken language. We appreciate and value the importance and impact that English skills and knowledge have across the curriculum and provide a range of opportunities to enable our pupils to apply these skills. At Corpus Christi School, we place high value on the key skills of reading and how the importance of reading books impacts significantly on a pupil’s future success in life
Implementation
From the time our pupils start EYFS up until Year 6, a love of reading is promoted and nurtured throughout their learning journey. We foster strong home-school links to encourage regular reading through home reading books which is supported through the pupils’ access to our school library. Pupils engage with reading and the essential reading skills is fostered through our use of ‘The Pawsome Gang’ which provides the pupils with memorable and creative characters linked to each content domain.
Essential early reading skills are developed through our use of the ‘Letter and Sounds’ programme which aims to build pupils’ speaking and listening skills, prepare pupils for learning to read and provide them with a repertoire of strategies to decode so that they can become fluent readers.
We strongly believe that high-quality texts are the key to opening pupils’ imagination and creativity, therefore we place a focus on using the Pie-Corbett Book Spine in English lessons. Alongside this, we encourage the use of fiction and non-fiction texts in our Golden Threads sessions which underpin the knowledge, understanding and skills of our curriculum.
In our vocabulary-deprived area, we enrich our pupils’ vocabulary pools through the use of these high-quality texts and the implementation of Concept Cat (in EYFS) and Vocabulary Ninja. From the start of a pupil’s entry into school they become familiar with Concept Cat. This is a puppet which helps the pupils learn new words in a fun and interactive way. Concept Cat has a story that is told every time he comes to play. These words are shared and displayed so that the pupils can speak them, understand them and read them. This is further enhanced with the use of Vocabulary Ninja, which provides a wealth of opportunities to discuss in depth the definition of a word and how it fits into a phrase or sentence. By displaying these words, we are providing a vocabulary rich environment for all pupils. Immersing our pupils in vocabulary rich environments, promotes questioning, resourcefulness and confidence which extends their understanding of written texts and application of new vocabulary to their own writing.
In Year 1, pupils use phonic knowledge as the prime approach for reading unfamiliar words. They are taught to read all phase 2, 3 and 5 graphemes by the end of Year 1 and consolidate their ability to blend words containing a range of consonant clusters. In Year 1, pupils need to develop pleasure in reading, motivation to read, an increased vocabulary and an improved level of understanding. We provide opportunities for this by listening to, and discussing a wide range of poems, stories and non-fiction texts at a level beyond which they can read independently. All reading books are closely related to phonics taught in class. By reading together, pupils can also be shown some of the processes for finding out information within a book. In Year 2, pupils continue to work on these skills but also learn about cause and effect in both narrative and non-narrative texts. This is developed through guided reading, shared reading and comprehension lessons and incorporates the reading content domains required for the SATs.
Impact
At Corpus Christi Catholic Primary School, we strive to ensure that our pupil's attainment is in line or exceeds their potential when we consider the varied starting points of all our pupils. It is our intention that the percentage of pupils working at ‘Age Related Expectations’ within each year group will be at least in line with national averages and that the percentage of pupils working at ‘Greater Depth’ within each year group will be at least in line with national averages. For us, this is measured using a range of materials: base-line assessments upon entry to EYFS, Phonic Screening Check, pupil progress meetings, planned interventions, termly non-statutory assessments (NTS Assessments) and statutory testing KS1 and KS2 SATs and writing moderation.
As we strongly believe English and the teaching of English is the cornerstone to our entire curriculum, writing standards across all subjects improve and taught English skills are applied and consolidated in a variety of other subjects.
We aim for all our pupils to:
- develop a love for reading and writing;
- feel successful and to have reached their full potential;
- deepen their vocabulary pools;
- increase their knowledge of audience, purpose, context, genres, characters and settings;
- have read and heard a plethora of texts and confident to share their ideas and read aloud;
- be inspired and motivated by a text;
- develop an appreciation for the writing and reading processes;
- effectively spell and apply a range of spelling rules and patterns;
- develop their knowledge of our complex grammatical terms and rules and
- to have pride in their written work.
We hope the impact of our English curriculum will ensure our pupils are academically prepared for life beyond primary school and throughout their educational journey.