English | Willow Lane Primary School

Willow Lane English Curriculum

Through the teaching of English, our children learn to communicate their thoughts and ideas clearly, both orally and through their writing. We explicitly teach a wide range of vocabulary and teach listening skills to develop children’s oracy. We understand that learning to write is a highly complex skill and so we focus on spelling, sentence construction and transcription to provide children with secure fundamental skills. Again, each year group has identified the foundational knowledge, which is prioritised for all learners from the start of the year. Children struggling to grasp this foundational knowledge are quickly identified and provided with additional high quality teaching. We continue to develop children’s writing skills through exciting and relevant contexts that engage students in their learning and the writing process. We provide purposeful outcomes to motivate children in producing excellent pieces of writing, and we provide a wide range of writing opportunities to enable children to develop their English skills and apply them across the curriculum.

At Willow Lane, we understand that reading empowers children to become independent and successful learners. It enables them to fully participate in society and better make sense of the world around them. It also gives children access to the joy and fulfilment offered by the written word. As such, we consider teaching children to read confidently is one of our most important roles as a school. Our approach to early reading uses rigorous teaching of systematic synthetic phonics based on the Red Rose scheme of learning. Children who struggle to make progress are quickly identified and additional high quality teaching interventions are put in place. Children continue to develop their use of phonics, their fluency, and comprehension skills through guided, shared and independent reading as they move through school. We have identified foundational skills for reading, which are prioritised in each year group, especially for struggling readers. These sit alongside carefully selected books, which are used to gauge and benchmark children’s progress.

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English Curriculum Overview

ENGLISH CURRICULUM OVERVIEW

Reading

Reading at Willow Lane

At Willow Lane School, we teach to the heart. We believe that reading in all forms plays an integral part in this. Throughout a child’s life, to foster a love of reading as well as a clear understanding of what is read has the power to change lives. Reading plays a huge part in all we do at Willow Lane and we encourage children to develop their reading skills at home as well as in school as regularly as possible. We do this in a range of appealing and engaging ways with all pupils across the phases and Key Stages.

English Lessons

At Willow Lane, across the key stages, reading skills are developed through the ‘reading phase’ of our daily English lessons. Here, they read texts in ‘shared reading’ that are appropriately challenging for their age range. These texts are always exciting, engaging and motivating and are often linked to their current topics. Pupils read and respond to texts and learn skills such as predicting, questioning, literal retrieval and inference. This in turn, improves their comprehension skills.

Guided Reading

From Reception to Year 6, pupil’s access daily guided reading sessions. Each week, they will read books appropriate to their level in a small group with their class teacher or teaching assistant. Early readers will apply their phonic skills in one session and their comprehension in the next. Developing and fluent readers will progress their comprehension of these books further through follow up tasks that consolidate their learning.

Individual Reading and Home Reading

All children also read individually to their teacher or teaching assistant. During this time, children can develop their fluency and comprehension skills on an individual basis as well as read and learn new vocabulary. As part of their homework, we also ask that all children across school read at least 3 times a week or more. Ideally, children will read to an adult so that ‘book talk’ can take place. This can include prediciting what will happen next, talking about characters thoughts and feelings and clarifying plots. It is also a key time to discuss and clarify new and interesting vocabulary which is key to comprehension and understanding. When children read at home, they or their parent will record the date what they have read and if they wish, a comment on how they have read or understood.

Reception and Key Stage 1

Early readers in Reception are taught through DfE systematic synthetic phonics guidance supported using the Lancashire ‘Red Rose Phonics’ resources. Reading is developed through the teaching of phonics supported by our Phonics Based Core Reading Route – ‘Oxford Reading Tree’ and ‘Rising Stars’ schemes with children accessing books in line with the phonics they are learning. These books are accessed both at home and at school. All children in Reception and Key Stage 1 also have access to Bug Club in school in guided reading lessons. (See below.)

Phonics in Reception

In Reception, children are taught to read through the phonic phases. When children are confident and fluent in one phase, they will move on to the next. Each phase builds on the previous one. We use the Lancashire Red Rose Phonics scheme as it’s rigourous, engaging approach meets the needs of our children.

Through the phases, children are taught:

Phonics ‘Phase 1’

To play listening games
To to hear initial sounds
To blend CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) words orally using objects and pictures to support

Phonics ‘Phase 2’

To sing the alphabet song
To learn the phoneme (sound) that goes with the grapheme (letter) for the majority of the letters of the alphabet. This begins with s,a,t,p,i,n
To blend these sounds to read CVC words (e.g. a.t sat, t.i.n tin
To pronounce the sounds accurately using ‘pure sounds’
To learn to read common exception words (tricky words) on sight. These are words that you cannot use phonics to ‘sound out’ e.g. he, the, was
To apply this knowledge in books that they read at home and in school both in guided groups and individual reading

Phonics ‘Phase 3’

The remaining phonemes and graphemes of the alphabet (e.g. y, z, w)
New phoneme and grapheme correspondences e.g. digraphs (two letters that make one sound e.g. sh, ch, ai, ee) and trigraphs (three letters that make one sound e.g. igh, air, ear)
One way of reading all the phonemes / graphemes in words
New common exception words or tricky words
To continue to apply these skills and knowledge in their reading of a range of books

Phonics ‘Phase 4’

To read words using consonant blends e.g. ‘bl, cr, sp, str’
To continue to apply phonemes and graphemes taught in phases 2 and 3
New common exception words or tricky words
To continue to apply these skills and knowledge in their reading of a range of books

Phonics in Key Stage 1

In Year 1, children begin to learn phase 5 of the synthetic phonics scheme. This is developed in Year 1 and embedded in Year 2.

Through Phase 5 children are taught to:

Read all the alternative graphemes for the phonemes taught in the previous phases e.g. f, ph, ai, ay, a_e, eigh, a or igh, ie, i_e, y
Learn alternative pronunciations for these graphemes e.g. y in yes, y in happy and y in fly
New common exception words or tricky words
To continue to apply these skills and knowledge in their reading of a range of books

Later in Year 2, children will learn to read:

Plural words
Past tense verbs
Present tense verbs
More words with suffixes e.g. ‘ful’ in ‘beautiful’ and ‘ly’ in ‘lovely.’

Key Stage 2

At Willow Lane in school, pupils in Key Stage 2 advance their ‘bank’ of words and new vocabulary throughout regular English lessons, topic lessons, guided reading lessons and by reading individually to an adult. Reading is a focus in all lessons and the teaching and learning of new vocabulary is fundamental is at the heart of everything we do.

In addition to this, children in Key Stage 2:

Read a range of topic books and texts
Research topics using books and technology
Access Bug Club in school (see below)
Continue to understand how the meaning of words change through prefixes (e.g. mis in misunderstood or re in rewrite) and suffixes e.g. ness in tidiness or dom in freedom

Bug Club

In Key Stage 2, we use Bug Club both in school and at home. Bug Club is an online reading scheme where children can access appropriately challenging and engaging books pitched at their level. This resource also is key to developing comprehension skills. Regularly, as pupils read the books, opportunities arise for them to answer questions about what they have read. These questions progress both the children’s literal understanding, inferential understanding and clarify new vocabulary. When children read Bug Club at home, they or their parents can write in their reading records as normal.

Reading for Pleasure

As well as having a schemed book and as at Willow Lane, we teach to the heart, we understand that it is fundamental for the children to read for pleasure and select books that match their interests and passions. Because of this, we encourage children in Key Stage 2 to read a book of their choice alongside their schemed book to continue to foster their love of reading. They can read this book both at home and at school and continue to write in their reading records as they read.

Phonics

Phonics in Reception

Through the phases, children are taught:

Phonics ‘Phase 1’

To play listening games
To to hear initial sounds
To blend CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) words orally using objects and pictures to support

Phonics ‘Phase 2’

To sing the alphabet song
To learn the phoneme (sound) that goes with the grapheme (letter) for the majority of the letters of the alphabet. This begins with s,a,t,p,i,n
To blend these sounds to read CVC words (e.g. a.t sat, t.i.n tin
To pronounce the sounds accurately using ‘pure sounds’
To learn to read common exception words (tricky words) on sight. These are words that you cannot use phonics to ‘sound out’ e.g. he, the, was
To apply this knowledge in books that they read at home and in school both in guided groups and individual reading

Phonics ‘Phase 3’

The remaining phonemes and graphemes of the alphabet (e.g. y, z, w)
New phoneme and grapheme correspondences e.g. digraphs (two letters that make one sound e.g. sh, ch, ai, ee) and trigraphs (three letters that make one sound e.g. igh, air, ear)
One way of reading all the phonemes / graphemes in words
New common exception words or tricky words
To continue to apply these skills and knowledge in their reading of a range of books

Phonics ‘Phase 4’

To read words using consonant blends e.g. ‘bl, cr, sp, str’
To continue to apply phonemes and graphemes taught in phases 2 and 3
New common exception words or tricky words
To continue to apply these skills and knowledge in their reading of a range of books

Phonics in Key Stage 1

In Year 1, children begin to learn phase 5 of the synthetic phonics scheme. This is developed in Year 1 and embedded in Year 2.

Through Phase 5 children are taught to:

Read all the alternative graphemes for the phonemes taught in the previous phases e.g. f, ph, ai, ay, a_e, eigh, a or igh, ie, i_e, y
Learn alternative pronunciations for these graphemes e.g. y in yes, y in happy and y in fly
New common exception words or tricky words
To continue to apply these skills and knowledge in their reading of a range of books

Later in Year 2, children will learn to read:

Plural words
Past tense verbs
Present tense verbs
More words with suffixes e.g. ‘ful’ in ‘beautiful’ and ‘ly’ in ‘lovely.’

Spelling

Spelling at Willow Lane

At Willow Lane School, we teach to the heart. We believe that the understanding of words and patterns in words help to build able, confident readers and writers. To be able to use and spell a range of words in both spoken and written form is integral to children’s futures. This includes blending and segmenting in phonics, common exception words and the teaching of a wide range of suffixes, prefixes and homophones. At Willow Lane, we know the importance of teaching the etymology of words to understand them at their roots as well as the morphology of language and how those small changes can lead to significant changes in meaning. Our teaching of spelling throughout the phases and key stages are both very regular and very rigorous to ensure the best progress and opportunities for all pupils.

Teaching Spelling in EYFS / Reception

Phonics in Reception

In Reception, children are taught to spell through the phonic phases. When children are confident and fluent in one phase, they will move on to the next. Each phase builds on the previous one. We use the Lancashire Red Rose Phonics scheme as its regular rigorous, engaging approach meets the needs of our children. Children are assessed regularly and taught in groups that are matched to their abilities in order to embed sounds and for them to make progress at their level.

Through the phases, children are taught:

Phonics ‘Phase 1’

To play listening games
To hear initial sounds
To blend and segment CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) words orally using objects and pictures to support

Phonics ‘Phase 2’

To sing the alphabet song
To learn the phoneme (sound) that goes with the grapheme (letter) for the majority of the letters of the alphabet. This begins with s,a,t,p,i,n
To segment to spell CVC words (e.g. a.t sat, t.i.n tin
To pronounce the sounds accurately using ‘pure sounds’
To learn to read and spell common exception words (tricky words) as words and in sentences. These are words that you cannot use phonics to ‘sound out’ e.g. he, the, was
To apply this knowledge in their writing of simple sentences

Phonics ‘Phase 3’

The remaining phonemes and graphemes of the alphabet (e.g. y, z, w)
New phoneme and grapheme correspondences e.g. digraphs (two letters that make one sound e.g. sh, ch, ai, ee) and trigraphs (three letters that make one sound e.g. igh, air, ear)
One way of spelling all the phonemes / graphemes in words
New common exception words or tricky words
To continue to apply these skills and knowledge in their word and sentence level writing

Phonics ‘Phase 4’

To spell words using consonant blends e.g. ‘bl, cr, sp, str’
To continue to apply phonemes and graphemes taught in phases 2 and 3
New common exception words or tricky words
To continue to apply these skills and knowledge in their word and sentence level work across the curriculum

Phonics in Key Stage 1

In Year 1, children begin to learn phase 5 of the synthetic phonics scheme Red Rose Letters and Sounds. This is developed in Year 1 and embedded in Year 2. Children continue to be assessed regularly and taught in groups that are matched to their abilities in order to embed sounds and make progress at their level.

Through Phase 5 children are taught to:

Spell all the alternative graphemes for the phonemes taught in the previous phases e.g. f, ph, ai, ay, a_e, eigh, a or igh, ie, i_e, y
Learn alternative pronunciations and therefore spellings of these graphemes e.g. y in yes, y in happy and y in fly
New common exception words or ‘tricky’ words
To continue to apply these skills and knowledge in writing

In Reception, Year 1 and Year 2, we ensure the importance of spelling words correctly has high status throughout the years and phases.

Later in Year 2, children will learn to spell:

Plural words
Past tense verbs (‘ed’ and irregular verbs)
Present tense verbs (‘ing’ and irregular verbs)
More words with suffixes e.g. ‘er’ in bigger and ‘est’ in biggest and the suffixes ‘ness,’ ‘ful,’ ‘less’ and ‘ly’
Apostrophes for contraction and possession

Here, we will begin to use No Nonsense Spellings and resources to teach spellings to those children where phonics is embedded. This is also where the children will begin to use spelling journals. Spelling journals are used throughout the day from Year 2 onwards (when they are ready to begin No Nonsense spellings.) These books will include practising the spellings that they are learning in class, spelling rules as well as their own personal list of words they would like to learn and remember on “Have a go” sheets.

In Key Stage 1 we:

Teach phonics and spellings 5 times per week in differentiated groups
Teach spelling through handwriting lessons, English lessons and throughout the wider curriculum
Continue to support children who need more phonics using the Bounce Back phonics intervention and other small group interventions
Ensure the teaching of phonic words and common exception words is rigorous and then applied throughout all teaching and learning
Model strategies for spelling words correctly through demonstrated writing
Ensure the importance of spelling words correctly has high status throughout
Begin to send 5 spellings home per week in the summer term of year 1 and throughout year 2 on “Think, say, write and check” sheets. This will begin with Common Exception Words initially
Record spellings in spelling journals

Key Stage 2

Throughout Key Stage 2 (and year 2,) we use the spelling programme No Nonsense Spellings. This is a complete spelling programme that meets the needs of our children as it ensures progress, is flexible, comprehensive, manageable and effective. It supports the teaching of spellings at Willow Lane and meets our ‘regular’ and ‘rigorous’ intent. Spelling is taught a minimum of three times per week and developed and embedded throughout English lessons and the wider curriculum. Children use their spelling journals independently throughout the curriculum to support them as needed. We also use the assessment and planning documents: KLIPS and LAPS to monitor and assess children’s progress.

In Key Stage 2 we:

Teach spelling least 3 times per week in each class
Teach spelling through handwriting lessons, English lessons and throughout the wider curriculum
Continue to support children who need more phonics using the Bounce Back phonics and Fast Track phonics interventions
Meet the needs of individuals, groups and SEND children by differentiating the teaching of spellings to the year group below or as appropriate
Ensure that the teaching of spelling is rigorous and is applied throughout all teaching and learning
Model strategies for spelling words correctly through demonstrated writing
Highlight the etymology of words as well as the morphology of words through pupils learning of prefixes and suffixes
Ensure the importance of spelling words correctly has high status throughout
Send 5 spellings home per week based on the spelling teaching throughout the week and then test them on a Friday
Send appropriately differentiated spellings home for SEND children

Key Learning in Year 3:

Prefixes ‘un,’ ‘dis,’ ‘mis,’ ‘re,’ ‘sub,’ ‘tele’
Suffixes ‘less,’ ‘ness,’ ‘ful,’ ‘ly’
Homophones
Common exception Words

Key Learning in Year 4:

Prefixes ‘in,’ ‘il,’ ‘im’ and ‘ir,’ ‘anti,’ and ‘inter’
Suffix ‘ly’ added to words ending in ‘y,’ ‘le’ and ‘ic.’
Homophones
Common exception words

Key Learning in Year 5:

Homophones
Words ending in ‘able,’ and ‘ible’
Words ending in ‘ably,’ and ‘ibly’
The etymology of words and morphology of words
‘Problem’ suffixes
Words with hyphens
Common exception words

Key Learning in Year 6:

Homophones
Words ending in ‘cious,’ and ‘tious’
Words ending in ‘cial,’ and ‘tial’
Words ending in ‘ant,’ ‘ance’ and ‘ancy’
Words ending in ‘ent,’ ‘ence’ and ‘ency’
Words with the ‘ough’ letter string
The etymology of words and morphology of words
Common exception words

In all year groups, No Nonsense Spellings provides thoroughness by building in revision of key learning from previous year groups e.g. words with apostrophes for contraction and possession.