Intent

Our ambition is to provide an English curriculum that allows all of our children to become independent and fluent communicators, who are skilled and passionate readers and writers.  A high-quality education in English will teach pupils to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others and through their reading and listening, others can communicate with them.These skills are vital to individuals participating fully as members of society and will help them in all areas of the curriculum and their furture learning. 

Implementation

Speaking and listening skills are developed through a range of opportunities, including turn-taking games, PSHE activities, paired/group/whole class discussions, P4C sessions, whole class reading sessions and formal debates.  These skills are consolidated through taking part in class assemblies, making presentations and participating in EYFS/KS1/KS2 performances throughout the year.

Phonics is taught through the Read Write Inc programme, maintaining fidelity to this programme for early reading and writing.  Pupils are regularly assessed to gauge their progress in phonics, with teaching/grouping adjusted accordingly.  Reading for pleasure is a strong focus from an early stage of school – pupils are introduced to appropriate books from Oxford Reading Tree (and also non-fiction books) for them to read for enjoyment alongside their Read Write Inc books.  Pupils read in groups and individually with an adult, building accuracy and fluency.  Group reading sessions are used to build a range of comprehension skills through discussion.  Pupils from Y4 upwards participate in whole class reading sessions, accessing high-quality texts to build vocabulary and comprehension.  Older pupils may still access 1:1 reading sessions, if needed.  Texts are chosen to reflect a wide range of genres and from a diverse cultural background.

The Word Aware approach is used to pre-teach vocabulary and build pupil language skills – this is facilitated in whole class sessions, small group interventions, and through whole class reading sessions.  From Y2 upwards, spelling is taught through the Jane Considine Spelling Book approach, incorporating phonic knowledge, investigations and awareness of spelling patterns.

Enthusiasm for writing is central to English learning – pupils are given opportunities to develop their grammatical skills and their creativity through varied, stimulating writing activities, including writing for real-life audiences and purposes.  Grammar skills may be taught in stand-alone sessions, but will also be incorporated into writing sessions.  Where possible, teachers will use exciting, engaging experiences, visits, etc as stimuli for writing.  Pupils may also be given opportunities to make their own choices about their writing, eg during Free Writing Days.  Writing skills are practised and applied across the curriculum.

Impact

Pupils have good speaking and listening skills and are confident to present their ideas in a range of situations, including more formal situations outside of the classroom/school.

Pupils enjoy reading and will choose books to read for pleasure.  They can talk about their reading with understanding and enthusiasm, recommending texts to their peers.  Younger pupils use phonic skills to decode, building on these skills over the years to become fluent, expressive readers.  In discussion and comprehension activities, pupils gradually develop their skills in information retrieval, inference and evaluation.  They use evidence from the texts to justify their ideas.

Pupils enjoy the creative process of writing and can use the features of a variety of genres, mostly accurately.  They can identify the purpose and audience for a piece of writing, adapting the style to fit these.  Pupils use skills developed in spelling sessions in their own writing with increasing accuracy as they gain experience in transferring these skills.  More complex grammatical structures begin to feature in their writing as they move through KS2.  Pupils enjoy writing for real audiences and purposes, e.g. using their skills to write persuasive letters to local politicians, writing invitations to events, participating in writing competitions (such as the DLP Poetry Festival).

The vast majority of pupils leave Delph School with the English skills that will enable them to thrive at secondary school and in future life.

A list of 50 recommended reading books for each year group can be found here.

	RECEPTION- 50 Recommended Reads	[pdf 536KB]
	YEAR 1 50 Recommended Reads	[pdf 518KB]
	YEAR 2 - 50 Recommended Reads	[pdf 537KB]
	YEAR 3 - 50 Recommended Reads	[pdf 518KB]
	YEAR 4 - 50 Recommended Reads	[pdf 516KB]
	YEAR 5 - 50 Recommended Reads	[pdf 498KB]
	YEAR 6 - 50 Recommended Reads	[pdf 452KB]

Please use the links below to visit our Learning Zone.

	KS1 English Resources
	KS2 English Resources