Netherthong

Our English curriculum is driven by the aim to provide a rich and stimulating language environment for our children, where speaking and listening, drama and role play, reading and writing are all heavily intertwined and integral to one another. We continually strive with our curriculum to provide opportunities for pupils to become confident, competent and expressive users of English.  We want our pupils to achieve the knowledge, skills and understanding to be proficient speakers, writers and readers, but also to develop a positive attitude and deep confidence, as well as an interest and a life-long love of literature and vocabulary, enabling them to be ready for life in a society in which they will thrive, whatever their needs and background.

Teaching children to become excellent readers is fundamental to what we do at Netherthong Primary School and an integral part of becoming great writers and orators. We do this through prioritising reading: phonics starts on day one and continues until children have completed the scheme and are fluent readers.  We recognise the importance of the right phonics programme to ensure progress: we use the well-respected Read Write Inc systematic synthetic phonics programme from Reception and all staff are trained in this with regular cpd, as we believe all staff should be early reading experts regardless of the year group they teach in. We instil a love of reading in our children through exposing them to a range of genres, including poetry, in Guided Reading lessons and in English lessons and across the broad and balanced curriculum. Robust comprehension teaching and practice, using a variety of tools, including the English Skills Box, ensures that children can read fluently, but also unpick what they have read and make inferences and understand authorial intention.   In Reception and at Key Stage 1, our children take home two books every week: one is a book they can fully decode, as they practise their reading fluency and the other is a book that parents can read with them for pleasure, exposing them to new words and vocabulary and different genres. The decodable book that our younger children or that struggling readers take home, is carefully matched to the sounds they have learned in class ensuring that every child has success with their early reading and feels confident and empowered. Our extensive library also supports every child to select a book weekly that they can read for pleasure during the week and our library experts and well trained, reading loving staff, take care to guide the children’s choices carefully.  Every child has a reading record or reading planner. Classes enjoy story time at least once every day and all reading sessions are language rich with the back and forth interactions that form part of excellent reading practice. School implements its reading calendar across the academic year to ensure children are exposed to a wide variety of reading initiatives and a culture of readers is created through prizes, competition and community links.

At Netherthong Primary School, we believe in keep up, and/or catching up quickly, and we use a number of tools to ensure that children do not fall behind.  These include RWI Fresh Start in Years 5 and 6, ‘Keep Up’ phonics in Years 3 and 4, extra reading support at 8.30 for those children that may need it from time to time, daily phonics in Reception and Key Stage One and one to one phonics where necessary, Nessy, small group extra reading and weekly Reading Friends’ sessions.  Our Nurture Lead also uses books and book talk to support children accessing nurture sessions to support their emotional well-being.

We take a systematic approach to writing, revisiting key learning and building upon it in all areas from phonics, through to grammar and spelling and different genres, adapting teaching and resources so that every child can make progress, whatever their starting point and needs. Writing takes place across the curriculum, not just in English lessons and staff continually foster a love of speaking and writing throughout the school year, in every context from World Book Day, to School Government and Collective Worship. We use high quality texts, modelling and shared/collaborative writing to demonstrate good practice for example using The Power of Reading and Literacy Shed Plus. Children with SEND have to navigate the same written language, unlock the same alphabetic code, learn the same skills, and learn and remember the same body of knowledge as their peers. It is a critical skill in helping them prepare for adulthood. Writing frames and other devices are used to support the least confident and SEND children and we provide time for children to plan, edit and revise using purple pen.  The marking of extended pieces support next steps and targets are in the front of children’s writing books so that they can see and plan their journey. School makes all reasonable adjustments to enable pupils with disabilities to have full access to the curriculum and to be able to participate in it. 

 Texts used as writing stimulus generally link with the broader curriculum, helping children to make rich connections with the wider world and their own contexts.  English lessons happen every day. Grammar is taught on a weekly basis using the Schofield & Sims Grammar resources and as appropriate, during the English lesson, with grammatical errors corrected orally/ in writing (where appropriate) and misconceptions addressed. Spelling is a focus in school: children use Fred Fingers’ strategies and regularly their practice spellings, using The Spelling Shed to consolidate skills every week in school but also as homework. Competition for the top 15 spelling places celebrated in Merit Assembly every week ensures engagement is high! Staff receive regular training and updates on all aspects of English and regular monitoring and collaboration across school ensures that writing in every class is of super quality and building on knowledge, skills and understanding.

The school handwriting style is based on the Charles Cripps handwriting scheme and children have regular opportunities to develop and practise their handwriting. They are encouraged to join their handwriting from the summer term in Year 1 when good letter formation has been established.

Children who read for pleasure perform better in school (Children and Young People’s reading in 2017/8 National Literacy Trust) and our record of strong achievement in reading at all key stages, reflects the environment we create where reading is valued, promoted and actively encouraged. As a school, we are extremely proud of all of our English results: our children achieve above the national KS2 standard in Writing, Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar and Reading, at both the Expected Standard and Higher Standard.  Co-ordinator monitoring shows that teachers are confident, creative and skilled in their delivery of English at Netherthong and their own love of writing and reading permeates through the classrooms, instilling a love within the children.  Governors monitor and review standards termly.  Children are extremely well prepared for their secondary school journey.

Children enjoy writing and reading across a range of genres, can write for a range of purposes and audiences, and become confident and effective communicators, both in their written work and with their oracy. They will amass a varied vocabulary that they can use across the curriculum and can apply spelling rules and grammatical concepts in their work, spotting opportunities to improve their work both independently and with adult support. Children tell us that they are proud of what they produce and the progress they see in their work.  We celebrate this with them through feedback, assemblies and they have the opportunity to see their work on display and shared with others in the school and with their families. 

As Kofi Annan sums up, “Literacy unlocks the door to learning throughout life…”.  Our children’s literacy is nurtured with the highest regard and ambition, so that they may progress and succeed, in all that they do.

Click on the link to see our English Policy which can also be found in the Writing Policy Section below.

Click here to see our separate Reading Policy which can also be found in the Reading Section below.

Click HERE for the English Curriculum Map

Click HERE for the English Progression Map