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English

At Huyton with Roby we believe the exposure of children’s literature within the primary school setting is vital as a rich context for learning; not only within English as a subject but to support building a reading culture throughout the school. We aim to use high quality books that offer opportunities for empathy and can aid philosophical enquiry, as a means of developing the spoken language requirements through debate, drama and discussion using the issues raised through, and within, the text.

By placing books at the core of our English curriculum, we are allowing teachers to use the text as the context for the requirements of the national curriculum. We believe that a context for learning is vital – and this is where our chosen approach can support teachers with ensuring that objectives for reading and writing, including those for grammar can have purpose. We will always aim for our writing opportunities to be meaningful; whether short or long and that the audience is clear. Books offer this opportunity: our final aim would be that children have real reasons to write, whether to explain, persuade, inform or instruct and that where possible, this can be embedded within text or linked to a curriculum area. Writing in role using a range of genres is key to our approach as is writing a critique of the text and making comparisons. Our expectations for writing ensures that by the end of their primary education all pupils can write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences.

Our Aims and Connected Provision for Reading:

Pupils learn to read easily and fluently through daily phonics in Key Stage One using the scheme ‘Read Write Inc.’ This is used to discretely teach phonics throughout Reception and Year 1 and for those children who require further practise in Year 2.  Please see the phonics section of our website for further information.

Reading Curriculum

Reading lessons take place daily once children have passed their phonics screening. These lessons generally begin in Year 2. In our reading lessons the children will experience sharing a whole class novel as well as reading a range of poetry, songs, fiction and non-fiction text extracts. Children are expected to complete written comprehension practice 3 times a week. The remaining lessons are used to promote the opportunity for book talk around the class novel. 

Class teachers will make links appropriate to the writing curriculum or wider curriculum where appropriate however the focus of comprehension lessons will be to focus on the teaching of the national curriculum content domains. Content domains are statements that break down the approach to reading into aspects in which children should become skilled. These domains will explore vocabulary, language structures, literacy knowledge, and word recognition. They will help to ensure that our children develop a clear understanding of the different aspects of reading.

Teaching staff will plan weekly ensuring that lessons provide the opportunity to cover all content domains. Questions stems are used from the Literacy Shed VIPERs collection to support planning. Reading material is taken from a variety of online resources including extract from www.lovereading4kids.co.uk, online tourist leaflets, author biographies and book reviews. Extracts are also used from school novels and from HeadStart English Reading Comprehension.

Reading for Pleasure

At Huyton with Roby we strive to develop passionate readers. Our pupils are encouraged to read widely, through a use of differing class texts and high-quality attractive books in classrooms. Teachers in all classes read daily to children. Individual class libraries have been recently replenished with the latest fiction texts after a successful bid from The Foyle Foundation was received by school in September 2023. Pupils are encouraged to read for pleasure within the classroom, at lunch times and at home.

Reading Rewards

Remarkable Reader bags are awarded each week during celebration assemblies. The class reading bag contains a reading buddy or a reading cushion, a reading journal and a book personally selected by the class teacher to be read at home. The children are encouraged to complete a page in the reading journal to share reviews and recommendations with the children in their class.

Assessment of Reading

Comprehension is assessed in a formal way every term using NFER reading tests and KS1, KS2 reading SATs papers. Assessment data from these tests is analysed by class teachers and is used to adapt reading lessons to your child’s needs. Your child’s progress will be shared with you termly.

Home Reading

All children are expected to read daily at home. Your child’s home reading book has been matched carefully to their reading ability. It is essential that your child reads daily to support them in their journey to becoming a fluent and enthusiastic reader. Children will either bring home a book from our school reading scheme, Rising Stars Reading Planet or a text from their class library.

Reading Spine

At Huyton with Roby we recommend the following stories to share with your children. The following list of classics and essential reads will help children engage at a deeper level and enter the world of the story. Reviews to further new literature can be found monthly at  https://www.thereaderteacher.com/

Reception
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4
Year 5
Year 6

Additional Information

Follow the link below to find more tips for supporting your child to read at home:

Our Aims and Connected Provision for Writing:

Our English curriculum is developed around a sequence of high quality age-appropriate texts, using Literacy Count’s Ready Steady Write units of learning. We use each book to create opportunities to:

  • develop grammar and punctuation knowledge and understanding to use and apply across the wider curriculum, through sentence accuracy sessions;
  • explore the Writing structure and features of different genres, identifying the purpose and audience;
  • plan and write an initial piece of Writing with a clear context and purpose before evaluating the effectiveness of Writing by editing and redrafting.

Building on this foundation, we teach literacy using a range of strategies which include:

  • Group Discussion – Children discuss and interrogate new ideas in a small group or whole class setting. They listen to and value each other’s ideas whilst taking on board feedback so as to improve their own explanations.
  • Partner Talk – Children work in partners to discuss their ideas. They are able to explain their ideas about texts they have read and prepare their ideas before they write.

Modelled Writing – Teachers model Writing and editing to demonstrate the high expectations they have. They verbally ‘think aloud’ in order to make the Writing process explicit and provide a rich and varied vocabulary for the children to utilise in their own work. This happens daily, through sentence accuracy

  •  Shared Writing – Teachers use the ideas from the children to create shared pieces of Writing. This enables the children to see the Writing process in action as well as having pride and ownership over the finished piece.
  • Editing – All children are signposted to regular opportunities for reviewing and editing their own and the work of others.
  • Working walls – Teachers and children regularly update working walls to ensure learning is documented within a unit of work.
  • Class teachers ensure that the Writing process is clearly evident on working walls, with modelled examples being available to all pupils as the sequence of lessons develops. Writing is assessed and moderated half termly.
  • Class teachers use assessment documents based on end of year expectations. These documents have been adapted from the Lancashire KLIPs (Key Learning Indicating Performance). Writing is assessed half-termly.

Spelling

At Huyton with Roby we teach the statutory requirements as set out in the New English Curriculum Spelling Appendix.

  • In Year 1, children are taught, alongside phonic sessions the statutory word lists for their year group during spelling sessions.
  • In Years 2 -6, spellings are set from Spelling Shed. This is an online resource that allows the children to be taught a weekly spelling rule.
  • Children receive a daily spelling session where they are given the opportunity to practise, explore, investigate and apply the spelling rule. Spellings are assessed through dictation and a test at the end of the week.
  • Weekly spelling scores are shared with parents.
  • To support learning at home the children have access to a Spelling Shed account. Spelling Shed is a simple, fun web-game that is playable through any internet browser on phones, tablets or computers. Each week, pupils will be assigned a spelling rule that they have been focussing on in class, pupils can also select ‘More Lists’ if they would like to revisit past assignments. To ensure your child is given a level of challenge appropriate to them, they can choose from four levels of difficulty. The game is also designed to be dyslexic-friendly.

    -Easy – The word is shown, an audio clip is played and only the included letters are shown.
    -Medium – An audio clip is played and only the included letters are shown.
    -Hard – An audio clip is played and the included letters, plus some random letters are shown.
    -Extreme – An audio clip is played and a full qwerty keyboard is shown. Letters must be correctly accented and capitalised.
    -All users have an avatar that can be personalised by using honeypots. Honeypots are earned by spelling words correctly.
  • Common exception words for years 3 and 4 and years 5 and 6 are taught in addition to the spelling requirements.
  • Each year group has a designated list of common exception words. These words are separated into half termly lists. Set lists will be taught and tested at the beginning of every half term.
  • A selection of words from the half termly list will be added to weekly spelling throughout the half term. This will ensure children are constantly exposed to common exception words. The final week of the half term will be used to reassess children. It is expected that all children should be able to read, spell and use each word in context. 
  • IDL is used for spelling intervention in Key Stage 2.

Handwriting

At Huyton with Roby we are very proud of our pupil’s handwriting and take particular care in our handwriting style. We use Letter-join’s on-line handwriting resource and Lesson Planners as the basis of our handwriting.

Handwriting is a basic skill that influences the quality of work throughout the curriculum. By the end of Key Stage 2 all pupils should have the ability to produce fluent, legible and, eventually, speedy joined-up handwriting, and to understand the different forms of handwriting used for different purposes.

Our intention is to make handwriting an automatic process that does not interfere with creative and mental thinking.

Aims:

  • To develop a neat, legible, speedy handwriting style using continuous cursive letters, which leads to producing letters and words automatically in independent writing.
  • To establish and maintain high expectations for the presentation of written work.
  • For pupils to understand, by the end of Year 6, the importance of neat presentation and the need for different letterforms (cursive, printed or capital letters) to help communicate meaning clearly.
    • Expectations
      All teaching staff are encouraged to model the printed or cursive style of handwriting chosen for each year group in our school in all their handwriting, whether on whiteboards, displays or in pupils’ books.
    • Consistency throughout the school
      Pupils should experience coherence and continuity in the learning and teaching of handwriting across all school years and be encouraged to take pride in the presentation of their work. Our objective is to help pupils enjoy learning and developing their handwriting with a sense of achievement and pride.
    • Handwriting frequency
      Handwriting is a cross-curricular task and will be taken into consideration during all lessons. Formal teaching of handwriting will be carried out regularly and systematically to ensure Key Stage targets are met.

Pens and pencils

Children will start handwriting using a soft pencil. When fine motor skills have been established a handwriting pen can be used. More competent pupils can use a ballpoint pen.

Writing Curriculum Coverage

Writing Curriculum Coverage
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