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English @ Tickenham
English Intent Statement
At Tickenham, we strive to give children the skills to be able to communicate effectively and creatively through written and spoken language and equip them to become lifelong learners. We believe that all our children can become fluent readers and writers. We have a rigorous and well organised English curriculum that provides many purposeful opportunities for reading, writing and discussion. Our curriculum closely follows the aims of the National Curriculum for English 2014 and the EYFS Statutory Framework (2021).
Our aspiration is that everybody has a deep love of reading and happily picks up a book to develop their reading skills. Through promoting reading as an absolute pleasure, we will be a school where all children are able readers, who understand what they have read and have a well-developed vocabulary.
Children will write with confidence and accuracy for a variety of purposes and audiences whilst developing their own individual flair. We want our children to be able to write with grammatical accuracy and be able to apply spelling patterns correctly using a neat handwriting style. We aim to expose our children to a wide range of vocabulary so that they are able to decipher new words and then use them when speaking both informally and formally.
English Implementation Statement
Children will learn to read following the systematic, synthetic phonics programme ‘Little Wandle Letters and Sounds'. We start teaching phonics in Reception and follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised progression, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school. As a result, all our children are able to tackle any unfamiliar words as they read.
At Tickenham, we also model the application of the alphabetic code through phonics in shared reading and writing, both inside and outside of the phonics lesson and across the curriculum. Children will have regular opportunities for reading independently and shared reading in class with high quality texts that are used in our English lessons. We have a strong focus on language development for our children because we know that speaking and listening are crucial skills for reading and writing in all subjects. The children will be encouraged to read widely across different genres (fiction and non-fiction) and across the different subjects covered in the national curriculum to facilitate the acquisition of rich knowledge and promote deep learning and understanding. Each classroom will use the VIPERS terminology when reading and discussing books and will display this in the classroom. We will have whole school events such as World Book Day to bring the school together and discuss their love of their favourite authors. We have reading champions from KS2 that promote reading throughout the school. Each class has a reading reward system to complete as a class for a class reward when children are reading multiple times a week. Children also have access to a range of non-fiction texts in our school library.
In writing, children will have opportunities to write for a range of purposes and audiences. When possible, writing opportunities will be based around a high-quality text which has cross curricular links to the current topic. Children will follow a ‘learning journey’ for each piece of writing they complete throughout which they will practice the skills required to successfully write pieces from a variety of genres. To support this, children will complete discrete SPAG (Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar) lessons weekly and can then apply these skills in their English lessons. Children will know their writing target from year 1 to 6 and will know how to achieve this.
English Impact Statement
Through the teaching of systematic phonics, our aim is for children to become fluent readers by the end of Key Stage One. This way, children can focus on developing their fluency and comprehension as they move through the school. Attainment in reading is measured using the statutory assessments at the end of Key Stage One and Two.
In reading and writing, we use our marking books to keep track of children’s progress in lessons. We have regular moderation as a school, within the trust and in our county. We quickly identify children that need extra support through pupil progress meetings and share ideas on how to help these children.
At the end of each year we expect the children to have achieved Age Related Expectations (ARE) for their year group. Some children will have progressed further and achieved greater depth (GD). Children who have gaps in their knowledge receive appropriate support and intervention.
Learn to read...read to learn!
We encourage reading for pleasure as much as possible. Parents are encouraged to read to and with their children as much as possible. Class Teachers record and monitor this in different ways but promote it effectively.
Below are our recommended reads. These are books that are recommened for each year to read by their class teachers.
reception recommended reads.pdf
