English Curriculum

Intent

At Trinity Road, we aim to provide the children with a creative English curriculum which encourages a love of reading and writing whilst also developing the concepts of Respect, Achieve, Belong.

Writing Sequence

At Trinity Road Primary School, we endeavour to align our English writing with our topic. Each term we have one or two focus stimuli (books, videos, poetry) and our writing is inspired from this.

Each week, children will develop their reading skills and grammar skills within discrete lessons. They will also have a chance to plan writing and then produce an independent extended piece of writing.

It is expected that children are exposed to a variety of text types and have the opportunity to write fiction and non-fiction texts throughout the year including:

Narrative story writing
Non-chronological reports / information texts
Recounts of events
Traditional tales, fairy tales, fables or myths
Explanations
Poetry
Discussions and persuasion

Grammar and Punctuation

The teaching of grammar is embedded within our English and writing lessons throughout the week. Each week, writing is taught in the form of a grammatical structure and composing sentences. Activities may include building and changing sentences, comparing different sentences, improving sentences and applying punctuation.

For each year group, the National Curriculum objectives for grammar, punctuation and composition have been organised into terms. This allows for clear progression throughout the year and between year groups. Each term, it is expected that these skills are taught and evidence is collected for each child to ensure that they are meeting age related expectations.

Spelling

EYFS and Year 1

Children in EYFS and Year 1 follow the ‘Letters and Sounds’ framework which teaches children to read and spell using graphemes. Children are taught through the use of games, rhymes and songs, using a range of resources.

Year 2 and KS2

The whole school are given spellings to learn weekly. In KS1 and KS2, spellings are taught on a Wednesday morning when they are first given out. Each morning thereafter, the children practise their spellings as part of early morning learning. Spellings are based on the National Curriculum expectations and have been organised using the platform Spelling Frame as a guide to grouping words and the order in which they are taught. Spellings are taught on a three week cycle, children are taught words with spelling patterns for two weeks and then a week of common exception words.

How do we monitor?

Children practise their spellings daily at school and are expected to practise for 5 consecutive days at home. Children are provided with spelling grids to allow them to do this independently and this is monitored by adults in the classroom. At the end of each half term, children are tests on 20 spellings chosen from all spellings learnt during the term.

If children are unable to spell words at their age expectation, an alternative list revisiting previous year group spellings and key high frequency words is provided.

Reading

Each week, the children are given the opportunity to develop their reading skills through an explicitly taught reading lesson. This can involve developing reading fluency through choral reading, practising using appropriate intonation by text marking or teaching a comprehension skill. Comprehension skills include: fluency, word meaning, retrieval, summarising, inference, prediction, understanding meaning, language choice and comparing. Within each of these areas, there are specific statements for each year group allowing for clear progression between year groups. Each term, it is expected that these skills are taught and evidence is collected for each child to ensure that they are meeting age related expectations.

Although reading is taught explicitly in English lessons, there are further opportunities for reading at other times during the school day. At the end of each day, each class has a book which they read for pleasure and discuss. During this reading time, we refer to a reading wall in each classroom which displays key questions linked to the book. We also take this opportunity to model reading and embed reading skills that have been learnt as well as reinforcing grammar and punctuation knowledge.

In the wider curriculum, children are exposed to a variety of different texts linking to topic and all classes have the opportunity to use the library once a week.

Writing and reading initiatives

Throughout the year, the children have opportunities to further develop their love of reading and writing through a variety of events.

In the autumn term, we held a poetry week where each class focused on a different poem and each child wrote their own version. The children then had an opportunity to type and edit their poems to be published into our second school anthology.

In the spring term, we hold our annual spelling bee. This is always an exciting event where the children have time to practise their spellings and compete in rounds to reach the final.

Dates for the diary: