‘If you want to change the world, pick up your pen and write.’  Martin Luther King

At Lady Katherine Leveson School, we foster confident learners.  We do not put ceilings on what pupils can achieve in reading and writing and we do not hold pre-conceptions about any pupils’ ability to make progress.  We acknowledge that Literacy not only changes lives but also life chances.

‘Children should be taught to use phonic knowledge and skills as the route to decode words.’  National Curriculum 2014

As global learners, we want our pupils to read their way to a better life using a carefully selected and sequenced collection of texts, which explore the diverse and multicultural society that we live in.   Reading and writing are inextricably linked therefore the LTP is built around a selection of outstanding texts which enable teachers to extract all aspects of English and that promote a love of reading.

Learning to write requires careful, deliberate and systematic teaching.  This is essential but alone will not guarantee success.  Good teaching of writing must enthuse and inspire children by developing their love of language. (Considine 2016)

Above all, our English Curriculum is designed so that all children can experience success and from this a true joy for Literacy.

The overarching aim for English in the national curriculum is to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written language, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment. The national curriculum for English aims to ensure that all pupils:

• read easily, fluently and with good understanding
• develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information
• acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language
• appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage
• write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences
• use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas
• are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate  National Curriculum 2014

Our English Curriculum is driven through evidence based-resources, and research to ensure our literacy provision is highly effective.

Doug Lemov’s Reading Reconsidered has played a huge part when selecting texts and acknowledges the ideal that there are five types of texts children should have access to in order to successfully navigate reading with confidence.  These are complex beyond a lexical level and demand more from the reader than other types of books: archaic language; non-linear time sequences; narratively complex; figurative/symbolic texts; resistant texts.

The long-term plan is designed to meet the needs of the children in our school.  Therefore, it does not rely on one particular schema; resources from Jane Considine, Literacy Shed Plus and CLPE have all been used to help support staff through the teaching and learning journey.

Early Reading

We teach early reading through the systematic, synthetic phonics programme Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised. Right from the start of Reception children have a daily phonics lesson which follows the progression for Little Wandle Letters and Sounds and this continues in Year One to ensure children become fluent readers.

We teach phonics for 30 minutes a day. In Reception, we build from 10-minute lessons, with additional daily oral blending games, to the full-length lesson as quickly as possible. Each Friday, we review the week’s teaching to help children become fluent readers.

Children make a strong start in Reception: teaching begins in Week 2 of the Autumn term. We follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised expectations of progress (please see below for the progression). Four new phonemes and their corresponding graphemes are taught (GPCs) each week and they are then used in the final lesson of the week to review the week’s learning. Children will also learn tricky words during these sessions.

In the Autumn and Spring term, Reception learn phase 2 and phase 3 GPCs and then will spend the final term learning phase 4.

Year 1 begin the Autumn term with 3 weeks of revision of phases 2, 3 and 4 before learning phase 5, which will be completed by the end of the year. Year 2 children will begin the year by revisiting phase 5 and other previously taught phases to ensure all children are completely confident with applying these GPCs in both their reading and also their writing. (please see the overview here for what this progression looks like). Half termly assessments take place through Reception and Year 1 to help inform future teaching and help identify children who have gaps in their phonic knowledge and need additional practice. Daily assessment of learning also takes place within the classroom so staff can quickly identify any children who are in danger of falling behind and provide the appropriate daily ‘Keep Up’ intervention.

Children in Reception, Year 1 and 2, read fully decodable books with an adult 3 times per week during our ‘Reading Practice’ sessions. These books are then sent home for children to build their reading fluency and showcase their developing skills and phonetic knowledge to their parents/carers. These 3 reading practice sessions each have a different focus; decoding, prosody and comprehension. Our reading books in Reception, Y1 and Y2: Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised Big Cat books

Frequent Readers

Our lowest 20% are identified as frequent readers.  This means that in addition to their phonics and reading provision, they will have a daily 1:1 session where they will read to an adult.  We strive to ensure that no child is left behind and that every child is a frequent reader by the time they leave Year 2.