English

Intent

• At Churchfield CE Academy we believe in the importance of high quality teaching of phonics to enable every child to read. We are enthusiastic in promoting a love of reading within our school and want children to share the motivation and love of reading ensuring this continues beyond leaving Churchfield.
• We believe the increase in word reading and comprehension skills across the different genres, increases the ability for children to access the wider curriculum therefore increasing confidence and raising aspirations of all children.
• At Churchfield, we want to engage children in their writing, writing for different purposes and taking pride in their work. For the children to improve their writing, using a wide, varied and powerful vocabulary to engage and interest the reader.
• For all children to communicate clearly and confidently using their improving vocabulary to articulate their thoughts, feelings and learning.
• We intend to continue early intervention to support children, teaching and developing their speaking and listening skills.

 
Implementation

• The Bug Club Phonic program is followed in school, this is a progressive scheme that supports the children with their independent reading.
• English is taught throughout the school and is text based, engaging children and immersing them into exciting and captivating stories, introducing them to a wide vocabulary.
• Teachers model a love of reading through class story time which takes place daily.
• Reading areas have been created/developed in classes and in the EYFS and KS1 there is the opportunity for children to borrow books from the Lending Libraries which are situated outside, inspiring children to engage with reading at home.
• Home readers are regularly changed and follows the progression in Bug Club Phonics.
• Children in Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 are encouraged to develop their oracy skills and vocabulary though conversations, discussions and debates.
• EYFS – has a Graphics/writing/role play areas where children are witnessed to be actively choosing writing activities, inside and out. As well as speaking and listening times for EYFS children to support/develop oracy skills and comprehension skills.  As well as developing their ability to create sentences verbally before writing them.
• In Year 1 children take part in the Year 1 Phonics Screening check.
• In Lower Key Stage 2 children take part in a weekly Phonics club which reinforces phoneme recognition in accordance with the different Phoneme Phases.
• In Lower Key Stage 2 children develop their comprehension skills weekly, using a wide Fiction and Non-Fiction books.
• Once a week in Year 3 and 4 children Read with RIC which focusses the children on Retrieve, Interpret and Choice when looking a piece of text.

• In Upper Key Stage children will have a selected piece of text and they focus Reading VIPERS which is where the children answer questions focussing on the following aspect; Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation, Retrieval and Sequence.
• In Upper Key Stage 2 the children are asked to use Go APE when comprehending a piece of text.  This is where the children will Answer, Prove and Explain their answers.
• All children will write for purpose. In Year 1 to Year 6 the children will produce a Star Write piece of work, at least once a half a term or at the end of a unit.  This is where the children edited and ‘purple polish’ their writing, celebrating their progress and learning. 

Impact

• There is a growing love of reading amongst the children, evidenced in pupil voice answers, reading captured in class, as well as the enthusiasm for story time at the end of each day.
• Phonics Screening Check results are showing an increase in pass rate.
• Good progress made by children attending phonics sessions, shown in half termly assessments and children identified for 1-1 support, if needed.
• We use a variety of formative and summative assessments such as: RWI Assessments, PIRAs, DIY Writes, teacher assessment and internal/external moderation.
• The use of Bug Club Phonics will identify gaps and progression smoothly across EYFS and Key Stage 1.
• Using carefully selected texts that promotes wide and enriched vocabulary and the opportunity to develop oracy skills.

Diversity in the English Curriculum

We believe it is important for all children to feel represented within their school community. We can help to address this by including books featuring a range of diverse characters in our English curriculum and in the books we have in our classrooms.

SEND in the English Curriculum 

At Churchfield, we identify children who need support and provide intervention in the most effective and efficient way we can. We run intervention groups across the school, supporting children with their phonic recognition, segmenting and blending, as well as supporting their writing and comprehension skills. Teachers plan and teach English lessons which are differentiated to the particular needs of each class. We help each child maximise their potential by providing help and support where necessary whilst striving to make children independent workers once we have helped to equip them with the confidence, tools and strategies that they need. Children are provided with tools to support their English including but not limited to writing templates, word mats, sound buttons and Clicker8.