English
At Eastbrook we identify endpoints for our pupils as distant points in time, beyond school, where learning is brought to fruition. In broad terms, for us this means that all pupils who study our curriculum acquire the knowledge, skills and character virtues that lead to success in university, in work and life beyond. In subject specific terms, these endpoints are captured in the question, ‘what do we want our pupils to remember about our subject, be informed by and utilise in ten years’ time?’
Further to this, we identify waypoints along the path to these endpoints. These are points in the near distance defined by ‘readiness’ for the next (key) stage of learning or, at key stages 4 and 5, by readiness for work. Having discerned these waypoints, the specific knowledge, skills and virtues pupils require to progress to the next stage are defined for each subject.
Waypoints
The English Curriculum is focused and targeted to each phase of primary education in order for pupils at Eastbrook to gain skills and understanding to become literate and articulate individuals with a life-long enthusiasm for learning and the problem-solving abilities to deal with daily challenges.
By the end of Early Years
Reception pupils are expected and supported to meet the Early Learning Goals of Communication and Language and Literacy.
Pupils are taught Read Write Inc. Phonics Letters and Sounds daily. Following regular, half-termly assessment, learners are streamed into ability-appropriate groups with a mix of EYFS, KS1 and KS2 peers. To further support learned letter, sound and word recognition, pupils are given RWI and Bug Club phase-appropriate book-bag books to read at home.
Reception pupils learn literacy in small groups enabled by structured daily lesson plans. Students explore a range of themed texts rich in rhythm and rhyme to form awareness that the text carries meaning and with time, children begin to form an opinion of their favourite books. Non-fiction books linked to SFA support development in building confidence and speaking and listening in a range of situations.
The learning of common exception words and simple sentence building is a verbal exercise carried out through role-play, structured carefully to produce meaningful transcription where students’ ideas are expressed and they begin to communicate their needs to others using conjunctions and increasingly correct grammatical structures.
Pupils are part of a learning environment where respectful communication is fostered, social communication skills are modelled and opportunities to find out about people and places created through engaging and stimulating literature. The majority of pupils begin to read and write at RWI Set A sounds and progress through the RWI phases as appropriate. The learning environment promotes reading and writing through displays, resourced activity areas and teacher modelling so that early learners continue to develop English skills during free-flow time.
By the end of Key Stage 1
Reading
Phonics sessions are taught daily and learning is consolidated outside of school hours with book-bag books. Half-termly assessment allows for pupils to be supported and challenged by the correct Read Write Inc. colour band. Within the Eastbrook dynamic, our visual and repetitive phonics approach supports the learning of reading as well as language development so that new and existing pupils are given the tools to achieve the end of Key Stage 1 targets.
Daily Supported Reading is our approach to Guided Reading in KS1. In small, targeted groups, pupils learn to predict, infer, question and summarise events in a range of fiction and non-fiction texts. Letter, word and sentence recognition tasks develop understanding of meaning, grammar and word functions. Using the Bug Club books that link to phases of phonics for DSR, enables pupils to consolidate letters and sounds within one adapted method.
Bug Club is further used for home-reading as an online resource. Through independent reading, being read to and playing book-specific games, learners develop upon their curiosity and love of reading. Bug Club books have been carefully selected to correlate to age-appropriate experiences through books such as At the Park and At the Farm.
Fluent, confident learners are challenged with books targeted to their ability with a reading level. Students read their chosen book outside of learning hours and complete a quiz before repeating the process. Reading-skills targeted quiz questions partnered with a competitive approach accelerate children’s exposure to language which results in a mature, author-influenced use of language in Speaking and Writing.
The English curriculum is rich with genre and culture diverse texts to develop confidence, language and understanding through role-play, book talk and descriptive phrase collection. Stories with repetitive patterns provide a supportive framework of meanings and language structures enabling the ability to read familiar texts not known by heart whilst decoding phonemes and graphemes. Students will be able to use learned self-correction strategies, reflect on their reading and respond to what they have read by drawing on personal connections and making inferences from the text.
Writing
Power of Reading offers a wide range of fiction and non-fiction texts with extensive cross-curricular links. Students work through pictures and text to produce stories, letters, diaries, poetry, instructions, diagrams, recounts, non-chronological reports and explanations. Through these genres, students gain the skills to rehearse ideas orally prior to writing – expanding on ideas and beginning to edit work in order to build confidence and familiarity inclusive of experimenting with a wide range of punctuation. Students are able to use common conjunctions to build sentences and sequence in their writing – which demonstrates phonetic spelling attempts.
The Twinkl scheme is used for handwriting, grammar and spelling. This is timetabled each week. Through structured and progressive sessions, pupils develop joined, consistent, legible handwriting and the ability to write exception words correctly by building on their phonetic knowledge.
By the end of Keys Stage 2
Reading
Students with EAL and those working towards KS2 targets are included in the teaching of Phonics. Daily support is given to develop reading skills, word recognition and spelling. Pupils take home reading books to support regular practice of learned sounds and words.
Bug Club Comprehension is our approach to Guided Reading. Pupils work through a wide range of texts and workbooks which target predicting, understanding, questioning, summarising, inferencing and making real-life links. An in-depth approach to exploring texts evolves pupils’ contextual understanding and equips students with the skills required for testing.
The Reading Curriculum exuberates culture diverse and creatively immersing texts which vary in challenge in order to engage and progress readers. Pupils take on more challenging texts to become fluent and experienced readers. Students make inferences, predictions, form critical opinions on texts and discuss the effect that writing has on them as a reader. Students discuss organisational structures and language, including figurative language and how this impacts a reader. By forming own views about literature and language use, students are able to courteously challenge views that differ to their own.
Writing
Power of Reading is used in KS2 to offer an enriched range of picture, chapter books and anthologies. Students begin Power of Reading learning with actions, pictorial and discussion based practice. Word banks are created to build vocabulary knowledge which is applied and developed across a sequence of lessons. Students use read fiction and non-fiction texts to create, with scaffolding upon previous learning – poetry, stories, explanations, instructions, reports, letters and e-mails, lists, biographies, myths and legends, newspapers, arguments, scripts and blogs.
Books such as Oliver and the Seawigs, Hot Like Fire and The Ice Palace provide cross-curricular links intertwined with the International Primary Curriculum topics. The application of learned subject-specific words equips students with a varied vocabulary and language acquisition beyond their own life experiences. By the end of Key Stage 2 learners will have gained the skills to talk and write about cultures, countries and world locations. For example, Oliver and the Seawigs is taught to target the English National Curriculum objectives whist simultaneously harmonising with the IPC topic Island Life. A further Science link is achievable as pupils read about sea life and create food webs based on the Galapagos Islands. The concept of English as part of an inclusive curriculum reinforces the association of language across all learning areas.
Nelson Grammar, Spelling and Handwriting continues on in KS2, where timetabled sessions guide learners to create presentable, fluent, cohesive sentences with the ability to spell polysyllabic words. Students build and consolidate drafting and editing skills, evaluating their work and suggesting improvements. Students choose the appropriate voice to suit purpose and audience, being able to select effective language for a formal and informal tone.
The use of educational visits, educational theatre and author or subject-experts visits act as an additional tool to inspire written ideas based on local geography through exposure to the outdoors or indoor attractions.
