Intent

At Compton All Saints Primary School we believe that a quality English curriculum should develop children’s love of reading, writing and discussion through the use of inspiring texts and engaging learning journeys that develop key skills within a purposeful context.

Throughout the school, we help children:

• 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.
• Refine and edit writing over time, developing independence in identifying their own areas for improvement.
• Use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas.
• Develop the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate.
• Develop learning behaviours within English to become more proactive, inventive, determined and reflective.

Implementation

How is this subject planned?

• The National Curriculum is taught in KS1 and KS2.
• The Foundation Stage Curriculum is taught in the Early Years.
• Long term plans are used which follow the Hampshire Model of phases.
• The long term plans are broken down into units of work, based on a wide variety of rich text drivers.
• Unit plans include learning objectives, assessment indicators and appropriate activities.
• Writing units are based on the 3-stage planning process (stimulate and generate; capture, sift and sort; create, evaluate, refine).

How is this subject taught?

• Daily English sessions for every year group.
• In KS1 there is a daily phonics session – children are taught in groups.
• There is a dedicated daily reading session for all classes.
• Adult volunteers and school staff listen to readers regularly.
• High-quality texts are used throughout the school as stimuli for units of work.
• English homework supports and extends classroom learning.
• Opportunities to teach English skills are promoted across the curriculum. 

Impact

How is this subject assessed?

• Foundation stage levels reported

How is this subject monitored?

• Y1 – Phonics test
• KS1 –Teacher assessment;
• KS2 – Reading test, grammar, punctuation and spelling test, writing teacher assessment.
• Reading will be monitored by teachers using NGRT sentence completion and comprehension assessments and Fluency Scales.
• Progress in phonics and word recognition are tested through Twinkl Phonics Level assessments.
• Weekly spelling tests.
• Children record their work in English books at least 3 times a week.
• Children are regularly given opportunities to write at length.
• Teachers assess using indicators based on the Hampshire assessment model.
• Assessment of English is reported to parents termly.

How is this subject monitored? 

• The subject leader is responsible for monitoring the planning, teaching and assessment of the subject. This is achieved through book looks, pupil conferencing and questionnaires, discussions with teachers and governors and moderation sessions with other schools.
• Whole-school text overview documents are used to monitor the breadth, quality and progression of texts.
• The subject leader attends core provision.
• Governors undertake regular monitoring visits in school and update the FGB via visit reports.
• Assessment data is analysed, reported to governors and used to inform future planning.