English - Phonics, Reading, Writing.

English Team: Mrs Frost and Miss Notaro, Mrs Williams

Curriculum Vision

At Carlton Primary school we want to create a love for reading and writing that inspires and challenges all children to achieve their full potential, through engaging teaching and setting high expectations. We want to provide all of our children with the tools to enable them to feel successful in reading and writing, so that they can feel that sense of achievement. We want our children to immerse themselves within their reading and be transported to different places and to approach their writing as author’s; composing writing that they automatically edit and improve showing their desire to be the best that can be.

'Reading is like breathing in; writing is like breathing out' Pam Allyn

What do we want to achieve?

At Carlton Primary School, we intend for all pupils to experience an inspiring, language-rich and motivational English environment. We aim to foster a love of books and reading, alongside a positive culture of writing, for a variety of purposes and audiences and across all subjects within our broad curriculum. We want our children to be focussed listeners and confident speakers who can share their opinions and verbalise their thinking and processes.

Our youngest children will begin their early reading and writing development supported by excellent synthetic phonics teaching, giving them the foundational skills needed to confidently segment, decode and build words. During their time at Carlton Primary School, all pupils will be given the opportunity to immerse themselves in a wide variety of texts from a range of different cultures. Through shared texts and explicit teaching, they will experience a wide range of vocabulary, giving them the understanding and power of language that they need to flourish.

Our intent is for every child to leave our care as able and independent communicators, with the confidence and skills required to read and write fluently. They will be thoroughly prepared in all aspects of English and fully equipped for the next step in their educational journey.

How will we do this?

Our English curriculum at Carlton Primary School is delivered with the support of Twinkl Phonics, Accelerated Reader, VIPERS and ‘The Write Stuff’ sentence stacking approach. Planning is individualised to each class and the teachers adapt the resources to the needs of the class. The schemes are used to support teachers to deliver well-structured and exciting learning opportunities that enable our children to learn, revisit and progressively develop their skills in English at an age-appropriate level.

What outcomes do we want for our children?

At Carlton Primary School, all pupils make excellent progress in English. This starts with a firm foundation in EYFS, with 72.8% of pupils achieving their Early Learning Goals in literacy which is above the average in England being 68% in 2022.

Our end of KS1 assessments for 2022 show that the percentage of pupils achieving expected outcomes in Reading is 100% and for Writing it is 100%. Children that had greater depth in these subjects were 23.1% and 15% respectively. This is supported by the high number of pupils that pass the Phonics Screening Check at the end of year 1, with an 78% pass rate. This is a direct result of our excellent phonics curriculum and teaching.

The vast majority of our older pupils are equipped with the English skills they need to succeed at secondary school when they leave us. This is reflected in our end of KS2 assessments for 2022 with 84% of pupils meeting expected outcomes in Reading and 84% of pupils meeting expected outcomes in Writing.

Through evaluation of work in children’s books at Carlton Primary School, it is clear to see the high quality of writing throughout the school. Children are able to confidently talk about their work in English lessons and can apply age-appropriate skills and knowledge in their work. They are willing to take risks and learn from their mistakes, showing both perseverance and resilience in English learning.

Our children leave us confident in all English skills and we hope they have a passion for reading and writing for life.

Experience days: