At
Barrow Primary we believe that a quality English curriculum should develop
children’s love of reading and writing. We have an ambitious, fulfilling and
rewarding English curriculum that provides many purposeful opportunities for
reading and writing.
Our English
curriculum is taught using CUSP (Curriculum by
Unity Schools Partnership) resources and further information about the
curriculum can be accessed at https://www.unity-curriculum.co.uk/clusp/
Reading
Our CLUSP Reading curriculum is
deliberately designed to be ambitious and aspirational, ensuring that every
child leaves our school as a competent, confident reader. Drawing on the latest
research around explicit vocabulary instruction, reading fluency and key
comprehension strategies, this curriculum is a synthesis of what we know works
in helping children make outstanding progress in reading and a distillation
into consistent, well-structured practice.
Pupils will receive a daily diet of
excellent reading teaching and this will be supplemented by regular
opportunities to engage with shared reading experiences, promoting the joy of
reading with the whole school community. The clear structure and principles
ensure that teaching is progressive, challenging and engaging and the rich,
diverse literature spine acts as both a mirror so that every child can see
themselves in the core texts and as a mirror to engage pupils with experiences
beyond their own field of reference.
Writing
Our CLUSP Writing curriculum draws on
taught content from CUSP History, Geography and Science and from the depth
study of core texts from the literature spine. Expert subject knowledge is
carefully woven into each Writing module which gives teachers the opportunity
to teach and rehearse key knowledge and skills before applying this learning to
meaningful extended outcomes. The careful architecture of this curriculum
ensures that pupils build on prior learning and maximise purposeful curriculum
connections to become writers for life. Within
the CLUSP curriculum, punctuation and grammar is taught both directly and
discreetly with pupils receiving a daily SPaG lesson. Vocabulary is taught
alongside with direct and explicit teaching of Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary.
Handwriting is taught using the
programme, Letter-Join. Pupils learn pre-cursive handwriting in Year 1 moving
to cursive handwriting in Year 2. In Key Stage 2, pupils continue to develop
their speed, fluency and presentation of handwriting.
Early Years English
In EYFS, Reading is at the heart of
our curriculum and our aim is to encourage a love of reading right from the
start. In EYFS, we aim to expose children to a range of books that not only
develop a love of reading, but have been specifically chosen to develop their
oracy, vocabulary and comprehension.
Books will be embedded in our
provision through activities, daily story sessions and on display for children
to access independently. Through this, children begin to internalise new
vocabulary, language patterns and begin to retell stories. While we do not
specifically follow the CUSP structure used in Key Stage 1, our curriculum is
carefully constructed to prepare children and ensure that there is cohesion and
consistency with our approach through:
-The inclusion of high-quality texts
which are age and stage appropriate modelled reading and re-telling
opportunities across each session
-Structured comprehensions questions
based on Blooms Taxonomy
-A focus on Tier 1, 2 and 3 Vocabulary
-Dedicated phonics sessions, employing
tricky and high-frequency words
-Cooperative learning behaviours which
develop oracy and interdependence.
-Children are encouraged to apply
their phonics in independent and supported writing opportunities across the
curriculum from letters, to recipes, short stories and information reports
Phonics
There is a clear structure and sequence
to the teaching of phonics. It is taught systematically in response to
ongoing assessments and the needs of individual children. Phonics teaching
follows a six level programme, starting at EYFS and continuing through
KS1. A Phonics overview document is used consistently throughout EYFS and
KS1, specifying when children are taught each phase. Phonics sessions are
taught daily through ‘Twinkl phonics’ which is a systematic, synthetic phonics
programme which meets the national curriculum expectations in grapheme- phoneme
correspondence and word reading. This ensures that systematic synthetic phonics
is the prime approach to decoding print. Children are encouraged to start
learning phonic knowledge and skills early in reception, this ensures most
children exceed or meet the expected standard in the Year 1 phonics screening
check.
Phonics lessons include opportunities
for the children to revisit previous learning, as well as practice and apply
new learning. Our approach enables all pupils to learn how to decode words
before they move on to develop fluency and greater comprehension. For
additional reinforcement and for those falling behind, we signpost parents to
the phonics classroom on Google Classroom which contains a series of phonics
videos and lessons. Phonics websites are also signposted which provide
opportunities for reinforcement and model correct enunciation of sounds.
In Reception, children are
assessed against Phase 3 sounds, in Year 1 they are taught Phase 5 and will be
assessed as part of the National Phonics Screening Check (if a child does not
pass the phonics screening check in Year 1, they will be given additional
support in Year 2 and will be re-tested). Upon going in to Year 3 and beyond,
if a child needs further support with their phonics, alternative provision will
be provided. Year 2 pupils will receive phonics teaching but also lessons
dedicated to spelling, punctuation and grammar. Following the DFE Reading
Framework guidance additional phonics teaching is happening in KS1. children
are also taught to read common exception words by sight.
We have robust assessment
procedures to regularly check progress and identify pupils in need of
intervention across EYFS, Key stage 1 and if needed Key stage 2.
