English

English Intent 

At Rice Lane Primary and Nursery School our intent is to provide an inspirational English curriculum for our children that allows them to develop into confident, creative writers, readers and communicators. We understand that developing strong literacy skills in primary school plays a key role in the ability of children to successfully navigate the later years of their school life, and indeed the years beyond education. 

Here at Rice Lane, it is our aim to do this by immersing children in a fun, engaging curriculum that is tailored to their needs, responsive to the different speeds at which children learn and sensitive to the challenges that all children face on their learning journey. 

Having a well-planned, carefully structured progression of skills that runs from the beginning of Nursery to the end of year 6 allowing us to have high expectations of all children. At the heart of this is the intention of all staff here at Rice Lane to instil a love of reading, writing and discussion in our children that will have a positive impact on their development during their time here, and a lasting impact on their lives. 

 

The skills of a Great English Student 

  • A strong grasp of spoken language underpins the development of vocabulary, grammar and the understanding needed for effective reading and writing. Therefore, confidence and competence in this aspect of English is key.  
  • The ability to be imaginative, listen carefully, think creatively and express themselves clearly through the conventions of discussion, debate and drama refines ideas and understanding.   
  • Fluency in reading is an essential skill if children are to gain enjoyment from reading. 
  • Children read widely and often, both for pleasure and information. 
  • A good writer has stamina and a good understanding of purpose and audience and uses this knowledge to adapt their style, flair and language choices.  Proof-reading and editing are habitually used to evaluate the impact of each piece of writing 
  • A great English student naturally demonstrates the qualities of a RICE LANE pupil through their growing confidence and understanding of the world and others, enhanced by literature, writing, reasoning and discussion opportunities.  

Phonics  

At Rice Lane we believe that phonics provides the foundations of learning to make the development into fluent reading and writing easier. Through daily, systematic and consistent high-quality phonics teaching, children learn to segment words to support their spelling ability and blend sounds to read words. To allow our children to develop a strong phonic awareness and effective blending and decoding skills, we have chosen to use a synthetic phonics programme called Read, Write, Inc. produced by Ruth Miskin.  Read Write Inc. is a method of learning centred around letter sounds and phonics, blending sounds together to read and spell words and applying these skills across the curriculum.  Using Read Write Inc. the children learn to read fluently so that they can put all their energy into comprehending what they read.  We passionately believe that teaching children to read and write independently is one of the core purposes of a primary school enabling them to access a broad and exciting curriculum and ensuring they flourish as learners throughout their time at our school. These fundamental skills not only hold the keys to the rest of the curriculum but also have a huge impact on children’s self-esteem and future life chances. 

Children are assessed half termly with this information being used to group the children according to their phonic ability. This allows children to work in small groups at their ‘challenge point’ which ensures they make speedy progress through the programme.  

Writing 

We are now in our second year of using Literacy Counts: Read to Write scheme which uses a book-based approach a high standard of modelled writing and vocabulary to engage and challenge all learners whilst ensuring consistency across a year group. Grammar opportunities are embedded within each unit.  

The documents below give you more information about the texts and genres that your child will be covering.  Please note that this document should be read in conjunction with our curriculum overviews as the order of the units may change throughout the year.

Reception Overview

Year 1 Overview

Year 2 Overview

Year 3 Overview

Year 4 Overview

Year 5 Overview

Year 6 Overview

These units provide:

  • Clear sequential Episodes of Learning
  • Model Texts linked to writing outcomes within the unit
  • Vocabulary learning and contextualised spelling, grammar and punctuation
  • Wider reading for the wider curriculum
  • Curriculum Enrichments
  • A wealth of resources
  • Explicit links to the national curriculum

Read to Write is evidence-based teaching of writing. These units have been carefully mapped out so the entire statutory curriculum for English is covered for each year group, supporting our school to build a rich curriculum.

 

We understand the importance of a child needing to read and spell fluently before being able to access this broad range of literature and writing, which is why we have introduced Read, Write, Inc phonics sessions throughout EYFS and the lower school. Children in these year groups still have access to our Literacy Counts programme but use a stream-lined version of each unit to ensure they still have access to this challenging learning whilst accessing their daily phonics, spelling and writing through RWI.  

 

In addition to this, extended writing opportunities are planned throughout the wider curriculum during the course of the academic year.  Children are also given opportunities to write for pleasure through competitions run throughout the school by writing ambassadors; some children even go on to have their work published in their own book.  

Reading 

At Rice Lane we recognise that reading is an important life skill and staff work hard to ensure all children leave Rice Lane as literate individuals. However, we also want our children to leave school with a love of reading that will stay with them for life. We look for opportunities to raise the profile of reading where ever possible and immerse the children in a wide range of genres and text types to ensure they find their passion.  

Within class, children will read regularly, including through daily whole class reading sessions where the children build up their skills including decoding, retrieving and inference. The children are also given opportunities to read independently throughout the school day as well as sharing carefully planned whole class texts throughout the week.  

At Rice Lane, we understand that children learn at different rates. To support the children on this reading journey, they may be given additional 1:1 reading time with an adult or may take part in additional reading support. These include: Fresh Start as part of our RWI phonics scheme, Toe by Toe or focussed comprehension groups which are carefully planned by the teacher and supporting adult. All these approaches help to develop word recognition and comprehension in line with the ‘simple view of reading’. Children from across the school may also have additional phonics support to embed the learning from their class sessions. 

At Rice Lane, we have invested heavily in our school library, which was updated and refurbished this year. The area is now a haven for those who love to read and provides an amazing selection of fiction, poetry and non-fiction books for all age groups within the school. Children have a weekly timetabled slot to access this space, as well as year 5 and 6 using their time to share reading with the younger children. We have school librarians who look after the library and support children in choosing new books to read. To see images of the library, please look through the gallery below. Each class has also developed a class reading area which showcases a range of poetry, fiction and non-fiction texts for the children to read at their leisure. 

Reading at home is important to each child’s progression. We therefore ask that you read with your child at least four times a week. Please speak to your class teacher if you have any concerns about your child’s reading.  

Spelling 

Spelling continues to be a focus within school with the Read, Write Inc phonics programme being used to teach spelling in Reception and KS1. Once the RWI programme has been completed, Spelling Shed is used to teach spelling patterns and rules from Year 3 and throughout KS2.  This follows the National Curriculum programme of study for spelling.  

 

If you have any questions about the English curriculum within school, please ask to speak to Mrs Roach or any member of our English team: Miss Ratcliffe, Miss Cunningham or Mrs Smith.