English

At Thurton CE Primary School, we believe that a robust English curriculum plays a fundamental role in equipping our pupils with essential skills necessary for their academic journeys and lifelong learning. We are committed to fostering an environment where all pupils can achieve their potential in English.

Aims

The aims of the English curriculum at Thurton CE Primary School are to ensure that all pupils:

• Develop the ability to read fluently and with understanding.
• Acquire a rich vocabulary and a strong command of the English language.
• Communicate effectively through speaking and listening.
• Engage in a wide range of writing experiences for different purposes and audiences.
• Develop a lifelong love for reading and writing.

Handwriting

Reception

Within daily phonics lessons, children receive supported handwriting practise opportunities. This is focussed on correct letter formation, positioning letters on the page and correct pen grip.

Years 1 and 2

In Key Stage 1, students should be taught to:

• Form letters of the correct size and orientation.
• Use spacing between words.
• Develop a fluid style by the end of Year 2.

At the beginning of the Autumn term, Year 1 and 2 spend time consolidating and practising their letter formation. This gives pupils sufficient time to become fluent with their transcription. We look at the letter families and the correct starting position and orientation for each letter.

Years 3 to 6

In Key Stage 2, students should be taught to:

• Write legibly and fluently, and begin to create a consistent, cursive style which will be embedded by Year 6.
• Adapt their handwriting for different contexts, including handwriting for specific audiences.

Joining handwriting:

Letters that join from the bottom:

a c d e h I k l m n t u

Letters that join from the top:

o r v w

Optional break letters:

b g j p q s x

Letters that can loop to join:

g j y

Numerals:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0

At the beginning of the Autumn Term a block of focussed handwriting instruction will be taught prior to beginning PVPG to each class from Years 1 to 6. The length of time spent on this will vary, depending on the needs of the class. Those that need additional support with handwriting may well receive an intervention package of support. To support children in the earlier stages of handwriting development, handwriting guidelines will be used across the curriculum where appropriate.

Depending on the purpose of the written English work, some pieces of writing will be “top copied” as a presentation exercise, or with a view to being published. E.g. sending a letter home or producing a poem or story for an anthology.

Writing

For our writing lessons, we are using Grammarsaurus’ Unit Guides to inform our teaching. This begins with a whole school focus on “Place Value of Punctuation and Grammar.” Across the school, classes spend a minimum of 4 weeks on learning the basics of word classes, sentence structure and punctuation. This will depend on the needs of the cohort.

Below is an example of a yearly outline of writing units genres:

Each genre has a unit guide planning, which includes a pre-assessment which enables teachers to plot their bespoke teaching journey through the unit. This relies on continuous formative assessment of the pupils’ performance.

Below is the recommended approach for teaching a writing unit:

For each genre, a list of presentational and language features is identified as steps to success in the genre:

Once a final piece has been written, it is assessed using our bespoke assessment stage grids. This assesses pupils against the expectations of the National Curriculum and identifies areas to improve in the next piece of writing.

Phonics

Our chosen DfE approved phonics scheme is Twinkl Phonics. Children begin learning phonics when they start in Reception and it is taught daily.

Reading books are carefully matched to the phonic knowledge of the child and are changed every week. Each week, children take home two reading books containing the sounds they have been taught to practise, build fluency and consolidate their reading. We also encourage parents to share story books to build reading for pleasure alongside their school reading books.

High quality intervention is in place for those children who need additional support to ensure they don’t fall behind. Regular assessment is used to ensure children are receiving personalised intervention where necessary. Phonics Tracker is used to assess the content taught and identify any gaps quickly so the children can keep up.

Children in Key Stage 2 who need further support with their phonic learning, do so through the Lightning Squad. This is an online learning platform which is designed to support children with their decoding and fluency when reading. Children have access to the The Lightning Squad several times a week and it is individually tailored to the needs of each child.

Reading

At Thurton CE Primary School, we believe that reading is the most important life-long skill and we are committed to ensuring every child learns to read confidently, fluently and for pleasure so that they become discerning, life-long readers who love and value books. We believe reading is the gateway to success, to be able to allow children to pursue interests and further learning. By the time our pupils leave Thurton Primary School, they should be able read fluently, with confidence in any subject or topic that they choose and fully achieve their potential in their futures.

Our Reading Cycle combines whole class and grouped reading, where our children develop on to a range of short and longer texts, in a range of genres, and discuss them with adults and peers. Reading is taught in every class and children have opportunities to engage in reading activities every day.

Please see below for our reading cycle:

Spelling

From Year 2 onwards, children are taught to spell following the Spelling with Grammarsaurus scheme. This follows closely to our English writing units to ensure that children are able to have opportunities to use the spellings rules they have learnt, in their writing. Time is taken to learn about consonants, vowels, syllables and the morphology and etymology of words in understanding how words are built to support spelling. Spelling activities are sent home to provide further chances to embed and practise their learning.

From September 2025, ‘Spelling with Grammarsaurus’ will be implemented across the school from Year 2 – 6, to tie in with the new release of the Years 5 and 6 content.