English

Intent

At Fern Academy Trust, English is at the cornerstone to our rich and varied curriculum which strives to ensure that every single child becomes a confident learner. We understand that to enable children to be successful across the curriculum, they must progress well in all areas of reading, writing, speaking and listening. We are determined that all children will become highly competent readers and writers by the end of their time with us.

Through use of high-quality texts from a range of authors, immersing children in vocabulary rich environments, teaching the craft of writing and ensuring the new curriculum expectations and the progression of skills are met, we enable our pupils to meet age-related expectations while developing a passion for writing, a love of reading and purposeful speaking and listening – irrespective of their personal background. 

Implementation

In order to deliver this, our daily timetable includes a daily English lesson, Phonics or Spelling lesson and a discrete lesson for reading which explores verbally the class text. We also like to read a class story to the children each day.

Reading

• Starting in Reception, children are taught to read daily by using Phonics Bug synthetic phonics program and they have Bug Club books that match the children’s phonic knowledge. The children read Bug Club books to adults in school and they also take these books home to read with parents/carers.
• Children in KS1 and KS2 have weekly comprehension lessons using engaging, age-appropriate texts.
• Reading for meaning whole-class reading sessions daily to develop decoding, comprehension and fluency from Year 1 – 6.
• Class Story is read daily in all classes.

Writing

• Well-planned, text-led learning journeys with clear outcomes and embedded teaching of grammatical skills.
• Interesting and purposeful reasons to write.
• Differentiated tasks where appropriate to support and challenge all of our learners.
• Opportunities to apply taught skills across the curriculum.

Spelling

• Daily phonics in Reception and Key Stage 1, following Phonics Bug.
• Spelling Shed sessions taught at least three times a week in Key Stage 2, with additional lessons focusing on statutory word lists.

Handwriting

• Cursive handwriting to be taught across the school with a requirement to have consistent joined handwriting by the end of Year 3. Handwriting is taught in a daily session in Key Stage 1.

Impact

We strive to ensure that our children's attainment is in line with or exceeds their potential when we consider the varied starting points of all of our children. We measure this using NFER assessments each half-term for Maths, Reading and GPS, and STA Assessment guidelines. We assess writing using our own internal assessment criteria which is taken from the national curriculum. The children that move on from the Fern Academy Trust take with them confidence, passion and high aspirations for their future learning through the progress, sustained learning and transferrable skills secured over their time with us. They understand that English is an integral part of the curriculum and that by securing the skills taught in the English lessons, they can confidently access the wider curriculum. As well as this positive impact across the curriculum, we hope that they foster a thirst for English, the writing process, and a true love of reading.