English Intent

At Brownsover Community School, we believe reading is our lighthouse which permeates the whole curriculum, the curriculum is personalised to the individual needs of our children and enables them to develop a lifelong love of reading and writing. We provide an English curriculum that provides in-depth discussions about a range of authors and genres, we explore different styles of writing and we develop speaking and listening skills and vocabulary through drama and role-play opportunities. Through our book-focussed English curriculum we aim to inspire an appreciation of rich and varied texts and encourage reading widely and often throughout every school day. Alongside this, our fidelity to a high-quality phonics programme ensures that our children develop their fluency so that they can access a range of reading materials. As readers and writers, we provide children with the knowledge, skills and vocabulary to be successful learners following the clear pathway of progression mapped out in our English curriculum. With regular assessments, monitoring and staff training we ensure that we provide support so that all children are successful in English. We also regularly evaluate and make changes to this curriculum to incorporate new high-quality texts which are engaging and relevant. We believe that children need to secure their reading and writing skills in order to be successful learners across the wider curriculum.

English Implementation

At Brownsover we have carefully created an English curriculum which sparks joy and imagination while enabling children to develop their knowledge of themselves and their world. Through the implementation of Twinkl Phonics and our book scheme Rhino Readers we ensure the balance between word reading and comprehension is carefully considered to ensure children develop the skills needed to become confident and competent readers.

Reading is underpinned by the systematic teaching of phonics through our scheme Twinkl Phonics. We have a clear progression map that sets clear expectations for pupils’ progress. Dynamic and engaging lessons are delivered daily with a clear structure to support consistency of phonics teaching across the school. The direct teacher-led lessons enable all learners to develop and apply new skills, while also providing opportunities to further apply these skills within fun and engaging activities and through continuous provision. The lesson presentations, stories, games, additional texts and toolkits are planned and adapted depending on the needs of the children to enable them to apply and practise phonics skills. They also offer opportunities to support and challenge all learners and provide support to parents through weekly parent information sheets for each grapheme/phoneme taught. Teacher guides for each stage are provided to allow teachers and adults working with children to feel confident in their own subject knowledge, knowing they are fulfilling the national phonics criteria and enabling each child to achieve their potential.

Reading is the most important skill that we can provide children with. We aim to expose children to a wide range of reading genres to help foster, develop and maintain a life-long love of reading, as well as learn the knowledge and skills to become a fluent reader. Rhino Readers allow children to apply their phonics learning to guided or home reading, using the sounds and words that they have been taught. Children have many opportunities to read in school during daily shared read time, during English and non-core lessons, weekly guided reading lessons for year 1 and 2, weekly class library sessions, teacher read class stories and with volunteers who come to listen and share stories with children.  Reading for pleasure is promoted across the school and throughout classroom environments. Every classroom has it’s own book area encouraging children to take the time to explore and share books. Staff continually strive to encourage reading and ensure they provide a wide selection of quality poetry, fiction and non-fiction texts. There is a bookshelf allocated in each classroom with key English texts on display. These books are for children to refer back to and for them to be inspired from these rich and varied key texts that have been available to them throughout the year. Children have access to two libraries, one of which is our Non-fiction research library. Children and parents can use our libraries before and after school to develop the love of reading and our children enjoy a weekly visit to the library with their class to continue reading for pleasure outside the classroom. These libraries enable children to choose from a wider range of books and poetry and is a time where they can hear and see adults modelling good reading habits. Children also enjoy ‘Rock up and read Fridays’ where parents and carers are invited to share exciting and engaging texts with their children in school. Recommended reads of books that we find are exciting and engaging are shared in corridor displays, on Google classroom and on the school website to encourage and emerge children and our community in a range of rich, relevant and varied texts. These books are also available in each classroom’s ‘Book Corner’ for children to choose from.

All English lessons are planned around a high-quality, age-appropriate text. We are often inspired by the CLPE book recommendations through the Power of Reading programme as well as books that are inspired by children and staff interests. Teaching units focus on fiction, non-fiction or poetry where lesson ideas allow children to deepen their understanding of a range of texts. Speaking and listening skills are supported here through role-play opportunities and grammar and punctuation is taught through these Literacy lessons. During an English unit, children are taught the skills to enable them to write for a range of purposes and are given the necessary experiences to enable them to meet their full potential. We want to motivate and encourage children to write confidently and fluently. In Early years the development of fine and gross motor skills is at the forefront of their daily planning. In KS1 daily handwriting sessions linked to Twinkl phonics and weekly handwriting sessions following the Twinkl handwriting scheme enable children to learn the skills involved in writing letters correctly. We also further motivate and encourage children with their presentation by providing children with Best Powerful pencils and pens when they can demonstrate the progress they have made in their letter formation.

Assessment for Learning is embedded throughout our English lessons. Our ‘edit and improve’ ethos allows staff to provide regular guidance and children are active in reviewing their work; improving their areas of development and understanding their successes. We also provide challenge in all aspects of our English curriculum with our challenge colour coded tasks of tricky, trickier and trickiest that inform our planning and differentiation for all individuals.

English Impact

The organisation of the English curriculum at Brownsover Community School is developing a community of enthusiastic readers. Our systematic phonics scheme teaches children the required skills to be able to decode, segment and blend to become fluent readers and enjoy a range of texts. They are children who are excited and confident readers who can recommend books to their peers, participate in discussions about books, understand different genres and share viewpoints and author's impact. They can also read books to enhance their knowledge and understanding of all subjects in the curriculum and communicate their research to a wider audience.

In writing, pupils make at least good progress from their own personal starting points. Outcomes of writing evidence demonstrate the children’s exposure to a range of texts, the experiences they are given and the varied and cross curricular writing opportunities that have been provided. These enable children to write across a range of forms and adapt their writing successfully, considering the purpose. Most importantly, they will develop a love of writing and be well equipped for the rest of their education.