English
At our school, our English curriculum is designed to foster a love for reading and writing while equipping pupils with the skills they need to communicate effectively and creatively. We aim to develop confident, articulate speakers and active listeners, as oracy underpins our pedagogy and provide the foundation for all aspects of English.
For reading, our intent is to ensure every child becomes a fluent, confident reader with a deep comprehension of texts, enabling them to access learning across the curriculum and beyond.
For writing, we strive to cultivate imaginative, reflective and skilled writers who can use language creatively and accurately to express themselves and their ideas.
Our curriculum is inclusive, catering to diverse needs and ensuring that all children, regardless of their starting points, can make progress and experience success.
Writing
Writing is taught through a structured and progressive approach that places oracy at the heart of learning. This approach enhances pupils’ storytelling abilities and fosters creativity in their writing, enabling children to develop confidence as communicators and writers. Through regular opportunities to talk, rehearse and explore language orally, pupils internalise language patterns which they can then draw upon as a foundation for their independent writing. This inclusive approach engages all learners and provides a framework that supports a wide range of needs and abilities.
Across Key Stages 1 and 2, pupils are immersed in high-quality texts and a wide range of fiction and non-fiction genres. Teaching focuses on developing vocabulary, grammar, punctuation and text structure in an interconnected way, enabling pupils to understand how effective writing is constructed. Writing toolkits and model texts support pupils in developing independence by providing clear guidance on how to structure and enhance their work. This systematic approach supports creativity while building technical accuracy, allowing all pupils to make progress and experience success in writing.
In the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), writing develops through a strong focus on storytelling, language development and early mark-making, in line with the EYFS statutory framework. Children explore stories through a structured process which supports the development of storytelling and early writing skills. Children engage in hands-on experiences such as sensory play and role-play to fully immerse them and develop understanding of stories and acquire new vocabulary. Children also retell stories using actions and visual prompts, helping them to internalise language patterns and narrative structures. As children gain confidence, they begin to adapt stories by changing characters, settings or events, encouraging creativity while maintaining familiar structures.
Staff support this process by linking storytelling closely to phonics, enabling children to progress from mark-making to writing with increasing confidence and accuracy. This approach promotes creativity, communication and literacy, providing a strong foundation for future learning.
Oracy
Oracy is integral to our curriculum and underpins all aspects of reading and writing. Through structured opportunities for discussion, storytelling, debate and presentation, children develop the ability to articulate ideas clearly, listen actively and respond thoughtfully to others. These skills strengthen comprehension, enhance writing outcomes and build confidence across the curriculum, enabling pupils to express themselves effectively in a range of contexts.
Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling
We believe that for children to be successful writers, they will need to be taught the technical aspects of writing. With this in mind, all children throughout the school will be taught grammar, punctuation, spelling and handwriting appropriate to their age.
Grammar
As well as being taught how to use Standard English in their writing to form sentences in a grammatically correct way, children will be taught the technical vocabulary in order to understand the building blocks of language. This not only helps them to understand their writing, but gives them the appropriate vocabulary to analyse and discuss books within their reading sessions.
Punctuation
Punctuation allows for effective communication and stops ambiguity for the reader. It also supports more complexity in sentence structure as the children develop in their writing, and to read with expression and intonation. From nursery, children learn the importance of the full stop, and will develop their knowledge of punctuation until year 6 where they will use the full range of punctuation.
Spelling
Children are taught high frequency words from the Early years; these are:
- common words that often appear in written texts with a mix of decodable words (words which can be sounded out) and sight/exception words
- words in which the English spelling code works in an unusual or uncommon way (these are usually words which have to be learnt and recognised by sight).
The expectation is that by the end of each year children should be able to spell most of the words taught.
Handwriting
Not only does good handwriting give confidence to the children, it also aids spelling. Children are taught handwriting firstly through mark making in the Nursery and progress to using a fluent joined up style using an agreed handwriting style across the Trust.
Phonics and Reading
Phonics and Early Reading
To develop early reading skills, we implement a systematic, synthetic phonics programme. This ensures that children in the Early Years and Key Stage 1 acquire the skills to decode and comprehend texts fluently.
How is Phonics Taught?
- A systematic synthetic phonic teaching programme supports children to learn how to read (decode), spell and comprehend text fluently.
- Children are taught in a specific order which ensures that they will be able to decode and blend the sounds in words with confidence.
- It is important that the children say sounds clearly.
- The children will learn new sounds and will also review sounds daily.
- The order of teaching these sounds has been especially developed so that children can start reading complete words as soon as possible.
Assessment
Our approach ensures that no child is left behind, and that every child receives the support they need to succeed. Children are assessed regularly to identify those who need extra help.
For children who need additional support (regardless of year group), they are supported through interventions. These focus on specific phonics gaps and are delivered by trained staff.
Useful Phonics Websites
See the link below for a useful website which explains our phonics early reading scheme in more detail.
Whole Class Reading
Reading is at the heart of our curriculum. We aim to enable all children to become fluent, confident and passionate readers who develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information. Reading is taught as a subject in its own right and is further developed across the wider curriculum, ensuring pupils regularly apply their reading skills in a range of meaningful contexts.
As children progress through the school, a whole-class approach to reading is introduced. Through teacher-led modelling, pupils develop fluency, expression and comprehension skills, learning how skilled readers think and respond to texts. Comprehension skills are taught explicitly through the study of whole texts, including fiction, non-fiction and poetry, enabling pupils to engage deeply with meaning and structure while providing appropriate challenge for all learners, including those working at greater depth.
Pupils are immersed in high-quality and diverse literature, which supports the development of vocabulary, cultural understanding and analytical thinking. Regular opportunities are provided for children to read aloud, listen to texts read by adults and engage in meaningful discussion about what they have read and heard. These experiences help pupils to develop confidence, deepen understanding and articulate their ideas thoughtfully, fostering a lifelong enjoyment of reading.
Our students develop fluent reading skills by modelling these three components:
- Accuracy: The ability to recognise and read words correctly without making errors.
- Rate: Reading at an appropriate speed—neither too fast nor too slow—allowing for smooth and effortless reading.
- Prosody (Expression): Reading with natural rhythm, proper intonation, and phrasing, which conveys understanding of the text's meaning and tone.
Whole Class Reading enables students to understand print concepts and build confidence in their reading abilities. This ensures that all students develop these essential skills in a purposeful and systematic manner.
We use high-quality, age-appropriate, engaging and interesting texts from a variety of genres, covering a wide range of topics. These texts are carefully selected for each year group to improve students' general knowledge, foster a love for reading and make meaningful cross-curricular links.
To accommodate the diverse needs of all children, teachers adapt texts using tools such as Widgit; a software that simplifies text using symbols and larger print which ensures all students can access and fully participate in the activities.
This strategy not only enhances students’ ability to read fluently and comprehend texts effectively but also fosters independence and confidence. By equipping children with these essential tools, we empower them to become proficient and self-assured readers.
Handwriting Videos
Essential Letters and Sounds (ELS) Phonics Scheme
Phonics is an integral part of children learning to read and write. At Fairchildes Primary School, we start teaching phonics in nursery by getting the children familiar with deciphering sounds and having an awareness that letters produce sounds that can make words. In years reception and year 1 phonics is taught explicitly using the Essential Letters and Sounds (ELS) Phonics Scheme , which is a validated programme by the DfE. Throughout the rest of the school, phonics is used to support children in their reading and writing as needed, and where children need extra support there is an ELS intervention programme.
In the summer term of year 1, all children will have a phonics screening check in line with the statutory assessments. This assesses their phonics knowledge up to phase 5. For children who do not pass the phonics screening check in year 1, they will be re-assessed the following summer whilst in year 2.
Please click below to see the ELS presentation for parents. You can also watch the videos to see how to pronounce the sounds.
ELS is supported using the Oxford Owls reading books. To access Oxford Owls reading books follow the link and use the log in details supplied by your child’s teacher:
https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/find-a-book/library-page/
