KS1 English
Intent
English has four key strands:
- spoken language
- reading
- writing
- spelling, vocabulary, grammar and punctuation
The curriculum is designed to teach pupils how to speak and write fluently so that they can effectively communicate their ideas and emotions to others. The overarching aim of the reading curriculum is to ensure children acquire the necessary skills and strategies to read a range of texts with understanding and enjoyment. Through reading in particular, pupils have a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually.
Knowledge and Key Skills Progression Grids:
READING – EYFS & KS1 Knowledge and Key Skills – updated September 2022
WRITING – EYFS & KS1 Knowledge and Key Skills Progression Grid – updated Dec 2023
Writing
In Key Stage One, the Read Write Inc. ‘Get Writing’ and ‘Language and Literacy’ schemes are used to support the development of pupils writing. These schemes focus on progressively developing writing for different purposes, with a focus on developing increasing accuracy in spelling, grammar and punctuation.
Through direct teaching, explicit adult modelling and a wealth of opportunities to write for different purposes, pupils are able to use and apply their writing skills across the whole curriculum. Mastering the basics of writing a sentence is a focus within Early Years and Key Stage One, progressing from being able to articulate a sentence orally, remembering it correctly and then being able to replicate it in writing accurately. A sentence mantra, using symbols, provides pupils with a pictorial representation of what they need to include to write a perfect sentence:
Phonics and Reading
Read, Write, Inc. Phonics is used as the main scheme for teaching phonics in school. Read, Write, Inc. Phonics is a rigorous and dynamic synthetic phonics programme aimed at creating fluent and enthusiastic readers, confident speakers and willing writers. Children are taught the individual sounds first through a picture the same shape as the letter, for example for ‘a’ there is a picture of an apple and ‘s’ is a picture of a snake. These are called ‘speed sounds’ because we want your children to read them effortlessly. There are 3 sets of sounds. Set 1 contains all of the letters in the alphabet. The first 6 sounds taught are m, a, s, d, t, i, n. Once your child knows these sounds they can start learning to blend the sounds together to read words.
At Lumley Infant and Nursery School, we believe that all pupils should have access to a wide range of texts and genres to develop their vocabulary, language comprehension and love of reading across the whole curriculum. Pupils are familiar with and enjoy listening to a wide range of stories, poems, rhymes and non-fiction texts. We promote a love of reading through our inviting class story corners, author visits, regular book fairs and whole class story time sessions.
In Key Stage One, children are grouped based on their reading ability to complete reading tasks every day. Every week, children follow a three or five day timetable, dependent upon their reading ability. Children have the opportunity to read a text, that is closely matched to their reading ability three times within their timetable, with the support of a class teacher or teaching assistant. The opportunity to revisit a text allows children to build up their reading fluency and comprehension skills. This book is sent home along with another text for further practice. Although Read Write Inc. is the main programme used, we also have an abundance of reading schemes available in school, which are accessed in class story corners to give children breadth and depth to their reading.
Every week, pupils are given time to select a library book that they can take home to share with their family. This book is not matched to the children’s reading ability. The purpose of library books is to develop children’s love for reading and to equip all families to a have the opportunity to share a wealth of stories and non-fiction text with their children at home. The importance of reading aloud to children is promoted with parents and carers throughout the school year.
Once pupils have mastered this skill, they are then supported to enhance and embellish their writing by using ‘second tier’ vocabulary, writing more complex sentences and longer pieces and experimenting with a wider range of punctuation.
Parent Guide
Please read our ‘Parent’s Guide to Developing Early Reading and Writing Skills’ leaflet below for further information on our approaches to teaching phonics, reading and writing.
For more information on termly curriculum content and coverage of key skills and knowledge, please visit our class pages, where you will find termly Curriculum Information for Parents.
Impact
By the end of Key Stage One most children:
Reading
- Can decode automatically and fluently, to accurately read aloud books that are consistent to their developing phonic and word knowledge.
- Develop pleasure in reading; children enjoy listening to, discussing and giving opinions on a range of stories and texts that are at a level beyond their own reading ability.
- Understand both the books they read independently and those they listen to.
- Discuss and clarify the meanings of words, linking new vocabulary to words they already know.
- Answer and ask questions about a text and make predictions based on what has been read.
Writing
- Spell words with increasing accuracy; segmenting spoken words into phonemes, selecting the most appropriate grapheme (letters that make that sound).
- Spell the 1st 200 common exception words correctly and words containing apostrophes.
- Spell longer words using suffixes such as ‘ment’, ‘ness’, ‘ful’, ‘less’, ‘ly’.
- Begin to use some of the diagonal (arm join) and horizontal strokes (washing line join) to join letters, using the Read Write Inc. Handwriting Scheme Stage 3.
- Write for different purposes, including real events, re-reading what they have written to check for any errors in spelling, grammar and punctuation, and to ensure it makes sense.
