English

National Curriculum

English Programme of Study

Teacher Assessment Framework for Key Stage One

Early Years Long Term Progression Planning

Nursery Literacy Progression Map

Reception Literacy Progression Map

Whole School Writing Planning

Whole School Writing Planning

Handwriting Policy

Handwriting Policy

RWINc Handwriting rhymes

Spelling Progression

Spelling Progression

Reading

Reading Spine

Inclusive Books

45 Books to read before Year 3

Reading workshop to parents

Phonics 

Parent FAQs

We believe reading is a fundamental life skill and a gateway to lifelong learning. We are committed to ensuring that every child becomes a confident, fluent reader who enjoys reading for pleasure and can access a wide range of texts. By the time children leave us, they can discuss books thoughtfully, recommend texts to others, tackle unfamiliar vocabulary and engage with a variety of genres, including fiction, poetry and non-fiction.

We use a range of high-quality reading resources, including Read Write Inc. (RWI), Bug Club and class Kindle books, to support children’s reading development.

How We Teach Reading

Reading is taught through a consistent and structured approach, including:

• Daily Read Write Inc. phonics lessons
• Targeted phonics interventions and Fast Track Tutoring
• Daily story time
• Opportunities to read for pleasure
• Regular discussion of books and stories
• Exposure to a wide range of genres, including poetry and non-fiction
• Explicit teaching of comprehension skills, including retrieval, inference and vocabulary development
• Additional 1:1 support where needed

Children read regularly with adults, including at least weekly with their class teacher, and take home carefully matched books that support both decoding and fluency.

Reading for Pleasure

Fostering a love of reading is central to our curriculum. Every classroom follows a carefully chosen Reading Spine, exposing children to high-quality, diverse and inclusive texts that broaden vocabulary, deepen understanding and reflect the world around them. Classrooms and our library provide rich opportunities for children to discover books that inspire, challenge and represent all members of our community.

Reading Enrichment

We further promote a love of reading through:

• Author visits
• World Book Day celebrations
• School Book Week events
• The Cirrus Trust Poetry Competition
• Regular library sessions
• KS1 Book Club

Through these experiences, we nurture enthusiastic readers who read widely, think critically and develop a lifelong love of books.

45 books to read before Year 3

This carefully selected collection of 45 high-quality books is designed to encourage a lifelong love of reading and support children's literacy development. The diverse range of texts exposes children to rich vocabulary, different genres and varied experiences, helping to broaden their knowledge, develop empathy and build reading confidence. We hope these books inspire children to read widely and often as they prepare for their transition to Year 3.

45 book to read before Year 3

Book Week

Each year, we celebrate our love of reading through a dedicated Book Week, designed to inspire children to read widely and often. Activities include:

• Author visits
• Whole-school reading events
• Dress-up days
• Book fairs
• Quizzes, scavenger hunts and book-themed classroom activities

A highlight of the week is Books Before Bedtime, where children return to school in their pyjamas to share stories with teachers and celebrate the joy of reading together. These memorable experiences help foster enthusiasm for books and encourage positive reading habits beyond the classroom. Last years performance was 'What the Ladybird Heard' by Julia Donaldson.

Reading communities: 

• Participation in local reading competitions including the summer reading challenge
• Visits to the school library every week
• Book fairs  
• Participation in World Book Week dress up and enrichment events based on the national theme
• Reading buddies - teaming up older and younger classes to share favourite books together

Reading environments and choice: 

• An engaging, clearly labelled, tidy book corner with a range of classic and new, high-quality fiction and non-fiction texts. 
• Advice on how to choose a book that they will like and exposure to new authors and genres.   
• Time every week to choose a book and read for pleasure. 
• Dedicated time each day where an adult will read to them. 
• Time each week to read to an adult and other children in the classroom. 
• Daily opportunities to engage in quality book talk. 

Author visits: 

• Regular author/storyteller visits - every child will access at least one author event per year. 

We teach phonics through the Read Write Inc. (RWI) systematic synthetic phonics programme. Our phonics curriculum is carefully sequenced to ensure children build secure knowledge of sounds and letters, enabling them to become confident, fluent readers and writers.

Children in Nursery develop early speaking and listening skills through stories, rhymes, songs and language-rich activities. From Reception onwards, children take part in daily phonics lessons, learning to blend sounds for reading and segment words for spelling. As they progress, they learn increasingly complex grapheme-phoneme correspondences and apply their knowledge through reading and writing.

To ensure all children succeed, we:

• Deliver daily, high-quality phonics lessons.
• Group children according to their stage of learning.
• Regularly assess progress and provide targeted support where needed.
• Use fully decodable books matched to children's phonics knowledge.
• Promote the application of phonics across the curriculum.
• Work in partnership with families through workshops and guidance.

Reading Books

Children take home decodable reading books that closely match their current phonics knowledge, helping them develop accuracy, fluency and confidence. They also have opportunities to choose books for reading for pleasure from our library, fostering a lifelong love of reading.

Supporting Phonics at Home

You can support your child by:

• Reading with them every day.
• Practising blending and segmenting sounds and words.
• Using Read Write Inc. rhymes to reinforce learning.
• Talking about books and asking questions to develop understanding and vocabulary.

To learn more about the Read Write Inc. scheme and how you can support your child at home, please see the information below.

Parent FAQs

Reading workshop to parents

We aim for every child to become a confident, fluent and purposeful writer. Our writing curriculum is carefully sequenced and linked to high-quality texts, enabling children to develop the knowledge and skills needed to write effectively for a range of audiences and purposes.

We teach writing through the Talk for Writing approach, which supports children to:

• Learn and understand high-quality model texts.
• Adapt and innovate ideas from familiar texts.
• Apply their skills independently in their own writing.

Writing is underpinned by the systematic teaching of phonics, vocabulary, grammar and sentence structure. Through approaches such as Colourful Semantics, children learn to construct accurate and coherent sentences before developing longer pieces of writing.

Handwriting and Spelling

Handwriting is taught daily, with a clear progression from correct letter formation in Reception to fluent, joined writing as children move through Key Stage 1. We use the Read Write Inc. handwriting scheme to support consistent letter formation.

Spelling is taught progressively through our phonics curriculum, where children learn to spell words using the phonemes and graphemes they already know. The explicit teaching of spelling rules and common exception words takes place at the start of English lessons and is revisited daily through Sticky Knowledge challenges to ensure learning is embedded and retained. This systematic approach helps children apply spelling knowledge accurately and confidently in their writing.

In Key Stage 1, children are also set half-termly spelling lists on Spelling Shed to practise at home. These focus on the statutory Common Exception Words, helping children to consolidate and apply key spelling knowledge beyond the classroom.

Celebrating Writing

Children write regularly for meaningful purposes and are encouraged to share, perform and publish their work. Writing is celebrated across the school, fostering pride, creativity and confidence as young authors.