English

A high-quality English education is the foundation for teaching pupils to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others and through their reading and listening, others can communicate with them. More than any other subject, English – and especially reading – gives pupils access to the rest of the curriculum and is fundamental to their educational success. At Godstone Primary and Nursery school we aim to give all learners the skills they need to become confident and fluent readers ready for the continuation of their learning journey into secondary school. This includes strategies for decoding unfamiliar words, reading tricky words and reading fluently.

Phonics and Reading

Intent - What we want our children to achieve

• To provide all children with a rich and varied reading curriculum focused around achieving the expected standards as laid out in the Educational Programmes (EYFS) and National Curriculum (Y1-Y6).
• For the children to have a strong phonological knowledge of GPCs as well as blending and segmenting strategies to build up on in later reading and writing experiences, including speedy working out of the pronunciation of unfamiliar printed words (decoding) and the speedy recognition of familiar printed words.
• To encourage all children to read widely across both fiction and non-fiction to develop knowledge, understanding and appreciation of themselves, the world in which they live and the wider curriculum.
• To expose children to a range of high-quality texts to develop their expressive and receptive vocabulary.
• To develop the children’s competence in fluency and comprehension in order to read easily and with good understanding to enable children to succeed in all areas of the curriculum.
• To promote high standards of language and literacy by best practice teaching and learning that follows a clear pathway of progression and intervention based on regular assessment.
• To give children experience of all the skills so that by the end of their primary education, all pupils are able to read fluently, and with confidence, in any subject in their forthcoming secondary education.
• To provide all children with the tools that they need to participate fully as a member of society.

Implementation - How we teach phonics and reading

• Oral blending and initial sound recognition begins at Nursery level following the Foundations for phonics Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised (LWLSR) scheme.
• Phonics should be taught as a whole class daily in Nursery to Year Two Spring term following the online lesson plans, resources and accessed via the LWLSR website with absolute fidelity to the scheme and techniques to ensure we are teaching the children to use phonics to work out unfamiliar words and to recognize familiar tricky words.
• Children are encouraged to take home sharing books and other books to read for pleasure as well as their group reading book.
• For children who are following the Phonics scheme, reading books are phonetically decodable and matched to the children’s phonics ability. Reading books are then banded based on the child’s fluency level and age appropriateness.
• Reading practice groups take place three times a week in Reception, Year One, Year 2 and rapid catch up groups. Reading fluency groups to take place with children who are reading below the expected fluency level in Year Two and Key Stage Two three times a week.
• Phonics assessments to be completed every half term for children in Year R to two or for children in Key Stage 2 who are still on the phonics plan. Data will be analysed, gaps identified and Keep up/ Rapid Catch Up interventions arranged in line with LWLSR planning and reviewed after three weeks.
• Fluency assessments to be completed half termly for children in Fluency reading groups or termly for children off plan. Children identified for fluency intervention groups based on these assessments.
• Reading taught explicitly three times per week in Key Stage Two for children who are off phonics plan. Skills-focussed for Key Stage 2: Vocablary Victor; Predicting Pip; Inference Iggy; Rex Retriever; Summarising Sheeba; Cassie the Commentator; Arlo the Author.
• Reception and Year One teachers to lead parent workshops to demonstrate phonics skills and teaching strategies to parents to engage and support at home.

Impact - The difference our curriculum makes

• Progression of phonics skills in the curriculum from Nursery through the rest of the school.
• Increased confidence in staff in the delivery of the scheme in whole class phonics teaching, keep up, rapid catch up and reading groups.
• Increase in the percentage of GPCs the children know and can remember at the end of each half term.
• Increased number of children achieving the expected standard, or better, in reading at the end of each term/academic year/key stage based on NFER and fluency assessments.
• Children who are confident to use their secure phonics knowledge to blend and segment words for reading and spelling showing an impact on Early writing.
• Improved Year One Phonics Screening and KS2 SATs Reading results.
• Greater confidence and attainment in all subject areas with an impact due to explicit teaching of reading skills.
• Children to be able to read confident and fluently and enjoying reading a wide range of texts now and beyond their time at school.
• Consistently high standards of reading following regular monitoring of teaching and learning.

Writing

Intent – What we want our children to achieve

At Godstone Primary and Nursery School, we believe that English is the foundation upon which all learning is built. We want every child to become a confident, articulate and thoughtful communicator who can speak, listen, read and write with increasing fluency, accuracy and purpose. Our ambitious and inclusive English curriculum develops a lifelong appreciation of language and literature while equipping pupils with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed across the curriculum and beyond.

We place language at the heart of learning. Purposeful talk, rich discussion and high-quality texts help pupils build vocabulary, background knowledge and conceptual understanding. Reading and writing are closely connected: children learn to write by reading widely, thinking deeply and writing frequently for meaningful audiences and purposes.

In writing, we aim to develop confident, fluent and reflective writers who understand writing as a process of planning, drafting, revising, editing and publishing. We explicitly teach the component skills of composition and transcription, including vocabulary, sentence construction, grammar, punctuation, spelling and handwriting, so that pupils can make deliberate choices about audience, purpose, structure and style. We also develop resilience, independence and pride, ensuring every pupil receives appropriate support and challenge, whatever their starting point.

Implementation – How we teach writing

Our writing curriculum is carefully sequenced and evidence-informed. It combines explicit instruction, modelling, guided practice, oral rehearsal and purposeful independent application. Writing is taught daily within English and is applied across the wider curriculum so that pupils understand writing as a meaningful form of communication.

Early writing: In Reception, Drawing Club brings together high-quality stories, drawing, storytelling, vocabulary, mark-making and early writing to develop imagination, oral language and confidence. In Year 1, Curious Quests builds on these foundations through immersive storytelling, role play, creative exploration and explicit teaching of phonics, grammar, vocabulary and sentence construction. Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised supports systematic phonics and early spelling, while Little Wandle Handwriting develops secure letter formation and transcription skills.

The Godstone Writing Journey (Years 2–6): Pupils complete carefully planned fiction and non-fiction writing sequences using our three-stage Writing Journey. Explore immerses pupils in a high-quality model text or rich stimulus, building background knowledge and ambitious vocabulary through reading, discussion, drama and oral rehearsal. Skill Building explicitly teaches and practises the sentence structures, grammar, punctuation, vocabulary, cohesion and authorial techniques pupils need, following the gradual release model of ‘I do, We do, You do’. Write and Refine gives pupils sustained opportunities to plan, compose, evaluate, edit and publish an extended piece with increasing independence.

Grammar and sentence construction: Daily Shed Sentences provide a consistent approach to sentence-level teaching through Structure, Help, Edit and Develop. Grammar, vocabulary and punctuation are taught explicitly and then applied in meaningful reading and writing contexts, helping pupils understand not only how language works but how writers use it deliberately for effect.

Spelling: We use Pathways to Spell to provide a coherent and progressive approach across the school. Teaching builds on phonics and develops pupils’ phonological, orthographic and morphological knowledge. Weekly patterns and words are taught through explicit instruction, retrieval, rehearsal and application, with pupils encouraged to transfer spelling knowledge into independent writing and proofreading.

Handwriting: Handwriting is taught systematically to develop accurate, fluent, legible and increasingly automatic transcription. EYFS and Year 1 use the Little Wandle Handwriting approach, including letter families, modelling and repeated physical rehearsal. In Key Stage 2, handwriting is regularly practised through spelling, with teaching adapted where pupils require additional support with formation, joins, fluency or speed.

Oracy, drama and enrichment: Talk is fundamental to composition. Pupils regularly discuss, explain, justify, debate, retell and rehearse ideas before writing. Drama techniques such as role play, hot seating, freeze frames and interviewing in role deepen comprehension, empathy and vocabulary. Engaging ‘hooks’, educational visits, visitors and wider school experiences provide shared knowledge and authentic reasons to communicate, read and write.

Inclusion and responsive teaching: Teachers use explicit modelling, scaffolding, guided practice and appropriate adaptations so that all pupils can access ambitious learning. Support is responsive to individual need and is gradually reduced as pupils develop confidence and independence.

Impact – The difference our writing curriculum makes

We evaluate the impact of our English curriculum through pupils’ work, ongoing teacher assessment, independent writing, pupil discussion and moderation. Assessment is used to identify what pupils know, what they can apply independently and what needs to be taught or revisited next.

Across each writing sequence, teachers use live feedback, conferencing and guided discussion to help pupils improve. Children are explicitly taught to proofread and edit, using agreed approaches such as CUPS and ARMS to make the process manageable and purposeful. Termly independent writing and internal moderation, supported by the GPNS Writing Continuum, help teachers make secure and consistent judgements alongside evidence from pupils’ wider independent writing.

The intended impact is that pupils develop increasingly secure transcription and composition skills, can apply grammar, spelling and vocabulary with growing automaticity, and make thoughtful choices according to audience and purpose. They should be able to plan, compose, reread, revise, edit and publish with increasing independence and pride.

Ultimately, we want pupils to leave Godstone Primary and Nursery School as enthusiastic readers, accomplished writers and confident communicators: young people with a rich appreciation of language and literature, the confidence to use their voice, and the literacy skills required for the next stage of education and for lifelong learning.