English
The English Curriculum at Nightingale is designed to ensure that children become confident writers. We strive to help our children develop into effective communicators, who are well-equipped with the foundational skills they need to become life-long learners. We aim to ensure all of our children develop a love of language and reading. Careful links are made across the curriculum to ensure that children’s English learning is relevant and meaningful: where possible we link our reading, writing to a topic we are covering in the wider curriculum.
We know that children need to learn and master the foundational skills in writing before they can become fluent writers. The foundational skills of handwriting, spelling and punctuation are explicitly taught in each year group.
Handwriting
Once children have learned to read the single-letter sounds in Reception, in the Spring term children have a daily handwriting session. Children learn to form the letters using the Read Write Inc. mnemonics.
For example, when learning to write the letter ‘a’ children will write ‘round the apple, down the leaf.’
Once children have learned to write the above single letters, they will also learn to write each capital letter.
In year 1, children will continue to learn to form each of the single letters accurately, starting and finishing in the right place and then learning to sit each letter on the line and written at an appropriate size.
Moving from year 2 into year 3, children use the Letter-join programme to learn the joins needed to create fluent writers.
Handwriting across the curriculum: we ensure that letter formation is a priority in our marking across the curriculum. Teachers and teaching assistants pick up on incorrectly formed letters in their live marking and ask children to correct them in the moment using purple pen.
We use the acronym SPOT to support our children’s position for writing. These posters are displayed in every classroom.
Handwriting Assessment: letter formation for children across school is tracked using a letter formation tracker. This allows teachers to closely monitor which children have gaps in their formation. Any children needing rapid catch-up have daily handwriting intervention.
Dictation
At the start of every English lesson, the children write a sentence that is read out to them by the teacher. This daily sentence practice allows the children to retrieve the following foundational skills daily: handwriting, basic punctuation (capital letters and full stops) and spelling.
These dictated sentences directly link to the text type being chosen and the vocabulary for that writing block.
Reading Spine
We teach writing through a high-quality text. These texts form the basis of our writing and reading lessons.
Phonics
We know that children need to master the foundational skills in reading. To achieve this we show fidelity to our SSP (Systematic Synthetic Phonics) programme - Read Write Inc.
Children learn the English alphabetic code: first they learn one way to read the 40+ sounds and blend these sounds into words, then learn to read the same sounds with alternative graphemes. They experience success from the very beginning. Phonics books are closely matched to their increasing knowledge of phonics and ‘tricky’ words and, as children re-read the stories, their fluency increases. Along with a thought-provoking introduction, prompts for thinking out loud and discussion, children are helped to read with a voice.
Read Write Inc. Phonics programme is for:
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Pupils in Year R to Year 2 who are learning to read and spell
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Any pupils in Years 2, 3 and 4 who need to catch up rapidly
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Struggling readers in Years 5 and 6 follow Read Write Inc. Fresh Start.
In Read Write Inc. Phonics pupils:
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Decode letter-sound correspondences quickly and effortlessly, using their phonic knowledge and skills
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Read common exception words on sight
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Understand what they read
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Read aloud with fluency and expression
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Spell quickly and easily by segmenting the sounds in words
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Acquire good handwriting.
In Reception we emphasise the alphabetic code. The pupils rapidly learn sounds and the letter or groups of letters they need to represent them. Simple mnemonics help them to grasp this quickly. This is especially useful for pupils at risk of making slower progress. This learning is consolidated daily. Pupils have frequent practice in reading high frequency words with irregular spellings – common exception words. We make sure that pupils read books that are closely matched to their increasing knowledge of phonics and the common exception words. This is so that, early on, they experience success and gain confidence that they are readers. Re-reading and discussing these books with the teacher supports their increasingly fluent decoding.
Embedding the alphabetic code early on means that pupils quickly learn to write simple words and sentences. We encourage them to compose each sentence aloud until they are confident to write independently. We make sure they write every day.
Pupils write at the level of their spelling knowledge. The quality of the vocabulary they use in their writing reflects the language they have heard in the books the teacher has read to them; they have also discussed what the words mean.
Our aim is for pupils to complete the phonics programme as quickly as possible. The sooner they complete it, the sooner they will be able to choose books to read at their own interest and comprehension level.
Assessment and Tracking Progress:
All children on the Read Write Inc. programme are assessed every six weeks and then streamed into groups for the following half term based on their assessment result. This ensures that all children are being taught the phonetic knowledge that they need in order to progress at the expected standard.
All Reception children and any new starters in our school are assessed as soon as possible so that they can be placed into the correct group immediately.
The results of the half termly assessments are put into the tracking grid so that the progress of all children can be easily identified. This supports the reading leader in identifying any children that are not on track to make expected progress and can therefore put in place intervention to support that child.
We support pupils who have identified special educational needs for however long it takes until they can read. For example, we identify those who are at risk of falling behind their peers immediately – whatever their age. Trained staff tutor them every day, using the Read Write Inc. one-to-one tutoring programme. If a child arrives in Key Stage 2 reading below their chronological age or with English as an additional language they are taught Read Write Inc. Phonics until they too catch up with their peers.
Fresh Start – Continued Phonics beyond KS1
The Fresh Start programme is used for Year 5 and Year 6 pupils who have fallen significantly below their peers in Reading or are new to English. It follows a very similar structure to the Read Write Inc. Phonics programme and incorporates many of the systems and procedures that our older children are familiar with due to their previous learning.
Any Year 5 or Year 6 children who are falling significantly behind their peers in Reading are assessed using the Fresh Start Assessment and then given a Phonetic level. The children are then grouped based on their reading ability. This is the same for new starters to the school. The Fresh Start programme involves daily one-hour lessons focusing on:
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Decoding letter-sound correspondences quickly and effortlessly, using their phonic knowledge and skills
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Reading common exception words on sight
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Understanding what they read
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Reading aloud with fluency and expression
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Spelling quickly and easily by segmenting the sounds in words
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Acquiring good handwriting
Spelling
Once children have finished the Read Write Inc. programme of study, they move to the use of No Nonsense Spelling for their spelling lessons. The programme is designed to focus on spelling patterns, rules, common exceptions and statutory words. Sessions are designed for frequent, short, focused teaching rather than long weekly sessions. The programme incorporates strategies like ‘Quickwrite’ on whiteboards and handwriting practice for muscle memory.
Reading
At Co-op Academy Nightingale, the teaching of reading is a key driver and is at the core of our curriculum. We strive to create fluent, confident readers, in any subject in their forthcoming secondary education. It is our intention that through their journey at Nightingale, children are able to read, enjoy, discuss and work with a selection of core books. Each year group is immersed in a wide range of text types and diverse themes. They are inspired by a range of authors and poets, books which create mirrors and windows that reflect the realities of the children in our classrooms and beyond.
VIPERS
The children learn key comprehension skills in Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2. We use the VIPERS acronym to help us with this. Through these skills the children are able to confidently discuss and answer questions about a wide range of texts.
Fluency
Reading fluency is explicitly taught through Guided Reading sessions: the same passage is read 3 or 4 times per week, initially read by the teacher, by the class, then in pairs and finally independently.
Strategies such as choral reading, echo reading and fastest finger are used in reading lessons to develop fluency. Teachers model fluency when reading out loud to the children in English lessons, Guided Reading lessons and in story time. When staff are reading 1:1 with children, they also model fluency alongside the sounding out of words.
Reading Plus
Children in years 5 and 6 access the online programme Reading Plus which is an adaptive, online literacy program designed to enhance silent reading fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary. It provides personalised instruction. The program features a "Guided Window" for fluency, diverse text options, and in-depth data reporting for teachers.
