Reading at Eastchurch 

Reading Curriculum Intent 

Here at Eastchurch C of E Primary School, we believe that the teaching of reading is integral to a child’s understanding and appreciation of the world around them; a platform that allows our children to see beyond what they know, share in cultural experiences and develop the vocabulary they need to effectively express themselves. Our reading curriculum strives to foster a lifelong love of reading.  We cultivate the behaviours that the children will need to be discerning readers as they read frequently and widely using self-regulation strategies and discuss what they read. This curriculum is delivered through Systematic Synthetic Phonics (SSP), a linked approach to shared and guided reading, home reading, reading across the curriculum, regular opportunities for independent reading and hearing quality texts read aloud daily. All of these are essential components as they offer the range of opportunities needed to develop fluent, enthusiastic and critical readers.

It is important that children are motivated to read at home regularly; when their reading opportunities increase, so does their fluency, stamina and confidence which in turn increases their enjoyment of reading. Therefore, the link between children’s motivation to read and reading for pleasure is reciprocal. Furthermore, we know that reading for pleasure is beneficial not only for reading outcomes, but for wider learning enjoyment and mental wellbeing. This is why, we work hard to foster a love of independent reading to build a community of willing and engaged readers. We understand the importance and significance of parents and carers in supporting their children to develop both word reading and comprehension skills, so we endeavour to build a home-school partnership which enables all to have the confidence to support their children with reading at home.

Reading is at the very heart of our curriculum because ‘if pupils are not able to read well, they will not be able to access the full curriculum’ (Ofsted, 2023). We are committed to promoting a love of and a love for reading by not only giving children opportunities to read within English lessons, but in the wider curriculum too.

Reading at Eastchurch 

Writing Curriculum Intent

At Eastchurch C of E Primary School, we want all children to be able to confidently communicate their knowledge, ideas and emotions through their writing and reach their full potential.

Our aims are to:

• Guide and nurture each individual on their own personal journeys to becoming successful writers through their interactions with reading high quality text.
• Provide exciting writing opportunities and experiences that engage and enhance all pupils.
• We want all children to acquire a wide vocabulary and to be able to spell new words by effectively applying the spelling patterns and rules they learn throughout their time in primary school.
• We want all children to have a solid understanding of grammar and apply it effectively to their writing.
• We want them to write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences.
• We believe that all children should be encouraged to take pride in the presentation of their writing, in part by developing a legible, cursive, individual handwriting style by the time they move to secondary school.
• We want every child to have a good knowledge of phonics to springboard children to becoming fluent writers.
• To plan a progressive curriculum to build upon previous teaching, with regular assessment to ensure each child’s needs are met to reach their full potential.

Writing Curriculum Implementation

At Eastchurch C of E Primary School, writing is taught 5 times per week across the whole school using Power of Reading. Each class studies a different high-quality text, lasting from a few weeks to a whole term depending on text type, length and year group. We passionately believe that reading and writing are wholly-heartedly linked therefore studying the text through ‘Reading into Writing’ sessions encourages children to make links and become fully engaged in their text and flourish as confident, empathetic and ambitious writers.

Long, medium- and short-term planning and the use of progression maps ensure that a variety of genres are progressively taught and built upon both throughout the year and throughout the school.

Writing is also a key focus in the wider curriculum, especially in RE, Science, History and Geography. Children are given the opportunity to transfer and build upon their knowledge of a genre studied during English lessons and apply this learning in a cross curricular manner.

Through the ‘Reading into Writing’ process, children will acquire and learn the skills to plan, draft and refine their written work over time and are encouraged to develop independence in being able to identify their own areas for edits and improvements in all pieces of writing.

Within each unit of work, sequenced lessons ensure that prior learning is assessed and built upon and that National Curriculum objectives are taught through a combination of approaches/opportunities. For example:

• Opportunities to participate in drama & spoken language activities.
• Exploring the features of different text types and modelled examples (E.g. Spotting features in a WAGOLL – What a good one looks like)
• Handwriting practise (Through the Letter-Join program).
• Vocabulary practise.
• Shared writing (modelled expectations).
• Discrete Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar lessons.
• Independent writing.
• Planning, drafting, editing, up-levelling and presenting.
• Performing.

Handwriting

It is paramount that children are rigorously taught correct letter formation from the very beginning of their time in school. During the foundation stage, the children are taught to sit properly in order to have the correct posture for writing, hold a pencil in the correct position and develop a legible handwriting style. In KS1, we use the handwriting scheme Letter-Join which helps to develop a child’s Key Strengths (Gross & Fine Motor Skills). It is a systematic, differentiated and progressive approach which supports children of all ability levels.

Teachers are expected to role model the school’s handwriting style when marking children’s work, writing on the board and on displays around the school.

Spellings:

From as early as nursery children are exposed to and engage with SSP (Systematic Synthetic Phonics). Here at Eastchurch this is taught through ‘Little Wandle Revised Letters and Sounds’. This programme gives children the opportunity to explore the GPCs (Grapheme-Phoneme Correspondences) needed within the English language to both read and write, as well as, exploring spelling patterns and rules, we aim to create confident and proficient spellers using a discrete teaching approach underpinned by phonics.

Children are also taught to

• Spell accurately and identify reasons for mis-spellings.
• Proof-read their spellings for common errors and mistakes.
• Recognise and use word origins, families and roots to build their skills.
• Use dictionaries and thesauruses.