Christ the King RC Primary School

English

Intent

At Christ the king, we want all of our pupils to be capable readers, writers, spellers and speakers, who can transfer their English skills to other curriculum subjects and who are prepared for the next steps in their education. We know the value of excellent vocabulary and this is developed and practised across our curriculum constantly.

Our pupils are encouraged to read for pleasure and to read widely through our reading scheme, class reading areas and the school library.

We develop writing skills so that our children have the stamina and ability to write at the age expected standard. We also intend to create writers who can re-read, edit and improve their own writing, and enable pupils to be able to confidently use the essential skills of grammar, punctuation and grammar.

We promote the importance of written work by providing a writing purpose and opportunities for children’s writing to be displayed around school, read aloud and listened to by an audience.  We intend that pupils learn how to understand the relationships between words, word meaning and implied meaning within writing lessons, whilst ensuring that children are supported in their spelling strategies.

Writing key skills

Below is our progression of writing key skills document.

This document outlines the writing key skills that are taught at each phase and year group. 

Examples of Writing displays around school

Autumn 1 English in Year 1

During the Autumn 1 half term we have looked at the book 'Harry the Happy Mouse'. We read, analysed and responded to the text. Next we gathered content and planned an extra part of the story. Then we wrote our stories. Finally we carried out a non-fiction unit about mice, learning and writing facts about mice.

Autumn 2 English in Year 1

 During the Autumn 2 half term Year 1 have carried out an integrated English unit based on the book 'Supertato' by Sue Hendra.

Creating an interest - first we used our senses to explore fruits and then used this knowledge to write a poem about fruits.

Reading response and reading analysis - we immersed ourselves into the text by looking at new vocabulary, making predictions, retrieving information and inferring how characters felt.

Instructions - next we carried out a mini non-fiction unit on instructions. We made and wrote instructions for making a jelly and for making a jam sandwich. This was also used as gathering content for our innovated story.

Gathering content and planning - from a visual story map we learnt the text off by heart. Then we gathered ideas and planned our innovated stories.

Writing phase - finally we used our ideas and planning to write an innovated story based on Supertato.

Spring 2 English in Year 1

During the Spring 2 half term, Year 1 have carried out an integrated English unit based on the traditional tale 'Little Red Riding Hood'.

We started the half term with the mini topic of recounts. We carried out a science based winter walk around the school grounds to look for signs of winter. Then we wrote a recount of the walk. The grammar focus for this mini unit was adding the suffix ed to words.

Reading response and reading analysis - we immersed ourselves into the text by answering questions about the text, making predictions, retrieving information, describing the main characters, asking questions in role and writing what characters said. As a grammar focus, we used the joining words 'and', 'so' and 'but'.

Gathering content and planning - from a visual story map we learnt the text off by heart. Then we gathered ideas and planned our innovated stories.

Writing phase - finally we used our ideas and planning to write an innovated story based on Little Red Riding Hood.

English in Year 1 Summer 1

During the Summer 1 half term Year 1 carried out an integrated English unit based on Beatrix Potter and 'The Tale of the Radish Robber.

We read information about Beatrix Potter, wrote questions that we would like to find out about her and wrote our own information text about her.

Next we read the opening of 'The Tale of Peter Rabbit' and watch the beginning of 'The Radish Robber' episode. From the story and the programme we wrote facts about Peter Rabbit, read facts about Mr. McGregor & wrote a 'Beware' poster about Mr. McGregor. We also wrote a 'Wanted' poster about Peter Rabbit, sequenced pictures of the story & wrote a recount of Peter's trip into Mr. McGregor's garden.

Then we learnt the story 'The Radish Robber' from a story map and innovated it changing the characters, the stolen vegetables and the item thrown. Finally we wrote our own stories.

Autumn 1 English in Year 2

 During this half term, we have looked at the book 'A way for Wilf' and looked at non-fiction texts based on wolves and safari animals. 

During the creating interest and reading phases of the narrative unit, we shared and explored in detail the text The Way Home for Wolf by Rachel Bright. We took part in a range of reading response lessons, during which short writing opportunities, both modelled and independent, featured. As part of the gathering content section, a non-fiction unit was embedded within the sequence, in which children had the opportunity to create a page for an information book based on their chosen animal. This was facilitated through both modelled and independent writing. Upon returning to the narrative unit, children then used this content about their chosen animal to inform the writing of their own story based on the original text The Way Home for Wolf.

Autumn 2 English in Year 2

During Autumn 2, we studied traditional fairy tales and traditional tales with a twist. During the reading phase we were immersed in traditional tales and traditional tales with a twist. We explored characters, vocabulary, key story language and made comparisons with original versions. At the end of the reading phase, we orally learnt a traditional tale with a twist. During the gathering content into the writing phase, we explored ideas for our own traditional tale with a twist, we also started to plan our own versions and began our scaffolded write. We then finally started the writing phase were we completed our scaffolded write, planning and the writing of our own independent traditional tale with a twist. 

Autumn term English in year 3 

This term in year three, we have focused on Paddington stories. During the creating interest and reading phase we have focused on lots of book talk, exploring our grammar focus of noun phrases and subordinate conjunctions and have had many short writing opportunities throughout these phases. The children have made top trumps, written character descriptions and post cards and letters to Aunt Lucy. This unit has helped to further embed our year two skills and develop our new year 3 skills. 

Autumn term English in year 3 

This term in year three, we have focused on folk tales about Green Children and a short poem about a child named Greenling. Using these texts we have written our own folk tale about a different coloured child! We have had lots of talk for writing opportunities throughout the unit and lots of short writing opportunities including role of the wall which the children loved!

Autumn Term Year 4

During Autumn 2, our focus text was Beowulf by Michael Morpurgo. After lots of speaking and listening activities and reading analysis, we gathered ideas for our own stories. The children developed their sentence level skills and included some fantastic description in their stories. After completing their stories, we studied newspaper reports and wrote a newspaper report about the Vikings attack on Lindisfarne, linking it to our work in history. 

Spring Term Year 4

During Spring 2, our focus text was 'The Firework Maker's Daughter' by Phillip Pullman. After lots of speaking and listening activities and reading analysis, we gathered ideas for our own stories. The children developed their sentence level skills and focused on varying sentence structures. After completing their stories, we read different persuasive texts before writing our own persuasive holiday brochure about Greece. 

Summer Term Year 4

During Summer 1, our focus text was 'Anansi the Trickster Spider' by Lynne Garner and our novel was ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ by Cressida Cowell. After lots of speaking and listening activities and reading analysis, we gathered ideas for our own stories. The children developed their sentence level skills and focused on varying sentence structures. After completing their stories, we enjoyed reading and performing a variety of Greek poems. We studied Haikus and Kennings before writing our own. We also wrote some explanations, linking it to our work on electricity in science. 

Autumn Term Year 5

In Year 5 this term, we began by reading the amazing story by C.S. Lewis - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. During this unit, the children engaged in a reading phase, explored short writing opportunities including diaries and persuasive writing and gathered content for their own writing. We then turned our attention Myths and non-chronological reports based around mythical creatures. The children used their non-chronological reports along with previous work on the novel, to plan and write an extended narrative based around the book, including their own mythical creatures.

Spring Term Year 5

In Year 5 this term, we began by reading Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang by Ian Fleming. During this unit, the children engaged in a reading phase, explored short writing opportunities and gathered content for their own writing. We then looked at the comic poem The Lion and Albert by Marriott Edgar. After half term, we worked on the fantastic tale of Macbeth by William Shakespeare. Here, the children engaged in reading activities, short writing opportunities and then gathered content for their own story.

Autumn Term English in Year 6

 In Year 6 this term, we have based some of our work on The Nowhere Emporium by Ross Mackenzie. This amazing story inspired us to write in a range of styles and for different audiences, and also helped us develop our grammar, punctuation and spelling skills and our speaking and listening skills.

In the second half of the term, our focus was on non-narrative reading and writing, and on  biographies in particular.