Skip to content

Bowdon
Church School

  • English

    “Reading is like breathing in. Writing is like breathing out.”


    Pam Allyn

    Intent

    At Bowdon Church School, our vision in English is for our children to acquire the substantive and disciplinary knowledge they need to be successful: capable, confident readers, skilful and creative writers, and effective and articulate orators. 

    Key principles underpinning our English curriculum:

    1. Compliance with the National Curriculum Programme of Study for English and Year 6 Assessment Framework
    2. Firm Foundations: we have a singular and unwavering focus in KS1 - that of ensuring our children can decode the alphabetic code at an age-appropriate level and are fluent readers (in terms of accuracy, automaticity and prosody).
    3. Fundamental Skills: in Reading, our children develop strong comprehension and literary criticism skills: the ability to appreciate and analyse a text, including commenting upon authorial intent, how characterisation/atmosphere is developed, usage of literary devices, and how structure contributes to meaning. In writing, they develop strong and distinctive narratorial voices and can write for different audiences and purposes, applying GPS knowledge and manipulating grammar and syntax to meet the task’s purpose. They have legible handwriting using a range of writing implements, and secure word-processing skills.
    4. Oracy & Vocabulary: we place a strong focus on Oracy, based upon the principle that children cannot write or comprehend what they cannot say and understand. Our children actively listen, build upon points others have made, and engage effectively in discussion and debate using ‘scholar sentences’. Oracy is explicitly taught, through planned and purposeful activities, as is vocabulary, meaning that over time, our children increasingly use language with precision in speech and writing.
    5. Inclusion: we want our curriculum to be both a mirror and a window, so that children see themselves in it, but also learn of lived experiences which differ from theirs. We also recognise that all children enter every year with different levels of prior attainment. Our expectations are unapologetically high for all children, no matter their background, starting point or learning difference, and we use adaptive teaching strategies, flexible groupings and embedded dynamic assessment for learning to ensure that all children make optimal progress. 
    6. High-Quality Texts: we immerse our children in high-quality texts to engage and inspire intellectual curiosity in them, to build their vocabularies, cultural capital and knowledge of the world, and to inculcate a lifelong love of reading. By the time they leave us, they have acquired a deep-rooted knowledge and appreciation of the diverse corpus of classic and contemporary English literature and influential literature from around the world.
    7. Staff Expertise: we engage in extensive staff professional development in recognition of the fact that teacher quality is the single biggest influencer of children’s outcomes. Our KS2 English Lead is the KS2 Lead Moderator for Trafford LA and a member of the Expert Review Panel for KS2 GPS SATs at DfE in London. Our KS1 English Lead works extensively with our English Hub to ensure that our Phonics practice is optimally effective. Both deliver formal and informal Subject Knowledge Enhancement (SKE), curriculum and pedagogical training to staff across the school, as well as brokering support from external professionals and organising moderation activities with cluster schools. 

     

    Implementation

    English has an extremely high priority in our school in terms of timetabling, school environment (library, displays and even poetry in the loos!), budget allocation, staff PD, in communications with stakeholders (parent meetings, coffee mornings), whole school events (National Poetry Day, World Book Day), competitions (BBC 500 Words, Portico Library) and in outward-facing activities such as author and theatre visits.

    The implementation of our English curriculum is carefully and cumulatively sequenced and structured to ensure all children become confident and competent readers, writers, listeners and speakers. 

    The following outlines how our curriculum is enacted across its different strands:

    Reading

    1. Daily Phonics Instruction:
      • Frequency: All children in Key Stage 1 participate in daily 40-minute phonics sessions.
      • Phonics Programme: We utilise the Read Write Inc. (RWI) phonics scheme to teach children the alphabetic code, starting with single letter sounds and progressing to digraphs and trigraphs. We do this extremely effectively and very few of our children enter KS2 having not passed the KS1 Phonics Screening Check (PSC). Once children enter KS2, if they have still not mastered phonics using RWI, class teachers, support staff and the SEND team work together to assess the child’s specific needs and develop a bespoke reading programme for them. This may involve continuing with RWI or transitioning from/supplementing it with other, evidence-led approaches. 
      • Assessment and Grouping: We use a flexible grouping approach. Children are assessed every half term in KS1 and regrouped as necessary, ensuring targeted instruction. Those needing additional support are identified for "Fast Track" interventions. 
    2. Matched Decodable Books:
      • As children progress through KS1 and are ready to blend sounds, they receive decodable books that match their current phonics knowledge for both in-school practice and home reading.
      • This practice focusses on developing accuracy, fluency, and comprehension skills.
      • Alongside word reading, we teach the children that punctuation is signposting for the reader. 
    3. Story time/Class Novels:
      • Reading time is integrated into the daily timetable for every class in the school, promoting a love of reading, of literature and building knowledge and vocabulary.
      • We have developed a carefully-curated and continually-evolving school canon of class novels, which expose our children to the best that has been thought and said. Our objective is to feed our children the richest and most diverse literary diet to prepare them for further study at KS3 and beyond. We explicitly teach the drawing of links between texts, themes and ideas in order to narrate the cultivation of mental schema.
    4. Reading Scheme:
      • Structured Reading: All children follow a reading scheme until the end of Year 3. After completing the RWI Phonics programme, they transition onto coloured book bands (Oxford Reading Tree - ORT), with their progress monitored and recorded by class teachers and support staff. Please see the note below on how we approach reading with our lowest 20% of readers. 
      • Free Reading: From Y2 to Y6, we baseline all children’s reading ages annually in September using NGRT standardised tests. Usually in Year 4 (cohort-dependent), those whose reading age is 2 years above their chronological age transition to Free Reading. We use Reading Journals to monitor progress. Those children whose reading age is not 2 years above their chronological age continue to follow a scheme (ORT/Junior Phonics or, due to identified learning differences, may be dyslexia-friendly - Little Gems/Barrington Stokes). In Years 5 & 6 (cohort-dependent), all children are free readers. Our class shelves are well-stocked and oft-refreshed with modern and classic fiction and non-fiction texts, and the children can also borrow books from our library. Children in Years 5 & 6 who are not meeting age-related expectations (ARE) for reading, read daily or frequently with an adult (depending on how far from ARE they are). All children in KS2, no matter their reading ability, read aloud, in class, at least once during the week. 
    5. Whole Class Guided Reading (WCGR):
      • We follow an evidence-led approach in the teaching of reading, exposing our children to ambitious and varied fiction, non-fiction and poetry extracts using a pedagogy which includes modelled expert prosody, repeated reading, echo and choral reading, text marking and modelled comprehension. The focus is on the acquisition of rich vocabulary, cultural capital and powerful knowledge, the cultivation of early literary criticism skills, and subsequent retrieval practice of this content to ensure it sticks.
      • Our children’s Reading exercise books/folders contain BCS-specific objectives, which align with the National Curriculum and are used for self, peer and teacher assessment.
    6. Library and Independent Reading:
      • All classes have timetabled library lessons, during which the children can choose books and participate in reading activities.
      • All classes  (Year 1 up) have the opportunity to visit our local library for a librarian-led session during the year.

    7.  Strategies for Struggling Readers

    Reading provides the knowledge and skills to unlock the rest of the curriculum. It is children’s birthright and entitlement to be taught to read well. Thus, we are laser-focussed on closing the gap between our lowest-attaining readers and their peers: 

    • Lowest 20% of readers KS1: provision includes daily phonics lessons and reading practice; Fast Track tutoring 1:1; progress carefully monitored using online assessments each half term and earlier if required; extra phonics practice videos shared for home use; SALT interventions where appropriate; spotlighting in Pupil Progress meetings; on SLT radar; SEND adaptations made if required;  progress closely monitored by English & Assessment leads.   
    • Lowest 20% of readers KS2: provision includes daily/frequent reading with a dedicated, accountable adult;  small-group boosters using EEF pedagogical approach; invitation to before-school reading sessions where capacity allows; IDL - literacy intervention software; FFT reading assessments; bespoke reading/Phonics scheme if best practice suggests it; SALT interventions where appropriate; spotlighting in Pupil Progress meetings; SEND adaptations made if required; progress closely monitored by English & Assessment leads.  

    Writing

    1. Curriculum Design & Content:
      • We use Jane Considine’s "The Write Stuff" approach in school, focusing on genre immersion, vocabulary-gathering, modelling, cognitive chunking, structured practice and reflection (proofreading and editing, using green pens/pencils).
      • To ensure our children become skilled independent writers and see themselves as authors, they engage in purposeful writing tasks after guided practice, allowing them to apply taught knowledge and skills. 
    2. Compliance with National Curriculum:
      • Our writing tasks are selected based on ensuring our children write for a wide range of purposes and audiences, ensuring that the breadth of the National Curriculum Programme of Study for English is covered. 
      • Our children’s Writing exercise books contain BCS-specific objectives, which align with the National Curriculum and are used for self, peer and teacher assessment.
    3. Handwriting & Word Processing: 
      • Handwriting is taught in timetabled sessions in KS1 and Year 3, and ad hoc in years 4-6, using the Letterjoin scheme. Our children do not write with pens until Year 5. 
      • All children have timetabled lessons in our Computing Suite, KS1 has access to a class set of Ipads, our Year 3–5 children have laptop access, and all of our Year 6 children have a personal Chromebook. This ensures that by the time they leave us, our children have secure word-processing skills. 

    Grammar, Punctuation, and Spelling (GPS)

    1. P&G Curriculum Design & Content:
      • Our GPS curriculum has been designed in-house using expertise gained through subject leader CPD and is bespoke to us. It includes a range of teacher-made and published resources and, in Years 5 & 6, the SPAG.com portal. 
      • Teachers create sequences of lessons based on National Curriculum objectives, using a “small steps” approach to ensure that over time children know and can do more, and engage in ongoing retrieval and spacing practice to ensure learning sticks.
      • Our responsive teaching pedagogy means that teachers are continuously reviewing children’s output and ensuring that gaps in skills/knowledge are plugged. 
    2. Spelling:
      • Years 2-6 follow the Read Write Inc. Spelling Scheme, which introduces spelling rules and provides practice opportunities as well as half-termly tests to monitor progress and for diagnostic gap analysis.
      • Regular assessments of taught spellings and frequent exposure to high-frequency words are incorporated into planning, to reinforce learning.

    Oracy

    1. Dialogic Classrooms:
      • Speaking and listening activities are embedded throughout our curriculum and are explicitly taught, in English and all subjects, to promote excellence in oracy through collaborative learning structures, discussions, debates and drama.
      • We speak in 'scholar sentences' and use agreed discussion guidelines when collaborating with each other. 
      • Children are provided with public speaking opportunities in assemblies, class worship, to visitors and at church events, fostering confidence and public speaking skills.
    2. Vocabulary Building:
      • We explicitly teach Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary, and our children in Years 5 & 6 are taught Latin on a rotation, both of which support ambitious vocabulary acquisition. 

    Homework and Parent Engagement

    1. Reading at Home:
      • Our expectations of home reading are made clear to parents, who are encouraged to support daily personal reading at home, reinforcing skills learnt in school.
      • As children progress through our school, they receive varied, purposeful English homework to further support their learning.
    2. Collaboration with Parents:
      • We maintain open communication with parents about expectations and provide resources to support their children’s development across our English curriculum.
      • We host termly Reading Coffee Mornings for parents, to inform them about how we teach reading, why we do it the way we do, to invite questions and offer advice. 

    Assessment and Inclusion

    • In all aspects of English, we have developed our own, bespoke objectives grids, based upon the National Curriculum Programme of Study for English but adapted for our context. These appear in children’s work books and are used for teacher, self and peer assessment. 
    • Teachers engage in ongoing formative assessment to assess children’s progress and to monitor the impact of teaching and learning. These informal assessments are high challenge, low threat and are not formally recorded. 
    • We formally test Reading using standardised tests at the start of each academic year, as a baseline.
    • Formal, standardised tests are thereafter completed twice per year (apart from Year 6, which follows a different approach due to KS2 SATs) in Reading, and the results are recorded on our assessment MIS. 
    • Writing is teacher-assessed twice a year and moderated both internally and externally with cluster schools. The results are recorded on our MIS. 
    • Punctuation and Grammar are assessed using ongoing, low-stakes checks and in the children’s writing.
    • Spelling is assessed using RWI spelling tests and also in children’s writing. 
    • Twice annually, teachers make teacher judgments about children's attainment across all areas of English: Reading, Writing, Oracy, P&G and Spelling. These judgments, against the National Curriculum Programme of Study for English and informed by test results and a broad spectrum of evidence, are recorded on our assessment MIS and are shared with parents in mid-year and annual reports. We assess children as Below, Working Towards, Secure or Greater Depth when judged against the objectives for their year group. Those children assessed as Below are also assessed using the Pre-Keystage (PKS) Framework in Reading & Writing. By Year 6, it is exceptionally unusual for any of our children to be assessed using the PKS Framework.  
    • Our English curriculum is continually evolving, based on teacher and child feedback, the attainment and progress of our learners, developments arising from benchmarking/networking with other schools, and emerging educational research. We are wholly committed to ensuring that it remains relevant and optimally effective.

     

    Impact

    Impact

    1. Performance in Statutory Assessments:

    • Reading Attainment

    KS1 - our goal is for 100% of our children to pass the KS1 Phonics Screening Check (PSC) by the end of Year 2. Over the past 3 years, over 90% of our Year 1 children have passed, which has left <10 children, the majority of whom have passed in Year 2. By the end of Year 2, only children with suspected or diagnosed learning differences do not pass, and as stated above, we continue to work with them in Lower KS2 to ensure optimal progress. By the start of Year 4, it is exceptionally unusual for a BCS child to have not passed the PSC. 

    KS2 - our goal is for 100% of our Year 6 children to meet Age-Related Expectations (ARE) in Reading, or if not, to perform in line with or exceed their own prior attainment. We also aim, based on prior attainment, for >50% to attain at the higher level in KS2 SATs. We have achieved these goals every year since SATs were relaunched in 2016, despite our cohort size  increasing from 60 to 90. 

    • Writing Attainment 

    Our goal is for 100% of our Year 6 children to meet ARE for Writing, or if not, to perform in line with or exceed their own prior attainment, and for >30% to attain Greater Depth. We have achieved these goals every year since 2016. 

    • GPS Attainment

    Our goal is for 100% of our Year 6 children to meet ARE for GPS, or if not, to perform in line with or exceed their own prior attainment, and for >50% to attain Greater Depth. We have achieved these goals every year since 2016. 

    • Oracy (no statutory assessment)

    As of the academic year 24-25, we measure progress and attainment in Oracy through our bespoke Oracy framework and end-points, across 3 areas: Speaking, Listening & Collaborating. These areas include tracking children’s small-step development across the 4 strands of Oracy as described by Voice 21, which are Physical, Linguistic, Cognitive and Social & Emotional.

    2. Vocabulary and Knowledge

    • Vocabulary Acquisition: Through exposure to diverse texts and explicit vocabulary instruction, by the time they leave us, our children have atypical vocabularies. They have been taught and learnt a wide range of Tier 2 & Tier 3 words, which enhance their comprehension skills and ability to articulate their thoughts effectively in spoken language and writing. This is evidenced in their written and oral classwork, in pupil voice activities, and through monitoring. 
    • Knowledge of the world: We feed our children a rich literary diet to build their general knowledge, in order that more subjects become familiar to them so that they can infer and comprehend effectively. Research demonstrates that background knowledge is fundamental to effective understanding of unfamiliar texts. This is evidenced in their written and oral classwork, in pupil voice activities, and through monitoring. 
    • Critical Thinking: By design, our curriculum exposes children to texts and ideas which promote critical thinking. This is evidenced in their oracy and comprehension work. 

    3. Engagement, Motivation and Optimism

    • Love of Reading: our emphasis on high-quality texts and teacher modelling of engaging reading fosters a genuine love for reading amongst our children. Pupil voice activities tell us that our children understand the transformative power of literacy, that they love reading, understand the benefits of reading and see themselves as readers. 
    • Active Participation: monitoring activities tell us that our children actively participate in class discussions, writing tasks, library visits and WCGR sessions, using taught oracy skills. 
    • Fortitude and Positivity: our children are given the tools for success in writing, which motivates them and supports the development of resilience, where they learn to critically evaluate and improve their work. This attitude supports their overall academic and personal development.
    • Feedback and Reflection: the incorporation of reflection and feedback into our English pedagogy cultivates a growth mindset, ensuring that our children view challenges as opportunities for learning.

    4. Adaptive Teaching/Inclusion

    • Equitable Access: IQFT, flexible groupings, targeted interventions and personalised support ensure that all children have fair access to the curriculum and make excellent progress from their starting points.
    • Catch-Up Strategies: our aim is always for children to keep up rather than catch up. However, for a few children, the curriculum moves at a pace which exceeds their capacity. In all areas of English, we provide these children with additional support and resources to narrow the attainment gap.

    5. Strong School-Wide Reading Culture

    • Community of Readers: timetabled and planned activities such as daily story time/class novels, author visits, theatre visits, celebrating national events and library engagement contribute to building a school-wide reading culture where reading and literature are platformed, spotlighted, celebrated and valued.
    • Parental Involvement: communication and collaboration with parents regarding the transformative power of reading, and reading at home, reinforces the importance of literacy. 

    6. Transition Success

    • Frictionless KS2 to KS3: our curriculum and pedagogy prepares children for the next phase of their education, ensuring that they are in possession of the necessary skills to succeed in Key Stage 3. Monitoring data indicates that this transition is extremely effective and that our children flourish.

    Through ongoing assessment, targeted interventions, and a focus on high-quality texts and teaching, we believe that we are successful in delivering upon our statement of intent : our children are capable, confident readers, skilful and creative writers and effective and articulate orators. 

    We fix firm foundations which serve our children well in education and in life.