At Alfred Street Junior School, we believe that a quality English curriculum should develop children’s love of reading, writing and discussion. We aim to inspire our children to develop an appreciation of the varied literary resources available to them and to develop a habit of reading widely and often. We recognise the importance of nurturing a culture where children take pride in their writing, can write clearly and accurately, have an interest in vocabulary and word meanings, and adapt their language and style for a range of contexts. We want to inspire children to be confident in the art of speaking and listening so that they can communicate effectively in order to further their learning. 

We believe that children need to develop a secure knowledge-base in English, which follows a clear pathway of progression as they advance through the primary curriculum. We believe that a secure basis in literacy skills is crucial to a high quality education and will give our children the tools they need to participate fully as a member of society so that they are not disadvantaged in their future lives.

We base our English curriculum around aspects of the 'Talk for Writing' approach which meets our aims as we believe it provides children with more memorable learning experiences and provides opportunities for children to revisit the skills used in the process in other areas of the curriculum; ensuring that skills are built upon.

Reading

As a school, we believe that it is our job to promote a love of reading in our pupils. The intention is that every pupil at Alfred Street Junior School will learn to read through a systematic and comprehensive approach, engage with and enjoy reading across a range of subjects and for a range of purpose and be curious and eager to read in order to build the capacity for life-long learning and preparation for the next steps in education.

Reading is taught within an English lesson (one session per week) and during skills sessions which develop either a fluency or a comprehension skill. Children are exposed to a range of texts. Children have access to a wide range of ability banded reading books from a range of well-established schemes. ‘Free reader’ books are available to pupils who have completed the reading scheme. Free reading books have been differentiated to meet the needs of younger and older pupils. Those childen who recieve phonics interventions using the Sounds Write approach also have access to Sounds Write reading books which are matched to the sounds that they are learning.

Children are encouraged to read their school book daily at home, to enable pupils to receive additional practice of reading skills taught at school. Children have access to the school library at least once per week and have the opportunity to borrow a school library book to read at home, in addition to our reading scheme books. Our website offers a range of resources to help parents support their children’s reading at home.

We have also, improved our library provision by making it an inviting environment where children can select an area to read in: be it on the sofa, at the dining table or in the armchair. Within the library, we promote our 100 Reads Challenge, where we are encouraging our pupils to access a variety of literary gems from our selection to read. These titles are aimed at broadening our pupils’ horizons when it comes to reading, thus stepping away from their much loved authors, to find new and exciting opportunities in reading. The 100 titles highlighted for our upper and lower key stage 2 pupils, which have been bought specifically by the school, ensure they have access to different fiction texts that cover ‘The 5 Plagues of Reading’ by Doug Lemov - these titles may demand more from the reader in terms of archaic language, non-linear time sequences, narrator complexity, plot complexity or be resistant texts where children have to assemble meaning through clues and hints – as well as good quality non-fiction texts.

Our reading book exchange is another way that we encourage our pupils to try something new, especially if they do not have access to a wealth of reading material at home. Displays around the school also demonstrate that we value reading highly and that we recognize the importance of reading as an essential skill that can provide immense enjoyment and life-long learning.

We use a wide variety of quality texts and resources to motivate and inspire our children. We also provide a wealth of enrichment opportunities within our curriculum to inspire creativity and give memorable experiences that they can draw on both in the short and long-term. Below are our Curriculum maps for English

Phonics & Spelling

As a school we use the Sounds Write Approch (a DFE endorsed programme) to teach spelling and phonics and this is taught by staff who are fully trained to deliver this programme. Phonics intervention is taught three times per week to those pupils who do not have a secure phonic knowledge.

In order to improve spelling, we have also bought into the PiXL vocabulary app and Spelling Shed. These provide children with online materials that can be accessed at home and resources for teachers that they can use to address key elements of the spelling curriculum. In addition, we provide children with access to dictionaries on their tables and iPads in every classroom, to help improve spelling accuracy.