English | Clitheroe Pendle Primary School

English at Pendle

Subject Leader: Kate Markham

At Pendle Primary School we strive for children to be a ‘Primary Literate Pupil’ and be ready for the next stage of their education and beyond.

We aim for children to :

speak, read and write with confidence, fluency and understanding, orchestrating a range of independent strategies to self-monitor and correct.
have an interest in books and read for enjoyment.
have an interest in words, their meanings; developing a growing vocabulary in spoken and written forms.
understand a range of text types and genres – be able to write in a variety of styles and forms appropriate to the situation.
develop their powers of imagination, inventiveness and critical awareness.
have a suitable technical vocabulary to articulate their responses.

In EYFS and KS1 we follow the progression from 'Letters and Sounds' but we have our own Pendle progression to teach phonics with our own mnemonics to help children remember the graphemes.

We use a variety of reading schemes to teach reading such as: Dandelion Launchers, Reading Stars Phonics, Word Sparks, Floppy's Phonics, Oxford Reading Tree Phonics, Oxford Reading Tree Phonics Traditional Tales, Songbirds and Collins Big Cat Phonics. Reading books are colour coded according to phonics phases in order to ensure that there is an appropriate level of progression and challenge within the text. Throughout EYFS and KS1, reading books have a phonics focus to support decoding these are matched to the children's phonetical knowledge. In KS2, books are colour coded to match the children's ability.

We are a reading school where we actively celebrate a love of books. We encourage children to discuss and share what they have been reading, this is enhanced by all adults in school sharing and promoting their love of reading. We celebrate World Book day, which is always a highlight in the school year, children talk enthusiastically about coming to school either dressed as their favourite character, word or coming to school in their pyjamas for a bedtime stories theme to World Book Day.

Our library provides opportunities for children to widen their reading horizons and is a reading hub for our school. This is used daily during our Guided Reading sessions.

We develop writing skills including grammar, punctuation and spelling, so that our children have the skills, knowledge and stamina to write, in range of genres and for different purposes, at an age appropriate standard. The teaching of writing is systematic, consistently built on prior learning and incorporating shared, modelled, guided, edited and independent writing.

Cursive handwriting is introduced from Year 1. Children are very proud to progress from pencil to pen once they have a fluent joined handwriting in key stage one and two.

English within EYFS is guided by the requirements and recommendations set out in the Statutory Framework for the EYFS (2023) and with guidance from Development Matters and Birth to 5 Matters. There are three early learning goals for Literacy; Word Reading, Writing and Comprehension. Children work towards these goals through a variety of stories and real life experiences. Lessons are planned to introduce concepts that the children then explore through a mixture of adult led and child initiated activities. Children celebrate and develop their reading and writing skills through a variety of opportunities within the classroom provision.

We enhance English at Pendle by providing exciting opportunities to embed English throughout the curriculum, ensuring that children have the opportunity to use reading and writing skills appropriate to their year group expectations.

Reading is at the heart of the Pendle curriculum