ENGLISH

English is a vital subject that underpins all areas of learning and communication. It helps pupils develop essential skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening, empowering them to express themselves clearly and confidently. By studying English, pupils gain access to a world of literature, culture, and creativity, while also building the language skills needed for success in further education, careers, and everyday life. At King Offa, we strive to inspire a love for English and equip every child with the tools they need to thrive.

PHONICS

At King Offa  we aim to develop children who are confident readers with a passion for books. We want children to be able to apply their reading skills effortlessly to further their own learning as they move through primary school and beyond.

Early phonics teaching sets the stage for lifelong reading by making reading a positive experience from the start. When children feel successful in their reading journey, they are more likely to continue reading throughout their lives.

At King Offa our reading offer in EYFS and KS1 includes Daily Supported Reader (DSR), Read, Write, Inc. (RWI), and Accelerated Reader (in year 2 and above). These programmes are evidence-based approaches to the teaching of reading. 

Children who read often or are read to regularly can open the door to many different worlds and experiences. More importantly, reading gives children the tools to become independent life-long learners and the vocabulary to comprehend the wider curriculum.

We can achieve this through:

• Employing the Read Write Inc. program to help every child read
• Encouraging children to develop a love of books by reading to them every day
• Giving children access to a wide range of books
• Working in partnership with parents
• Providing books and QR codes that are matched to their phonic stage
• Prioritising regular staff CPD for RWI 

Read Write Inc. (RWI) is a phonics literacy program, which helps all children learn to read fluently and at speed so they can focus on developing their skills in comprehension, vocabulary, and spelling.

Reception
In Reception children have a daily phonics session using the Read Write Inc. program. They will learn how to ‘read’ the sounds in words and how those  sounds can be written down.

Reading

The children:

• learn 44 sounds and the corresponding letters/letter groups using simple picture prompts.
• learn to read words using ‘Fred Talk’ and sound blending.
• read from a range of storybooks and non-fiction books matched to their phonic knowledge.
• work well with partners.

Writing

The children:

• learn to write and form the letters/letter groups which represent the 44 sounds with the help of fun phrases.
• learn to spell words using 'Fred fingers’.
• learn to build sentences by practising speaking sentences out loud before they write.

Year One

Children continue with the Read Write Inc. program, working on complex sounds and reading books appropriate to their reading level until RWI’s grey level is completed.

From Year Two

Children who still require Read Write Inc. continue to receive daily phonics teaching, for pupils who are now able to read fluently they move onto the RWI comprehension program and have access to the Accelerated Reader program.

Assessment

Children are assessed at the end of each term on their ability to recognise sounds and use them to read real and nonsense words. These assessments are used to ensure that children are in the correct RWI groupings. In addition to termly assessments, children's progress is monitored regularly and pupils may be assessed at any point if they have made accelerated progress. 

Read Write Inc. Five Key Principles.

All staff delivering RWI activities are expected to employ the five RWI principles in all sessions.

Purpose – know the purpose of every activity and share it with the children, so they know the one thing they should be thinking about:

• Participation – ensure every child participates throughout the lesson. Partnership work is fundamental to learning
• Praise – ensure children are praised for effort and learning, not ability
• Pace – teach at an effective pace and devote every moment to teaching and learning
• Passion –be passionate about teaching phonics and reading so children can be engaged 

In KS2, we use Destination Reader (DR) to teach our reading skills. This allows us to move children seamlessly on from Daily Supported Reader which they have followed in KS1. DR explicitly teaches a range of skills, which are vital to being a good reader. It is heavily based on pupil interaction and allows children to explore and analyse texts in pairs and groups. Pairings are carefully selected to ensure peers are supportive to each other and progress is monitored by teaching staff. Please click here to find the text map for DR. 

To complement all of this, we have a well-stocked library that offers a large range of books from various authors, old and new. Children are encouraged to select books themselves, within their reading ranges, to allow them to read books which they enjoy. Children are able to take quizzes on these books to test their understanding and to contribute to their termly targets and yearly word counts. We reward hard-working and enthusiasm towards reading with badges, certificates and signed books.

WRITING 

At King Offa we believe that a quality literacy curriculum promotes and encourages a love of reading, writing and discussion around quality texts. Please click here for the writing text map. 

Pupils will leave King Offa with the ability to write for a range of different purposes, be able to write with grammatical accuracy and leave with an experience of a wide range of texts and authors. Alongside this, they will develop their reading, listening and speaking skills.

Our English curriculum units start with a high quality text from a range of talented authors. Texts are carefully mapped across the year groups to ensure progression and coverage. We use these texts as a basis for discussion and analysis before applying what we have seen and discussed in our own writing. Children are given the opportunity to write every day to develop and refine their skills. Using our writing progression document we ensure that children are taught all the necessary skills to meet the National Curriculum requirements.

We aim to expose the children to a diverse range of vocabulary, as we make sure that we teach the skills to clarify and deconstruct words that they don’t already know; using suffixes, prefixes and root words.

We recognise that each child has their own starting point upon entry to every year group and progress is measured in line with these starting points to ensure every child can celebrate growth and achievement.  Lessons are carefully planned and scaffolded to meet the needs of all individuals.