Kelsale CEVC Primary School

Rationale statement 

We believe that a curriculum should change all pupils, providing them with a broad and balanced foundation of knowledge, skills and experiences empowering them to confidently, curiously and proactively embrace the next steps in their learning journey. 

Through the careful sequencing and teaching of writing and reading at Kelsale CEVC Primary all children will build on their knowledge and skills each year and will be encouraged and supported to make explicit links in their learning.    

All children will be supported and encouraged through the teaching of English to develop their learning behaviours :   

• Curious learners – active in learning, value knowledge and education, question, comfortable to take risks and make mistakes 
• Creators – value and take a pride in their work, produce high quality work, aspirational 
• Collaborators - willing and able to work with others respectfully, good social skills 
• Communicators - confident, wide range of vocabulary, good listeners   
• Critical thinkers – have an opinion, apply skills and knowledge to solve problems, willing to persevere 

 

 

INTENT

Writing Intent 

At Kelsale CEVCP School, it is our intention to provide pupils with a high-quality education in literacy, which will provide them with the necessary skills to prepare them for life beyond primary school. 

In the EYFS teaching focusses heavily on building speaking and listening skills, acknowledging the children’s starting points and providing a firm foundation in which to start building the literacy skills that follow. In Reception the children begin to recall sounds and use them to write words and simple phrases, during their daily phonics lessons. Key stage one builds upon the work from the EYFS, introducing the children the spoken and read word before building on their writing skills. We are very aware that many children who come to Kelsale school need support to build their cultural capital, so need experiences (through visits in and out of school, drama or role play and reading) before they can write.  

As children move through the rest of key stage one and key stage two, the children hone their skills with composition, spelling, punctuation and grammar across a range of text types. We have high expectations of the children’s writing in all subjects, not just literacy, and we are proud that the children rise to the challenge. 

At Kelsale CEVCP School, we acknowledge the importance of vocabulary and make time for exploring meaning and acquiring new and ambitious vocabulary.  

We encourage the children to take ownership of their writing and actively promote editing and redrafting of their work. This is reflected with the use of our non-negotiables (see marking and feedback policy) to encourage the children to take responsibility for their own work, persevere to reach their potential, respect their work and that of others and ultimately shine in their work as creators (one of the schools promoted learning behaviours). 

This combination, we believe will instil independence and resilience that we hope will stay with children long after they have left primary school. 

 

Reading Intent 

At Kelsale CEVCP School, it is our intention to provide pupils with a high-quality education in reading, which will feed imagination and curiosity; develop knowledge of the world and instil the skills and love of reading necessary to succeed in school and later on in life.  

Teaching in EYFS will concentrate on language development, developing phonological awareness and the teaching of phonics. Key stage 1 will build upon the work from the EYFS, working towards recognising words on sight in order to build fluency.  

At Kelsale CEVCP School, we value language development and make time for it in reading lessons, recognising that it is essential in promoting the acquisition of vocabulary and grammar knowledge, as well as knowledge and understanding of the world. Through our curriculum, children will learn the skills necessary to read, discuss and understand a range of texts, as well have opportunities to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually.  

We value time spent reading books together and incorporate class book time into every school day from EYFS to Year 6. Our classes books, while leaving room for teachers to know and understand their class, ensure that we cover a wide range of genres, classics through to modern fiction.   

Most of all, we want to inspire a love for reading that will stay with children long after they have left primary school.  

 

In December 2021, we conducted a survey of the children and their attitudes to reading and writing.  This greatly informed our approach to reading and writing and how we could facilitate their love of English but were restricted by life experiences. (See appendix 3 for survey results.). Our findings led us to research how we could increase the priority of reading, the accessibility of reading and promote the love of reading.

Handwriting 

At Kelsale CEVCP School Primary Academy it is our intention that all children take care pride in their handwriting and presentation of their work. We aim that by the end of key stage 2 children will have developed fluent, legible, cursive handwriting, alongside printed and capital letters and for children to understand that each style has a purpose. We want handwriting to be an automatic process that it does not interfere with thinking or creativity, and we want children to see handwriting as a lifelong skill that will serve them in their future education and beyond. 

We have adopted the Teach Handwriting scheme.   

This was chosen for the following reasons: 

• Continuity of skills and progression from Reception through the Year 6 
• Initial focus on building both gross and fine motor skills before children are expected to pick up a pencil. 
• Its continuation of the development of core strength skills showing it’s understanding that handwriting is a whole-body process, and many skills required in creating fluent handwriting are not always developed fully in preparation for starting school.  These skills are nurtured throughout KS1 as part of the scheme. 

 

 Spellings

Kelsale CEVCP School Has adopted Spelling Shed as a scheme for planning and teaching spelling to KS2 

‘Spelling and word knowledge are key components in the process of learning to read and write. Spelling Shed makes the acquisition of these key skills fun and engaging for pupils and easy to plan for teachers. 

Designed by a team of teachers, the Spelling Shed scheme aligns with the English National Curriculum.’ 

Each week, children will be taught a spelling rule/pattern. Children will then be expected to apply this rule in sentences based on the context of their learning. Spellings will go home based on the rule and throughout the year will also include common exception words from each year group.

KS2 follow the Spelling Shed programme of study for spellings.  These can be set online to practice at home, or children can be given a paper copy to use if thy prefer.

Useful documents