The Craylands School English

English Curriculum at The Craylands School

At The Craylands School, our English curriculum is thoughtfully crafted to foster a deep understanding and appreciation of both the written and spoken word. Supported by our S.T.A.R. Curriculum, we aim to develop students' literacy skills progressively from the early years through to the end of primary school. This progression is designed to help each child meet and potentially exceed national expectations in reading and writing.

Our literacy curriculum at The Craylands School is designed to build progressively on key skills from the Early Years through to Year 6.

Literacy Building Strong Foundations

In the Early Years, the focus is on linking sounds and letters to establish the basics of reading and writing. As students move into Year 1 and Year 2, they explore narratives in familiar and diverse settings, whilst also being introduced to non-fiction writing and engaging with poetry that uses sensory language and patterns.

From Year 3 onwards, students tackle more complex narratives, such as suspense stories and historical based stories and also develop their non-fiction writing skills, including instructions and persuasive texts. By Year 6, students are refining their narrative abilities through advanced tasks exploring various fiction genres. Non-fiction writing becomes more challenging, covering explanations, discussions and information texts with a poetry focus that explores imagery.

In EYFS, the children develop narratives through the use of Helicopter Stories. Moving into year 1, the children develop their understanding of sentence structure though the use of Mighty Writer. This builds the foundation to using the Talk 4 Writing approach that is used from Year 2 onwards.

Reception Year

Literacy development involves nurturing a child's ability to connect sounds with letters, forming the essential building blocks for reading and writing. To truly ignite their passion for literacy, it's important to provide them with a rich and varied selection of reading materials, both at home and in school, to inspire curiosity and a lifelong love of learning.

Year 1

Narrative

Beating a monster story; opening/ending focus

Writing a fantasy story; characterisation focus

Writing a wishing story; setting focus

Writing a traditional story; description focus

Writing a journey story; setting focus

Writing a losing story

Non-fiction

Information

Instructions

Persuasion

Recount

Poetry

List poem

Shape poem

Year 2

Narrative

Writing a diary entry; description focus

Writing a journey story; opening/ending focus

Writing a warning story; setting focus

Writing a wishing story; character focus

Writing a portal story

Non-fiction

Information texts

Persuasion

Instructions

Recount

Letters

Poetry

Patterns on the page

Observational poetry

Silly Poems

Year 3

Narrative

Writing a Fantasy story; description focus

Writing a Suspense story; character focus

Writing a Wishing story; opening/ending focus

Writing a Portal story; character focus

Writing a Beating the monster story; dialogue focus

Writing a Warning story; suspense focus

Non-fiction

Explanation

Information texts

Persuasion

Recount

Instructions

Discussion

Poetry

Limericks

Question and answer poems

Year 4

Narrative

Writing a losing story; description focus

Writing a suspense story; atmosphere focus

Writing a defeating the monster story; character focus

Writing a portal story; setting focus

Writing a Cinderella story; opening/ending focus

Writing a fantasy story; dialogue focus

Non-fiction

Information

Recount

Discussion

Persuasion

Instructions

Explanation

Year 5

Narrative

Writing a beating the monster story; characterisation focus

Writing an invasion story; dialogue focus

Writing a losing story; description focus

Writing a fantasy portal story; description focus

Writing a warning story; openings/ending focus

Writing a suspense story; atmosphere focus

Non-fiction

Information

Persuasion

Explanation

Instructions

Discussion

Recount

Year 6

Narrative

Writing a journey story; opening/ending focus

Writing a finding tale; suspense focus

Writing a warning tale; description and action focus

Writing a portal story; setting focus

Writing a wishing tale; dialogue focus

Writing a defeating the monster story; characterisation focus

Non-fiction

Recount

Discussion

Information

Persuasion

Instructions

Explanation

Poetry

War poetry

Reading at The Craylands

At The Craylands School, we have a variety of different ways in which we teach and develop reading.

We expect the pupils at The Craylands School to read regularly at home. This should be recorded in the reading record books that the children are given each year. If their reading book is too difficult, it will still be beneficial to share the story, but then a note in the reading record will ensure help in choosing a more suitable book to read next time. Research shows that this sort of help given at home has a major influence on reading development.

EYFS/KS1

Children in EYFS and Year 1 will be sent home a Little Wandle book; this matches the sounds that they have already learnt and/or are currently learning. They also bring home a reading for pleasure book; it is important to note that they may not be able to read this but it is instead for you to share together at home.

The Little Wandle approach ensures that children in EYFS and KS1 have regular opportunities for small group reading sessions; they have at least three sessions focussing on:

Read 1: decoding – this has a clear focus on applying phonic knowledge to word reading.

Read 2: prosody – teaches children to read with prosody, so that they learn to read aloud with appropriate meaning, stress and intonation.

Read 3: comprehension – the final reading session explores comprehension

KS2

Children in KS2 have an opportunity to change their reading books every day. The older the children get, the more the responsibility lies upon them to change their book when given the opportunity. The class teacher will check a child’s reading record regularly, sign it and make comments where appropriate.

A timetabled guided reading session is in place. The sessions last for a minimum of 20 minutes per session. These sessions focus on asking questions to develop the children’s comprehension skills. A range of content domains are covered. These include:

Give/explain the meaning of words

Retrieve and record information

Summarise main ideas from the paragraph

Make inference from the text

Explain and justify inferences referring to the text

Predict what may happen from details stated/implied

Identify/Explain how information/narrative is related and contributes to the meaning as a whole

Identify/explain how meaning is enhanced by the choice of words and phrases

Make comparisons within the text