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