English
Intent
At New Close Primary School, the teaching of English is part of the foundation of our curriculum. Our aim is to ensure every child becomes primary literate and progresses in speaking, listening, reading and writing. We have high expectations for all our children and want each of them to achieve their full potential in English during their time at New Close Primary School so that they are ready for the next step in their education.
English is the cornerstone to all learning at New Close. We endeavour to help our children develop into articulate and imaginative communicators to support and enhance their thinking and understanding of the world around them through a broad, rich and engaging English curriculum.
We ensure books, vocabulary and reading have a central role in our curriculum, not only to enhance learning, but to support the development of children’s emotional literacy.
Implementation
To ensure high standards of teaching and learning in English, we have implemented a curriculum that is progressive through the school.
Reading
Learning to Read
We follow a systematic approach to teaching phonics, using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme. The teaching of phonics begins in Reception, and teaching continues daily to at least the point where children can read almost all words fluently. This provides children with the skills they need to begin to read words, captions and whole sentences as soon as possible.
Focused Reading Practice
Working in small groups, EYFS, Year 1 and Year 2 children experience three reading practice sessions per week. These focus on the key reading skills of decoding, prosody and comprehension. When the three reading sessions have been taught in school the books will be sent home. The children are expected to read at home at least five times a week and parents are expected to record a comment in the child’s home-link book when they hear their child read.
Support at Home
All children who are accessing decodable books through Little Wandle book scheme, also take home a 'Read Together' book. The purpose of this book is to widen the range of book/text type the children are exposed to and encourage book sharing at home; developing a love of reading. These are also the books that might be used as part of our dedicated storytime in EYFS and Year 1.
Support to Keep Up and Catch Up
Until pupils are fluent readers, ‘keep up’ sessions are used for pupils who have been identified in on-going assessment as needing more support in consolidating their phonics knowledge. KS2 pupils who need more support in developing their reading skills receive intervention on an individual or small groups in addition to whole class reading.
Reading for Meaning
Developing Fluency
In EYFS and Yr1, pupils discuss texts and read for meaning as part of their reading practice. In year 2, once they have completed the Little Wandle programme, pupils follow the Little Wandle fluency programme. Towards the end of Year 2, we begin to use a whole class guided reading model to explore more challenging texts. ​
A Clear Framework for Reading Lessons
Reading lessons are 30mins four times a week. In whole class reading lessons, pupils read from a reading spine of high-quality fiction, non-fiction and poetry, to explicitly teach and consolidate the skills needed for pupils to be confident readers for meaning.
Each lesson starts with pre-teaching unfamiliar vocabulary, to develop pupils' lexicon to support independent reading. Teachers then explore the texts through different sorts of reading: fluency, extended, close exploration and ‘application’ lessons, which focus on applying reading strategies to different question formats. These are used to develop pupils’ fluency as a bridge to comprehension and ensure that they can engage with and explore a variety of texts a meaningful way.
Teachers use formative assessment through questioning, and through monitoring the quality of pupils’ responses. NFER and SATS papers are used to formally assess pupils' progress in reading.
Love of Reading
A Diet of Quality Texts
The choice of texts in the reading spine is intended to inspire pupils to continue reading class books, and other books by the same author. A range of books is available in class libraries for pupils. Depending on the age and reading ability of the child, these books may also be read in school with an adult. Staff monitor the children’s choice of book to ensure suitability and variety in genre and author.
Daily Story Time and Reading Together
In EYFS, pupils have story times throughout the day. In other year groups. story time happens in every year group at the end of the day to ensure the children are read to everyday and share, discuss and enjoy the endless possibilities of books. The choice of text is sometimes shared with pupils and sometimes includes text studied in reading lessons.
New Close Reading Races – running alongside reading at New Close, we run our reading race system. Children are encouraged to record each read at home and record it on their reading races. There are five reading races to complete, totalling 100 reads altogether. At the end of their fifth reading race, children come to the headteacher and select a book of their choice.
Writing
Foundational Skills
In response to the Writing Framework (DfE, 2025), we have strengthened our approach to foundational writing skills to ensure pupils develop fluency, accuracy, and confidence. Across all phases, we prioritise transcription, sentence construction, and language development so that pupils can focus their working memory on composition as they progress through school.
Transcription
Handwriting is taught systematically: EYFS pupils follow Little Wandle letter formation, which is also used as an intervention in KS1. From KS1 onwards, pupils use LetterJoin, with explicit modelling and feedback to strengthen transcription skills.
Pupils in EYFS and Key Stage 1 learn how to apply phonics knowledge to segment and write words using sounds they know. They practice this in phonics lesson and during writing lessons.
The Little Wandle spelling programme is used to continue to embed this learning in Year 2 and then the Spelling Shed in KS2 develops understanding of spelling patterns, etymology, and morphology. Across KS1 and KS2, pupils practise daily dictated sentences to reinforce spelling and handwriting fluency.
Punctuation and Grammar
Punctuation and grammar are taught explicitly in discrete lessons across KS1 and KS2, following clear progression documents. This knowledge is then applied and revisited during writing lessons. In KS2, pupils are encouraged to consider how grammatical choices and punctuation shape clarity, precision, and effect.
Early Writing
In EYFS, early writing is built on secure phonics knowledge, explicit handwriting instruction, and carefully sequenced teaching that develops accurate sentence construction.
Pupils experience a language-rich environment with high-quality texts that inspire oral composition and early mark-making. Fine and gross motor development is supported through continuous provision, preparing pupils to form letters, words, phrases, and sentences that can be read by others.
Through the Little Wandle SSP. pupils learn to segment to spell and write words, phrases and sentences, preparing them for the demands of KS1 writing.
Key Stage 1
In Key Stage 1 and 2, the year begins with a focus on consolidating foundational skills, including handwriting and key grammatical knowledge from previous years. Teachers use the Acorn writing progression grids to ensure clarity around milestones in Terms 2, 4 and 6. We are continuing to refine our systems so that foundational writing skills are taught with the same rigour as phonics.
In Key Stage 1, stimulus texts motivate pupils to write, while grammar and punctuation learning is reinforced through application. Teacher modelling, discussion, oral composition and scaffolds support sentence construction. In Year 1, pupils sequence sentences and apply phonics to spelling. By the end of Year 2, pupils write with increasing fluency across narrative, recounts, non-fiction, and poetry, developing vocabulary, sentence structures, and punctuation ready for KS2.
Key Stage 2
As they progress through Key Stage 2, pupils consolidate transcriptional fluency and sentence construction while writing for a range of purposes and audiences. High-quality texts and stimulus materials inspire ideas, and pupils explore how to communicate effectively through grammatical structures and language choices. Speaking and listening remain central to the writing process, ensuring pupils are immersed in rich vocabulary and opportunities for oral rehearsal.
Our writing sequence includes:
- immersion in texts
- exploring models and gathering ideas
- teacher modelling
- vocabulary collection
- practising sentence structures
- planning, writing, and editing
This structured approach enables pupils to craft extended pieces of writing with increasing independence. Additional scaffolding is provided where needed to ensure full access to the curriculum.
Editing
Across the school, pupils are taught to re-read and edit their work during the writing process and in response to feedback, developing accuracy, clarity, and control as writers.
Impact
The impact of the English curriculum on our children is that they progress, experience sustained learning and transferrable skills which will enable them to access the whole curriculum.
The writing skills they acquire will allow all pupils to communicate well, accurately and creatively in a range of styles for a range of purposes and audiences.
We aim for children to leave New Close Primary School with a love of reading and writing and high aspirations to continue this love of reading and writing into the next phase of their academic journey.
Click here to see all our curriculum policies, including our English Policy
Click here to see all our Long Term Plans, including English
Click here to see all our Skills and Knowledge Progressions, including English
