English

English - reading

The Oaklands curriculum is designed to have excellent reading skills at its heart. Knowledge is developed through independent reading. If children love reading and feel confident in using their reading skills then they will be able to achieve in any subject. At Oaklands we believes that if we give all children the confidence and skills to read fluently, we will ensure that they can succeed in later life.

Reading in the Early Years

In order to read well, children need the vocabulary and sentence structure first. In the Oakland Early Years classes we work hard to develop children’s communication skills. Children are introduced to exciting books so they develop a love of reading for pleasure. These are embedded in the curriculum so that children develop the complex vocabulary and language structures needed. Longer more complex sentences are modelled and demanded so that all children develop their English skills well. By the end of Nursery and on moving to Reception we start teaching the “building blocks” of reading through the Read, Write Inc programme.

Reading at KS1

Oaklands has been working with Read, Write Inc since 2016 and have such well trained staff and children that they appear in the Read, Write Inc professional training videos. Oaklands pupils’ phonics attainment has been over 90% and within the top 10% of the country since 2017. Children are assessed every 6 weeks and support is put in place to ensure that every child achieves. As children reach the end of the Read, Write Inc phonics programme they move on to the Read, Write Inc comprehension programme.

Reading at KS2

The vast majority of children in Year 3 are ready to move onto the Oaklands Metacognitive Reading Programme. If children have suffered through the pandemic or are new arrivals to the school then they are given RWI phonics lessons and/or support to access the Oaklands programme in order to catch up.

The Oaklands Metacognitive Reading Programme was researched by staff at Oaklands and has been written by our English lead Kris Acheson. Each unit of work follows our SOLO planning style and focuses on teaching one particular reading skill. It breaks each skill into small steps for the children to learn and practice. It aims to use 2 demanding texts per week as a vehicle to model and practise each skill. Texts are chosen from a wide variety of sources but are often selected as they complement and extend the foundation subject matter that the children are also learning. They are always ambitious and designed to extend the vocabulary of children. Each reading skill is practised each year and finally there is a unit that interleaves all the reading skills together so that children can fluently recognise and use each one. Texts that revise the learning from the humanities and science curriculum for the year are also strategically placed within the final unit on the guided reading curriculum in order to deliver spaced practice of these concepts.

Links with Writing

In addition, in writing lessons, children at Oaklands study a core text to develop their imagination, a love for reading and they use these books a stimulus for creative writing.

Home Reading

All children are provided with a broad selection of reading matter to take home so they can enjoy all sorts of books at home with parents and also develop their reading fluency.

Nursery –

weekly books from library and class library to enjoy with parents.
Access to BugClub online reading books
Phonically matched if appropriate

Reception – Year 6

weekly books from library and class library to read with parents or independently as appropriate. Children are taught how to pick an appropriate book for themselves.
Access to BugClub online reading books
phonics reading books that closely match their phonic level to practice their independent reading

Children write how much they have read into their home reading logs. These are monitored by teachers at least once per week to ensure that reading is taking place and books are appropriately matched.

Reading Assessment

The assessment of reading in Early Years is through using “Evidence me” statements linked to Development Matters. Phonics attainment is assessed every 6 weeks according to Read, Write Inc assessments and teachers from Years 1 – 6 use RWI phonics assessments, termly NTS assessments to inform their teacher assessments against the Oaklands Reading curriculum in Classroom Monitor. Any child who is not on track for expected attainment will be highlighted for additional support through intervention or tuition to ensure that all children learn to read fluently as quickly as possible.

English - writing

Reading is at the heart of the Oaklands curriculum as it supports the independent development of knowledge. But writing supports the communication of this knowledge and is therefore a complementary essential skill.

Writing in the Early Years

Good writing starts with excellent vocabulary and verbal communication skills. We focus on developing these in Nursery and Reception. In order to write well, children need the vocabulary and sentence structure first, as well as the development of good fine motor control in order to physically write. In the Oakland Early Years classes we work hard to develop children’s communication skills as well as their fine motor skills and letter formation across our provision.

By the end of Nursery and on moving to Reception we start teaching the “building blocks” of writing through the Read, Write Inc programme. These include phonics, handwriting and spelling of “red” words. Children’s phonic knowledge is assessed every 6 weeks and children are then moved into appropriate phonics groups.

Each term children are introduced to exciting books so they develop a love of reading for pleasure. They are also given stimuli which translate into opportunities for writing for a purpose. These are embedded into the broader curriculum so that children develop the complex vocabulary and language structures required in order to write. Longer more complex sentences are modelled and demanded so that all children develop their English skills well. Children are encouraged to act out stories using puppets and small world equipment so that they embed this story language. In Reception the focus text is developed through oral rehearsal, imaginative play and we then use visual prompts such as story mapping to help the children remember and organise their thoughts before they retell a story and then start to use their phonic knowledge to write.

Assessment of Writing in EYFS

Writing in early years is assessed through “Evidence me” statements and through the Read, Write inc phonics assessments in Reception. Assessments are moderated across the team and with Year 1 staff.

Writing in KS1 and KS2

The Oaklands learning journey for writing builds on the Early Years model and is supported by work on the basic skills of phonics, handwriting and spelling as laid out in Read, Write Inc programme. It is informed by work from Pie Corbett, Power of Reading and Art of Writing by Mark Hartley. The final process for our learning journeys has been devised by our English Lead Kris Acheson.

It progresses through the following stages:

understanding of purpose of writing
understanding the structure of a piece of writing ( visualising – often achieved through worked examples and drama)
development of key vocabulary, sentence structure and grammar (often achieved through drama and practised on small whiteboards)
systems/ structures to support the organisation for using all these key skills – eg story mapping, mind maps, writing plans,
various drafts and improvements depending on age.
final published versions if appropriate

Please click here to see a writing SOLO plan format

The content of each piece of writing is laid out in the English overview and is designed to complement the text that the children are studying or one of the foundation subjects taught that term. Non-fiction writing gives a good opportunity for children to rehearse and practice the knowledge from their humanity and science work for that term and to understand how to present their knowledge to others.

Assessment of Writing in KS1 and 2

Writing is assessed through phonics assessments and teacher assessment against the objectives in the Oaklands Writing Curriculum in Classroom Monitor. Pieces of writing are moderated across year groups and phases and support is given to ensure assessment is accurate. Cross school moderation is also organised in our Ealing Learning Cluster.

Writing attainment was moderated by Ealing Moderators at Key Stage 2 in 2022.

Please click here to see the Nursery English Curriculum overview.

Please click here to see the Reception English Curriculum overview.

Please click here to see the KS1/2 English curriculum overview.

Please click here to see how our core values have informed the content of the English curriculum.