English - Primary

At Northampton International Academy, we understand that English has a pre-eminent place in education and in society.

We believe that English is an ecosystem therefore, through our English curriculum and high quality teaching, we strive to teach our pupils the importance of reading, writing, speaking and listening skills now and for their future. We believe that all pupils need to be given the opportunity to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually.  In order for pupils to aspire and be successful academically, we recognise that they need to be given a wealth of experiences to develop their cultural capital in English lessons and the wider curriculum.

Phonics 

We provide consistent practice, progression and continuity in the teaching and learning of spelling and phonics throughout the school.

At NIA, the phonics programme “Read Write Inc”, teaches synthetic phonics, is used to assess and support children with their writing, spelling and decoding skills. 

Each child in KS1 will take part in a daily phonics lesson for 40 minutes 

Children who may still need extra support with phonic work are identified for targeted intervention strategies. 

For further information on Read, Write Inc please click here

https://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/programmes/phonics/ 

Reading

Whole Class Teaching of Reading:

Teachers use comprehension tasks and tests alongside the curriculum statements, to assess the skills they need to teach children. 

Whole class teaching of reading focuses on six main comprehension skills: 

• Retrieval
• Making Inferences
• Language in Context
• Author’s Choice of Language
• Responding to the Text
• Themes and Conventions

Teachers explicitly teach key strategies for reading independently and give children opportunities to apply this learning through independent tasks. Texts are carefully selected to reflect a specific teaching focus and be at an appropriate pitch. Adults will ask questions to promote discussion and extend the children’s thinking and develop their responses to the text. 

Independent Reading

Children need to be given the opportunity and encouragement to read independently in order to build confidence, stamina and fluency, as well as develop their experience of a range of books and authors.  Adults will listen to the children read, providing them with a range of decoding strategies and engage in discussion to promote reading for meaning.  

Reading with an adult, be that the teacher, teaching assistant or volunteer, is especially important for EYFS and KS1 children where Word Reading forms a large part of National Curriculum, as well as for SEND and underperforming children in KS2 who may need to consolidate skills from previous years.

Adults are also encouraged to read to children, modelling expression and providing children with an opportunity to listen and enjoy stories. 

Parental Involvement

The connection between reading at school and home is vitally important. This is a direct line of communication regarding reading between parents and teachers. Reading logs are checked daily by the class teacher or support staff member.  It is vital that parents hear their child/ children read. We also emphasise the value of parents reading to their child and to become reading role models in the home environment. It is integral for children to see adults around them reading; encouraging reading for pleasure.  

Writing

We want children to become independent, enthusiastic and expressive writers who are able to write in a meaningful way. They should write for a variety of audiences and be confident in the language style for a specific purpose.  Pupils should regard themselves as writers and value their own work and that of others.

Pupils will be taught to:

• use writing to communicate ideas and information to a reader
• write in a grammatically accurate way
• develop an increasingly wide vocabulary suited to purpose and genre
• understand the conventions of written language
• understand how writers can have an effect on the reader
• incorporate ideas and skills of other authors into their own writing
• draft and re-draft, making significant revisions where appropriate
• work collaboratively with other children to discuss the editing of written work
• use ICT as a tool for writing
• use spelling, punctuation and syntax accurately and with confidence
• provide a rich and stimulating language environment, where speaking and listening, reading and writing are integrated.

In EYFS classes English teaching is spread throughout the day.  

In KS1, a dedicated daily English lesson is planned for each class, which will last for an hour. 

Spelling

Teachers also teach the spelling rules and common exception words specific to their year group as outlined in the government spelling appendix. This means Key Stage 1 teachers need to ensure the requirements of the National Curriculum are met beyond Read Write Inc sessions and teach spelling explicitly within English lessons.

https://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/programmes/spelling/

Please see the documents below for more information on our English primary curriculum by year group.