By the time children leave Knighton Mead, we expect them to communicate through speaking and listening, reading and writing, with confidence, fluency and understanding and in a range of situations. We aim to equip them with the literary skills and knowledge to aid them with their next step in education. We also aim to foster an enjoyment and love of literature for all children.
At Knighton teachers will deliver the statutory requirements of the NC 2014 English programme of study. All children receive a minimum entitlement of a daily discrete English lesson alongside discrete spelling, reading, grammar, phonic and handwriting sessions. In addition, it is expected that cross-curricular links will contribute to pupils learning in speaking and listening, reading and writing.
Writing
Writing at Knighton is delivered through a ‘Book Rich’ curriculum in the Early Years Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 and a ‘Novel Led’ curriculum in Key Stage 2. This approach enables all children to experience a wide and varied range of high quality novels, picture books and non-fiction texts.
Our approach to the teaching of writing is underpinned by an engaging 3 phase approach which allows the children to read as a reader, read as a writer and write as a reader. This approach allows children of all abilities to develop the skills to become confident readers, speakers and then, over time, transfer these skills into becoming confident writers. As they develop, children are encouraged to see writing as a powerful means of self – expression and a creative form of communication. Pupils in time develop the stamina and skills to write at length, with accurate spelling and punctuation.
All writing at Knighton takes into consideration the ‘Super 6’ of writing. These are: sentence structure, cohesion, punctuation, vocabulary, tense/person and paragraphs. Purpose and audience is also a key element of our teaching as well as the use of Alan Peat sentence types, this is to ensure that the writing they produce is engaging and interesting.
We explore different types of writing at Knighton, such as; persuasions, instructions, reports, recounts, narratives, discussions and explanations. We aim to make writing fun, purposeful and stimulating for our children.
Super 6 Writing Progression
Writing Curriculum Map 2022-23
Reading
Reading at Knighton is divided into two parts: ‘Reading for Progress’ and ‘Reading for Pleasure’. Both are considered equal and are aimed to allow our children to develop the necessary skills in reading and to develop a lifelong love of reading.
‘Reading for progress’ is achieved through continual assessment and matching children to appropriate books that challenge and engage them. ‘Reading Recovery’ levelled books and PM benchmarks are used in EYFS and Year 1, whereas ‘Star Testing,’ ‘MyOn,’ and ‘Accelerated Reader’ are used for pupils from Year 2 to 6. Children are given the opportunity to read and enjoy these books in school during our 15 minute ‘Drop Everything and Read Time’.
Another important element of our ‘Reading for Progress’ approach is our discrete reading comprehension lessons. Within these sessions children are challenged to develop 6 reading domains as part of the UK’s reading curriculum. They are the key areas which we feel children need to know and understand in order to improve their comprehension of texts:
Vocabulary
Inference
Prediction
Explanation
Retrieval
Summarise
Reading for Pleasure is promoted within our school through regular ‘Get Caught Reading’ competitions, class readers and our ‘Reading for Pleasure Corridor’ – an inviting space for enjoying books that the children choose at break time and lunchtime. Part of our reading for pleasure philosophy, is that no child should be prevented from accessing a book that they show an interest in.
Phonics
To find out more about Read Write Inc. please head to our Phonics page.
Phonics – Knighton Mead Primary Academy
Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar
At the start of every English lesson for years 1-6, children have dedicated time to develop their understanding of spelling, punctuation and grammar.
– Revisit and Review recently and previously learned SPaG
–Teach new word level, sentence level, or text level grammar
–Practise e.g. identifying/find, odd one out, which one is correct games, edit and improve
–Apply their understanding.
Spelling at Knighton follows ‘Spelling Shed’ spelling scheme. Here all spellings are from the statutory spelling list and additional sets either: revise previously visited spelling rules from lower year groups; practise a spelling rule linked to statutory spellings or relate to a word, sentence or punctuation objective from the English Appendix 2 of the NC 2014.
Grammar & Punctuation Progression
Handwriting
Handwriting at Knighton is taught in discrete session. We use a cursive (joined) style which starts each letter on the line. Developing a cursive script helps children with spelling as it teaches combinations of letters which link together. See our script chart below to see an example of the cursive style we use:
Subject Policies/Plans
Subject Leader/s
Mrs Sunley
