English

Reading at Christ the King

Curriculum Intent

At Christ the King Catholic Primary School, we recognise that proficiency in all areas of language: speaking, listening, reading, and writing are fundamental to a pupil’s ability to engage fully as a member of society. Pupils who do not develop fluency and confidence in these essential skills are, in effect, disadvantaged in both their educational journey and wider life experiences.

Reading, in particular, plays a vital role in pupils' cultural, emotional, intellectual, social, and spiritual development. It enables them to acquire knowledge, deepen understanding, and make meaningful connections with the world around them.

We believe that reading is at the heart of effective communication. It is essential that, by the end of their primary education, all pupils at Christ the King Catholic Primary School are able to read fluently and confidently, across all areas of the curriculum, in preparation for the demands of secondary education.

The overarching aim of this policy is to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a secure command of spoken and written English. Additionally, we seek to foster a lifelong love of literature through extensive opportunities for reading both for learning and for pleasure.

The reading curriculum at Christ the King

At Christ the King Catholic Primary School, we are committed to ensuring that every child becomes a confident, fluent reader and develops a lifelong love of reading. Our reading curriculum is carefully structured to support pupils at every stage of their journey. The teaching of reading will primarily be delivered during Master Readers lessons; however, reading will be encouraged in all areas of the curriculum and other learning activities.

In Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and Year 1, we use the Read Write Inc. phonics programme. This is a well-established, systematic approach to teaching early reading through phonics. It helps children learn to decode words quickly and accurately, setting the foundations for future reading success. Our goal is for all children to complete the programme by the end of Year 1.

From Year 2 through to Year 6, we use a structured approach called Master Readers. This programme explicitly teaches the key reading skills children need to understand and enjoy more complex texts. These skills include vocabulary development, making inferences, summarising, predicting, and exploring authorial intent. All lessons will have clear learning objectives, which are shared and reviewed with pupils. The Master Readers programme follows this weekly structure: 

Alongside our teaching of reading skills, we use Accelerated Reader to support independent reading. This programme allows us to track and monitor each child’s reading progress, helping us ensure they are reading books that match their level of understanding while also challenging them to grow. Pupils take quizzes on the books they read, which helps build comprehension and motivation.

Writing at Christ the King 

Writing 

At Christ the King School we teach writing using Talk 4 Writing, developed by Pie Corbett. It is based on the key principles of how children learn and enables them to imitate the key language they need orally before reading and analysing it.  Through fun activities and oral rehearsal, children internalise the text structures and language patterns before putting pen to paper.  Talk 4 Writing has 3 stages: Imitation, Innovation and Invention, with the aim of the whole process being to create independent, enthusiastic authors.   

Each unit of work follows the same structure which is detailed below:

          Cold task

The opportunity to ‘have a go’. This establishes exactly where the children are on their learning journey, ensuring that their skills are built on through the next sequence of learning.

Short burst writing

From the cold tasks, the teacher will have identified which grammar and punctuation focuses are needed  during this sequence. These are practised and applied in context through Short Burst Writing. This

helps the children to warm up all the writing techniques they will need to use in their writing to keep the reader engaged.

The Hook

The hook is used to motivate and get the children excited about the text they are using. This could be a filmed message, a character coming to visit, an unusual object appearing or even a complete set construction in the classroom!

Story Maps

Learning the model text is essential in the talk for writing sequence. A story map of the model text is created by the teacher, and sometimes by the children, to help the class internalise the narrative. As they become more familiar with the text, they move from whole class imitation to small group and paired initiation. The children use actions and movement to help them tell the story.

Reading as a reader

Once they have internalised the text, they then look at it in a written form. As the children have learnt it so well, it helps everyone when reading. During this part of the learning, the class focus closely on the vocabulary and their understanding of the text.

Reading as a writer

To lead into the innovation phase, the children look again at the text focusing on:

• Understanding the underlying structure of the text through ‘boxing up’
• Recognising and understanding the features that helped to make the writing effective by creating toolkits

Stage 1 - Imitation:

A typical Talk 4 Writing unit would be begin with a creative context, for example, a unit on The Spiderwick Chronicles could begin with children going on a goblin hunt around the school ground and investigating ways to trap them! Children then learn a model text, supported visually by a text map and physical movements.  The next stage is 'read as a writer' which involves identifying the underlying patterns of both the overall organisation, as well as how the writer creates different effects.    

Stage 2 - Innovation:

Once the children have internalised the text they are ready to start innovating.  Younger children and less confident writers alter their text maps and orally rehearse what they want to say.  More confident writers use the boxing up planning tool, then turn their plan into writing.  At this stage the teaching is focussed on generating and crafting composition. 

Stage 3 - Invention:

Finally, children move into invention where they write the text type independently and apply what they have learnt across the curriculum.  Several ‘inventions’ are written and the most successful edited for publishing. The unit ends with a ‘hot write’ that is assessed by the teacher. Throughout the process children work on daily spelling, vocabulary building and sentence work in relation to the initial assessments of their writing, as well as the demands of the text type.

Spelling

In Key Stage 2 an investigative approach is taken to the teaching of spelling and is supported by No Nonsense Spelling (Babcock). A spelling lesson is given each week, followed by 2 to 3 short practise sessions so that children have the opportunity to embed new spellings. This will include the learning of the statutory word lists in the 2014 English curriculum, lists given each week.