Liberty Primary School

 

At Liberty Primary School, we follow the aims and expectations for English set out in the National Curriculum. English is taught explicitly; while reading, writing, vocabulary and oracy are also prioritised across the wider curriculum.

Writing

Writing is taught daily and is given a high priority throughout the school.

Our approach places purpose and audience at the centre of writing. Children are provided with meaningful reasons to write and are taught to consider how vocabulary, sentence structure, organisation and grammatical choices can be adapted according to what they want their writing to achieve and who will read it.

In the Early Years, writing begins with communication, language and physical development. Children are immersed in stories, rhymes, songs and purposeful talk so that they develop the vocabulary and sentence structures they need to communicate their ideas. Through play and continuous provision, children develop the gross and fine motor control needed for writing and are given frequent opportunities to draw, make marks and give meaning to the marks they make. Adults model writing for real purposes and support children to rehearse their ideas orally before recording them. As children progress through Reception, phonics is applied directly to writing so that children increasingly compose and write words, captions and sentences independently.

In Key Stage 1, we use our own carefully sequenced approach to writing, developed to build children's confidence and independence as writers. High-quality texts provide the stimulus for writing and children are taught to understand the purpose and audience for each outcome. Learning is broken into manageable steps, with strong emphasis on vocabulary, oral rehearsal, sentence construction and explicit teacher modelling before children apply their learning independently.

Across a writing sequence, children collect and explore useful vocabulary and ideas, say and rehearse sentences aloud, build accurate sentences with the grammar and punctuation being taught, write for a clear purpose and then return to their work to improve it. Teachers model each stage and use shared writing, visual supports and worked examples to make the thinking of a writer visible. Scaffolds are adapted and gradually removed so that children become increasingly independent.

In Year 1, particular attention is given to securing oral sentence construction, accurate transcription, phonics application, letter formation and the foundations of sentence writing. In Year 2, children build on these foundations by developing greater control over sentence structure, vocabulary, grammar, punctuation, organisation and editing, while continuing to write for meaningful purposes and audiences.

In Key Stage 2, we use Ready Steady Write by Literacy Counts. The programme uses high-quality, vocabulary-rich literature as the stimulus for carefully sequenced episodes of learning. Children explore texts, develop vocabulary, discuss and rehearse ideas and examine the choices successful writers make before applying these techniques to their own writing.

Throughout a sequence of learning, teachers use explicit teaching, modelled and shared writing, discussion and questioning to make the writing process visible to children. Pupils have regular opportunities to plan, compose, review, edit and improve their work, developing increasing independence and their own writer's voice.

Grammar and punctuation are taught as an integral part of writing rather than as isolated skills. Children develop their understanding through explicit teaching and sentence accuracy work, before applying this knowledge purposefully within their own writing. Teachers model how choices in grammar, punctuation, sentence construction and vocabulary can influence meaning and affect the reader.

Although explicit writing instruction takes place within English lessons, writing is a priority across the curriculum. Children are expected to apply their developing vocabulary, sentence construction, spelling, grammar and presentation skills when writing in subjects such as science, history, geography and RE. This provides further opportunities for children to write with a genuine purpose and communicate their knowledge clearly.

Children are also given opportunities to celebrate and share their writing through competitions, themed events, displays and whole-school initiatives.

Handwriting

At Liberty Primary School, we are very proud of our pupils' handwriting and take particular care in developing a fluent, legible and joined handwriting style. Handwriting is taught progressively throughout the school and follows the requirements of the National Curriculum.

Handwriting is a fundamental skill which influences the quality and presentation of children's work across the curriculum. Children are taught correct letter formation, appropriate joins and, as they progress through school, increasingly fluent and efficient handwriting.

In the Early Years, the foundations for handwriting are developed through a strong focus on physical development. Children build core strength, shoulder stability, hand strength and coordination through gross and fine motor experiences before and alongside formal writing. They are supported to develop an effective pencil grip, control a range of mark-making tools and form letters correctly as they become developmentally ready. In Reception, letter formation is taught alongside phonics so that children learn to form the letters they are learning to read and write.

In Key Stage 1, children build on these foundations through regular, explicit handwriting teaching. In Year 1, the priority is secure and consistent letter formation, appropriate pencil grip, letter size, orientation and spacing between words. Children develop increasing fluency and control before moving towards joining. In Year 2, children continue to refine the size, proportion and spacing of their handwriting and begin to use diagonal and horizontal strokes to join letters where appropriate, in line with National Curriculum expectations. The emphasis throughout Key Stage 1 is on developing handwriting that is accurate, legible and increasingly fluent, rather than rushing children into joined writing before the foundations are secure.

By the end of Key Stage 2, pupils should be able to produce fluent, legible and increasingly speedy joined handwriting and understand that different forms of handwriting may be appropriate for different purposes. By Year 6, children understand the importance of neat presentation and how cursive, printed and capital letters can be used appropriately.

We use Letter-join to support the teaching and progression of handwriting across the school.

Early Reading

At Liberty Primary School, our early reading curriculum is designed so that all children, regardless of background or starting point, develop the foundations they need to become fluent, confident and enthusiastic readers. We aim to nurture a love of reading from the very beginning and recognise that strong reading skills enable children to access learning across the whole curriculum.

In the Early Years, reading begins with communication and language. Children experience a rich diet of stories, nursery rhymes, songs and poems which develop listening, attention, vocabulary and comprehension. Adults model a love of books and create frequent opportunities for children to join in with repeated phrases, talk about characters and events, retell familiar stories and use new vocabulary. These experiences provide essential foundations for later reading and writing.

In Reception, children build on these foundations through the systematic teaching of phonics. We use Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised as our systematic synthetic phonics programme. Phonics is taught directly every day, with children learning the relationship between letters and sounds in a carefully planned sequence.

Children take part in regular reading practice using fully decodable books that are closely matched to their secure phonic knowledge. This enables them to apply what they have been taught while developing accuracy, automaticity, fluency, expression and understanding. Alongside decodable reading, children continue to experience high-quality stories, poems and texts which broaden their vocabulary, develop comprehension and foster a love of reading.

In Year 1, children continue with Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, building on their Reception learning and developing increasingly secure and automatic decoding. Reading practice continues to develop fluency and comprehension, while discussion and adult modelling help children explore vocabulary, meaning and their responses to texts.

Children's progress in phonics and early reading is closely monitored. Where children are not yet secure in their phonic knowledge, targeted additional practice is provided so that gaps are identified and addressed quickly.

From Year 2, children move into Ready Steady Read Together, which is also used throughout Key Stage 2. This provides a clear progression from the strong foundations established through early reading and phonics towards increasingly fluent, thoughtful and strategic reading. Children continue to develop their vocabulary, fluency and comprehension while learning to engage with increasingly rich and challenging texts.

Reading for pleasure sits alongside the explicit teaching of reading throughout EYFS and Key Stage 1. Children have regular opportunities to listen to adults read aloud, revisit favourite books and rhymes, explore a wide range of high-quality texts and talk about what they have read.

We recognise the important role parents and carers play in children's reading development and work in partnership with families to establish positive reading habits and support children in becoming confident, enthusiastic readers.

Reading

Reading continues to be a central part of our curriculum as children progress through the school.

We use Ready Steady Read Together by Literacy Counts to support the explicit teaching of reading from Year 2 and throughout Key Stage 2. The programme is built around engaging, vocabulary-rich and age-appropriate texts, giving all children access to ambitious literature and a wide range of authors.

Through shared reading, teachers explicitly model the behaviours and strategies of successful readers. Children explore vocabulary, retrieve information, make connections, infer meaning, consider authors' choices and develop their ability to explain and justify their thinking using evidence from the text.

Fluency is an important part of our approach. Teachers model expression, pace, phrasing, intonation and prosody so that children understand how fluent reading supports meaning and comprehension.

Lessons provide regular opportunities for discussion, questioning, retrieval, strategy modelling and reflection. Children are encouraged to think about how they are reading, what they can do when meaning breaks down and which strategies will help them understand increasingly challenging texts.

Shared reading also supports our focus on oracy. Children regularly discuss texts with partners, groups and the whole class, learning to listen to different interpretations and articulate their own ideas clearly.

Alongside explicit reading teaching, we promote reading for pleasure throughout school. Children have access to a wide range of texts, experience different authors and genres, and are given regular opportunities to read independently and to hear adults reading aloud.

Spelling

Spelling is taught systematically and progressively throughout the school, with children encouraged to understand how words are constructed and to apply this knowledge independently in their writing.

In the Early Years, spelling develops alongside children's growing phonic knowledge. As children learn sounds and the letters that represent them, they are encouraged to apply this knowledge when making marks and writing words and simple sentences. Children are supported to listen carefully to the sounds they can hear in words and use their developing phonics knowledge to represent these sounds in their writing.

In Key Stage 1, spelling builds directly on these strong phonic foundations. Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised supports children to develop secure knowledge of the alphabetic code and make connections between the sounds they hear, the words they read and the words they spell.

As children progress through Key Stage 1, they are explicitly taught age-appropriate spelling patterns, rules and common exception words. They learn to draw upon their phonic knowledge, recognise patterns within words and make increasingly informed choices when spelling unfamiliar words.

Spelling is closely connected to writing. Teachers model how to apply spelling knowledge during writing and children are encouraged to use what they have been taught independently. Previously taught spelling patterns and words are revisited so that children increasingly spell accurately and automatically within their own writing.

Where children have gaps in their phonic knowledge, targeted additional practice is provided so that they continue to strengthen the foundations needed for accurate spelling. Across Key Stage 2, we are introducing the Emile Spelling Scheme, providing a consistent and progressive approach from Years 3 to 6.

An important part of our approach in Key Stage 2 is teaching spelling through morphology. Children learn that words are made up of meaningful units, or morphemes, and develop their understanding of root words, prefixes and suffixes. This helps children recognise connections between related words and understand how words change when morphemes are added.

For example, understanding the relationship between help, helpful, unhelpful and helpless allows children to see patterns across families of words rather than treating each new spelling as something to be memorised in isolation.

Children are also explicitly taught spelling patterns, conventions and strategies and have regular opportunities to revisit and apply these within their independent writing. Statutory spellings and age-appropriate vocabulary are taught alongside this work.

Teachers use assessment and children's everyday writing to identify patterns of error and misconceptions which require further teaching. Our aim is for children to develop an increasingly secure understanding of how the English spelling system works, enabling them to make informed and accurate spelling choices when writing independently.