We believe that literacy skills underpin robust learning across the curriculum and supports life-long learning.  We aim to equip children with the skills, knowledge, and understanding necessary to foster a love of literacy which will stay with them.

When our children leave Colne Engaine, we expect them to be avid readers; children who read for a variety of reasons -fluently and widely – and are able to express preferences and opinions about the texts that they read. We provide them with opportunities to read for pleasure, having had access to a wide range of text types, genres and authors. We support the children to write with confidence and accuracy for a variety of purposes and audiences whilst developing their own individual flair. We support our children to write with grammatical accuracy and be able to apply spelling patterns correctly using a neat handwriting style. We are driven to ensure our children to have access to a wide range of vocabulary so that they able to decipher new words and then use them when speaking so they become strong, confident communicators ready for the wider world.

Phonics

To support your child with their phonics learning at home, please go to the Little Wandle parent page for some helpful videos and information about how we are teaching phonics in school.

There is no greater skill that we can teach a child than how to read fluently and for enjoyment, thus opening a world of endless learning possibilities and academic success. We understand that if children have a positive start with early reading and phonics it will have endless benefits across all areas of learning.

At Colne Engaine we follow the accredited phonics programme ‘Little Wandle Letters and Sounds’. This programme aims to build children’s speaking and listening skills in their own right as well as to prepare children for learning to read by developing their phonic knowledge and skills. It sets out a detailed and systematic programme for teaching phonic skills for children, with the aim of them becoming fluent.

Children begin with Phase 1 in the early years and progress through to phase 6. Children have daily phonics sessions. They participate in a range of activities to help to develop their reading, writing and spelling, each tailored to their personal needs.

The Little Wandle Letters and Sounds curriculum for phonics supports children to:

• learn to segment and blend sounds in order to read them phonetically
• learn to decode words as a means to be able to read them by sight
• identify and read the 40+ graphemes taught across phases 2-5
• understand and be able to read words that cannot be sound out phonetically e.g. ‘tricky words’

Phonics Progression at Colne Engaine

Writing

We want children to write with purpose and through carefully planned units of work, we intend for our children to be able to plan, draft, proofread, evaluate and edit their writing. With the use of good quality modelling and texts, they will also develop awareness of the audience, purpose and text type for a piece of writing as well as an increasingly wide knowledge of vocabulary and grammar. We want them to take pride in their work and expect children to leave school being able to use fluent and legible handwriting. Handwriting is a key literacy skill that needs to be taught actively through frequent, discrete lessons. We use the Nelson Handwriting scheme to promote joined and legible handwriting. We believe that good handwriting is underpinned by developing the necessary fine and gross motor skills in readiness for handwriting and in our reception class the children join in with a daily Dough Gym and Funky Fingers activity to build these fine and gross motor skills.

The teaching of writing across the school consists of two dimensions; transcription (spelling and handwriting) and composition (articulating ideas and structuring them in speech and writing).
The learner as a writer is taught & encouraged to;

• spell quickly and accurately through a knowledge and understanding of phonics, word structure, spelling patterns and word recognition
• develop the stamina and skills to write at length, with accurate spelling and punctuation using legible, correctly formed and (eventually) speedy handwriting. Children are taught to use ‘joined’ handwriting from Willow Class onwards.
• develop, articulate and communicate ideas, organising them coherently for a reader, with clarity, awareness of the audience, purpose and context, and an increasingly wide knowledge of vocabulary and grammar.
• use grammar correctly, building on what they have been taught to expand the range of their writing and the variety of the grammar they use.
• write fluently across a range of genre, mapped within our curriculum overview, including narratives, explanations, descriptions, comparisons, summaries and evaluations
• plan, revise and evaluate their writing.

Vocabulary

The capital obtained through becoming an articulate user of a wide and rich range of vocabulary is one of the key drivers underpinning our whole curriculum. Interwoven through all areas of the curriculum is a determination to support children to develop confidence and fluency in using a wide range of vocabulary in a wide range of contexts, including vocabulary as ‘multi-contextual’ (tier 2) and subject specific vocabulary such as accurate mathematical and scientific (tier 3). This will expand the vocabulary choices that are available to children’s when they write, and enable them to understand the meanings of words they meet in their reading across all subjects and develop an interest and enjoyment in language.

The identification and teaching of Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary is actively planned for across the school. Tier 3 language is linked to topic themes within relevant subject areas, as well as mathematics, science, computing and R.E.  Vocabulary is prioritised and a focus across the curriculum in all lessons.

As a result of our English curriculum, we aim to have a community of enthusiastic readers and writers who enjoy showcasing their developing literacy knowledge and skills. They are confident to take risks in their reading and writing, and love to discuss and share their ideas. writing and be well equipped for the rest of their education.

Fluency, reasoning and problem solving are the core aims of the National Curriculum and they are the focus of our maths learning at Colne Engaine.

We want our children to be enthused by maths and to exercise a growth mindset when tackling new or difficult learning. We regularly use enquiry and rich contexts linked to other areas of the curriculum, to spark curiosity to drive learning. We present tasks that will challenge the children to think and to recognise the value of maths as a lifelong skill.

The basis for the programme of study is the National Mathematics Curriculum (2014), which provides us with the learning objectives for each year group. The emphasis is placed on a thorough grounding of basic concepts, whilst developing investigative minds capable of problem solving.

We use a wide range of good quality maths resources to support learning including White Rose Hub, Deepening Understanding and Fluent in 5.

The characteristics of our maths curriculum are;

An understanding of the important concepts and an ability to make connections within mathematics.                                                                                                                                                                                                              A broad range of skills in using and applying mathematics.

Fluent knowledge and recall of number facts and the number system.

The ability to show initiative in solving problems in a wide range of contexts, including the new or unusual.

The ability to think independently and to persevere when faced with challenges, showing a confidence of success.

The ability to embrace the value of learning from false starts

The ability to reason, generalise and make sense of solutions.

Fluency in performing written and mental calculations and mathematical techniques.

A wide range of mathematical vocabulary.

A commitment to and passion for maths.

Children are naturally curious about the world and how it works. At Colne Engaine, science enables children to investigate their own questions and to develop strong scientific knowledge. All the great advances in science began with an inquisitive question and we think there’s no reason this should be any different in school!

Children love to experiment and investigate and science in school is often focused on the traditional concept of a fair test. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with fair testing, and it certainly teaches pupils to make evidence-based comparisons, but fair testing is only one approach to investigating science questions.

Our science curriculum acknowledges that here are different types of questions and different ways to find answers. And in order to acquire a breadth of science skills, children need to learn to carry out a variety of investigations. Essentially, we focus on five approaches that children need to learn to recognise and use: fair testing; observing over time; pattern seeking; identifying and classifying; and research.

Our science curriculum works on a 2-year cycle, which links effectively with our 4-year Curriculum Map. We have a clear skills and knowledge progression for each key stage phase. We are now using science to further develop cultural capital by adding links with a study of the work of a diverse range scientists.

The characteristics of our science curriculum are to develop;

The ability to think independently and raise questions about working scientifically and the knowledge and skills that it brings.

Confidence and competence in the full range of practical skills, taking the initiative in, for example, planning and carrying out scientific investigations.

Strong scientific knowledge and understanding which is demonstrated in written and verbal explanations, solving challenging problems and reporting scientific findings.

High levels of originality, imagination or innovation in the application of skills.

The ability to undertake practical work in a variety of contexts, including fieldwork.

A passion for science and its application in past, present and future technologies.

Here, at Colne Engaine C of E Primary School, we are proud of our approach to teaching Religious Education, which is predominantly enquiry led and uses well respected resources, including Understanding Christianity and the Norfolk Syllabus 2019. The aim of Religious Education is to help children to acquire and develop knowledge and understanding of Christianity and the other principal religions represented in Great Britain; to appreciate the way that religious beliefs shape life and our behaviour, develop the ability to make reasoned and informed judgements about religious and moral issues and enhance their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

Here at Colne Engaine, we  have a commitment to enriching understanding of the diverse and rich tapestry of religious beliefs in Great Britain, which includes a comprehensive visit programme across classes to a range of places of worship including Chelmsford Cathedral, The Baps Shri Swaminarayan Mandir and the Colchester Mosque. These links are very important to us and support our drive to create opportunities for our children to learn to be outward facing and to recognise the value of learning from and about other faiths and beliefs. We explore:

• Christianity
• Islam
• Judaism
• Hinduism  
• Humanism

Parents and carers do have a right to withdraw their child from Religious Education and, if desired, and should write to the Head teacher to request that a child does not take part in Religious Education lessons.

In RE, we aim to develop:

A Good level of religious understanding and knowledge.

A thorough engagement with a range of ultimate questions about the meaning and significance of existence.

The ability to ask significant and highly reflective questions about religion and demonstrate an excellent understanding of issues related to the nature, truth and value of religion.

A strong understanding of how the beliefs, values, practices and ways of life within any religion cohere together.

Exceptional independence; the ability to think for themselves and take the initiative in, for example, asking questions, carrying out investigations, evaluating ideas and working constructively with others.

Significant levels of originality, imagination or creativity, which are shown in their responses to their learning in RE.                              The ability to link the study of religion and belief to personal reflections on meaning and purpose and a wide knowledge and deep understanding across a wide range of religions and beliefs.

Our Geography curriculum is designed to develop children’s curiosity and fascination about the world and its people, that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. Children investigate a range of places – both in Britain and around the world – to help develop their knowledge and understanding of the Earth’s physical and human processes. We intend to equip children with geographical skills to develop their knowledge through studying places, people and natural and human environments. We seek to deepen their understanding of the Earth’s human and physical forms and processes. Geography, by nature, is an investigative subject. Through our teaching, we intend to provoke curiosity and to encourage children to discover answers to their own questions through exploration and research to enable them to gain a greater understanding and knowledge of the world and their place in it.  We are committed to providing children with opportunities to investigate and make enquiries about their local area of Halstead and the Colne Valley so that they can develop of real sense of who they are, their heritage and what makes our local area unique and special.

Our Geography curriculum enables the children to continually apply geographical skills to enable them to communicate with confidence, their findings and geographical understanding to a range of audiences. Through high quality teaching, deep understanding of geographic vocabulary and many opportunities to revisit concepts, we aim to develop essential characteristics of geographers. Through regular revisiting, they gain an excellent knowledge of where places are and what they are like, both in Britain and the wider world; a comprehensive understanding of the ways in which places are interdependent and interconnected – and the ability to reach clear conclusions and explain their findings.

Geography is taught through a skills-based curriculum using the Chris Quigley Milestones which are aligned with the National Curriculum.

We measure the impact of our curriculum through a reflection on standards achieved against the planned outcomes and milestones. Children will have developed the geographical knowledge and skills to help them explore, navigate and understand the world around them and their place in it. Children’s knowledge and skills will develop progressively as they move through the school. Click on links below to find out more.

Geography Subject on a Page

Map Techniques Progression

B2 Being a Technologist – Geography Spiral

Geography Milestones

Our History curriculum aims to ignite children’s curiosity and develop a fascination about the past in Britain and the wider world. At Cone Engaine, our history curriculum is aimed at developing a well-rounded knowledge of the past and its events, with intention to improve every child’s cultural capital, understanding of the world around them and their own heritage.

Through finding out about how and why the world, our country, cultures and local communities have developed over time, we aim to equip our children with an understanding of how the past influences the present, as well as embedding a good knowledge base. Our History curriculum helps children to develop a context for their growing sense of identity and a chronological framework for their knowledge of significant events and people.

We teach the National Curriculum through the Chris Quigley milestones for History supported by a clear skills and knowledge progression on a two-year cycle of units and linked to all areas of the curriculum. This ensures that skills and knowledge are built on year by year and sequenced appropriately to maximise learning for all children. It is important to us that the children develop the skills of a historian, making and identifying connections between periods of history during their time at Colne Engaine and do not just learn a series of facts about the past.

In ensuring high standards of teaching and learning in history, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school and well-planned lessons support children to find evidence, weigh it up and reach their own conclusion. To do this successfully, as historians, children need to be able to research, interpret evidence, including primary and secondary sources, and have the necessary skills to argue for their point of view; skill that will help them in their adult life so we make this a key focus within our lessons.

At Colne Engaine, we aim for children to use and develop skills of enquiry, investigation, analysis and evaluation. When they leave Colne Engaine, we want them to have a secure knowledge and understanding of people, events and contexts from the historical periods covered; the ability to think critically about history and communicate confidently in styles appropriate to a range of audiences and have the ability to consistently support, evaluate and challenge their own and others’ views.

We aim for our pupils to be passionate about history; equipping them to become well-informed, lifelong learners.

Design and Technolgy

At Colne Engaine we want children to be curious and creative problem-solvers who use their imagination to design and make products that solve real and relevant problems within a variety of contexts. Wherever

possible, we link work to other curriculum areas like history, mathematics, science, computing and art. The children ideas are celebrated and they are encouraged to become innovators and risk-takers.

Design and technology at Colne Engaine, ensures children have the ability to carry out thorough research, show initiative and ask questions to develop an exceptionally detailed knowledge of users’ needs. We want the children to have the ability to act as responsible designers and makers, working ethically, using finite materials carefully and working safely. They develop a thorough knowledge of which tools, equipment and materials to use to make their products and that our children are encouraged to think and work independently and collaboratively evaluating, extending and improving their ideas.

We use a variety of teaching and learning styles in design and technology lessons. Teachers ensure that the children apply their knowledge and understanding when developing ideas, planning, making products and evaluating them.

At the end of a topic, children review their own and each other’s work, focusing upon an evaluation of the finished product and how effectively it meets the learning objective.

Art

Art gives children a way to express their individual creativity, whilst developing a natural sense of wonderand curiosity about the world around them and therefore links strongly to our school values. We follow the Chris Quigley milestones with a focus on drawing, painting, textiles, 3D and digital art and sculpture, while developing ideas, mastering techniques and taking inspiration from the great artists.

Through the use of their own sketchbooks, children are introduced to a range of works and develop knowledge of the styles and vocabulary used by famous artists. The skills they acquire are applied to their cross-curricular topics, allowing children to use their art skills to reflect on and explore topics in greater depth; for example, by sketching historical artefacts in detail or researching geographical locations to support their work on landscape. Children are encouraged to take risks and experiment and then reflect on why some ideas and techniques are successful or not.

Through the explicit teaching of the art skills, both the teachers and the pupils assess their learning continuously throughout the lesson. At the end of the topic, pupils use their work to reflect on their knowledge and understanding. Our assessment systems enable teachers to make informed judgements about the depth of their learning and the progress they have made over time.

At Colne Engaine, we want our children to be computer literate; ready to be active participates in a digital world but also be fully equipped to use computational thinking and creativity to understand and change the world too. Within our curriculum, Computing has deep links with mathematics, science, and design and technology and our pupils are taught the principles of information and computation, how digital systems work, and how to put this knowledge to use through programming. Building on this knowledge and understanding, pupils are equipped to use information technology to create programs, systems and a range of content.

Through the National Curriculum and Chris Quigley Milestones, it is our intention to enable children to find, explore, analyse, exchange and present information. We also focus on developing the skills necessary for children to be able to use information in a discriminating, safe and effective way.

We aim to ensure that all pupils:

• Have competence in coding for a variety of practical and inventive purposes, including the application of ideas within other subjects.
• The ability to connect with others safely and respectfully, understanding the need to act within the law and with moral and ethical integrity.
• An understanding of the connected nature of devices.
• The ability to communicate ideas well by using applications and devices throughout the curriculum.
• The ability to collect, organise and manipulate data effectively.

Our learning is organised into four key areas:

• To code
• To connect
• To communicate
• To collect

These key concepts underpin learning in each milestone. This enables pupils to reinforce and build upon prior learning, make connections and develop subject specific language.  Years 1 to 6 is mapped as follows:

We want our children to be aspirational for their futures and computing is key in a rapidly changing world. Supporting our children as they progress through the computing milestones to know what careers they could use their skills in is all part of helping them become outward looking.

Pupils develop an understanding of how subjects and specific skills are linked to future jobs.

At Colne Engaine we strongly believe learning languages fosters children’s curiosity about the world, celebrates difference and encourages a spirit on wonder that they will carry with them through to adulthood.

We aim to ensure all KS2 pupils will develop a genuine interest and positive curiosity about foreign languages, predominantly Spanish. Learning a language will offer pupils the opportunity to explore relationships between language and identity, develop a deeper understanding of other cultures and the world around them with a better awareness of self, key individuals and cultural differences.

We use the Language Angels programme and resources, which can be found at languageangels.com/schools, to ensure we offer a relevant, broad and vibrant foreign languages curriculum that will inspire and excite our pupils using a wide variety of topics and themes.

The four key language learning skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) are taught and all necessary grammar will be covered in an age-appropriate way across key stage 2, aligning with the Chris Quigley milestones and National Curriculum.. This will enable pupils to use and apply their learning in a variety of contexts, laying down solid foundations for future language learning.

Children build on previous knowledge gradually as their Spanish lessons continue to recycle, revise and consolidate previously learnt language whilst building on all four language skills.

As each year passes, units increase in level of challenge, linguistic and grammatical complexity as pupils move from Early Learning units through Intermediate units and into the most challenging Progressive units. Early Learning units (studied in Rowan) will start at basic noun and article level and will teach pupils how to formulate short phrases. By the time pupils reach Progressive units (Sycamore) they will be exposed to much longer text and will be encouraged to formulate their own, more personalised responses based on a much wider bank of vocabulary, linguistic structures and grammatical knowledge.

Through listening, singing, playing, evaluating, analysing, and composing across a wide variety of historical periods, styles, traditions, and musical genres, we want our children to develop a curiosity for music, as well as an understanding and acceptance of the validity and importance of all types of music, and an unbiased respect for the role that music may wish to be expressed in any person’s life. We are committed to ensuring children understand the value and importance of music in the wider community, and are able to use their musical skills, knowledge, and experiences to involve themselves in music, in a variety of different contexts.

At Colne Engaine, we use Chris Quigley Milestones defined by the four areas of: perform, compose, transcribe and describe. These key concepts underpin learning and progression in each milestone. This enables pupils to reinforce and build upon prior learning, make connections and develop subject specific language.

Through our curriculum and within our music teaching we:

• ensure that children are introduced to a wide variety of historical periods, styles, traditions, and musical genres
• are committed to ensuring children understand the value and importance of music in the wider community
• aim to incorporate music into other areas of the curriculum as we understand its potential in contributing to the ‘whole’ child
• make links so that the history of the music, musician or style is seeped in solid understanding.
• provide opportunities for children to learn to play an instrument through lessons and external music teachers that come into school
• allow children to express their feelings and emotions through music
• plan for children’s good musical progression of knowledge and skills across the school using Chris Quigley Milestones and Charanga
• work collaboratively to evaluate and improve performances
• begin to use digital software to compose our own music and develop music technology skills
• make choices about the music they like to listen to or choose to perform and are respected for their individual preferences.

Opportunities to perform to own class, in whole school productions or within our local environment like the church, ensures our children understand the significance and place of music within the wider world and that these excite and inspire children’s curiosity and participation in the subject. Music offers lifelong opportunities for the development of imagination, sensitivity, inventiveness, and enjoyment as well as aspirations for future careers and we explicitly share this.

We measure the impact of our curriculum by assessing the children against the milestones on a half-termly basis. Through the explicit teaching of the music skills, both the teachers and the pupils assess their learning continuously throughout the lesson. Our assessment systems enable teachers to make informed judgements about the depth of their learning and the progress they have made over time against the milestones for each year group.

The Education Act 2002 sets out the statutory duties which all schools, including academies, are

required to meet:

‘Every state-funded school must offer a curriculum which is balanced and broadly based and which:

– promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the

school and of society

-prepares pupils at the school for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life’

The DfE released statutory guidance under the Children and Social Work Act 2017, which became mandatory in September 2020.Within this guidance, Relationships Education and Health Education is compulsory in all primary schools and the DfE recommends that all primary schools have a sex education programme. Sex Education (apart from aspects of the science curriculum) is not compulsory in primary schools and under current legislation, children can be withdrawn from the part of RSE that falls outside the compulsory elements contained in the Science element of the National Curriculum.

We hope that parents and carers will be confident of the care and consideration that has gone into the RSE developed in our school and will therefore support our programme, but invite anyone who wishes to exercise the right to withdraw to make an appointment to come in to discuss it further, when we can explore any concerns that you have.

Staff and governors have worked together to develop the RSE programme that we deliver to learners across the school. Our RSE policy is available for viewing on our website.  At Colne Engaine, we use the very successful Christopher Winters Project to underpin our RSE learning in school. Below is an overview of the scheme of work across the school and then a further breakdown by year group. Content is then tailored for each year group within our classes.  We want to ensure that all parents and carers are fully and properly informed and we are happy to answer any questions and to share any of the materials that we use.

Sport and physical exercise has a high profile across our school – and is taught both by class teachers and  qualified Sports Instructors. Classes are taught to play a range of competitive team games, as well as learning skills in gymnastics, swimming, dance and athletics. There is a wide and varied range of extra-curricular sporting clubs.

Children also regularly take part in competition and festivals, as part of a local hub of schools … and we are proud that we often do rather well, even when competing against larger schools!
We believe that all children deserve to be given opportunities to find physical activities that they really love to do – which can be the start of a lifelong healthy lifestyle. We try to find ways of trying new and exciting sports and activities.

We have welcomed a range of sporting heroes to our school, including Boccia Paralympic medallist, Dan Bentley, Mike Mullens, BMX champion and Baz Gray – Arctic explorer.

All of our children have the opportunity to attend classes to improve their bike riding skills and safety.

Our annual sports day is a wonderful festival of fun and competition, when we welcome families to come along to watch, with their picnics and deckchairs. We were thrilled when Radio presenter Steve Lamaq – a former pupil of our school -accepted our challenge to compete in the sack race against the Year 6 sporting stars!

We aim to promote

The ability to acquire new knowledge and skills well.                                                                                              The willingness to practise skills in a wide range of different activities and situations, alone, in small groups and in teams and to apply these skills in chosen activities to achieve exceptionally high levels of performance.                                                                                                                                                                        Good levels of physical fitness.                                                                                                                                          A healthy lifestyle, achieved by eating sensibly, avoiding smoking, drugs and alcohol and exercising regularly.                                                                                                                                                                              The ability to remain physically active for sustained periods of time and an understanding of the importance of this in promoting long-term health and well-being.                      The ability to take the initiative and become excellent young leaders, organising and officiating, and evaluating what needs to be done to improve, and motivating and instilling good sporting attitudes in others.                         A keen interest in PE. A willingness to participate eagerly in every lesson, highly positive attitudes and the ability to make informed choices about engaging fully in extra-curricular sport.                                                                  The ability to swim at least 25 metres before the end of Year 6 and knowledge of how to remain safe in and around water

At Colne Engaine, our PSHE curriculum positively promotes children’s personal, social and health development and helps them to grow as individuals and as members of families and communities in an ever-changing world, preparing them to be good citizens.  Our core Christian values underpin all that we do – and PSHE is an area where these can be explored more explicitly.

Embedded within our curriculum – and explicitly in PSHE – we support our children to develop emotional intelligence and the ability to articulate their feelings in order to maintain good mental health as well as understanding the importance of their physical health and being healthy.  Using a growth mindset strategy, the children become resilient, flexible learners. We believe our PSHE education helps pupils to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes they need to manage life’s challenges and make the most of life’s opportunities.

Through engaging and carefully sequenced and lessons, we equip our children with knowledge and practical skills to live healthy, safe, fulfilled and responsible lives, both now and in the future. Through the explicit teaching of mental wellbeing and emotional health, we promote children’s understanding of their own and others’ emotions and the development of healthy coping strategies. It also contributes to safeguarding, providing pupils with knowledge, understanding and strategies to keep themselves healthy and safe, as well as equipping them to support others who are facing challenges. PSHE also enables them to reflect on British values and to clarify their own set of values, exploring the complex and sometimes conflicting range of attitudes and values they encounter now and in the future.

At Colne Enagine, we use the PSHE association curriculum. Through its three core themes (Health and Wellbeing, Relationships, and Living in the Wider World) the Programme of Study provides lessons which matches our pupils’ needs. It takes into account progression and development of pupils’ understanding of the overarching concepts and development of essential skills. Topic areas are arranged into half-term focuses, which have been adapted to fit in with our wider curriculum too. Our spiral programme will revisit themes, gradually extending thinking, expanding knowledge and developing skills. 

PSHE lessons are each week and at appropriate times in the year, there are themed weeks eg British Values. PSHE is an important part of school assemblies and embedded throughout our curriculum.  

Reading

We want to develop and nurture children’s love of reading, so they become lifelong readers, and use this love to read for both study and pleasure. The firm foundations of reading are created through children’s phonic knowledge and skills.

We further build on these through developing fluency and accuracy when reading for different purposes and having a rich and extensive knowledge of vocabulary through reading a broad range of challenging, high quality texts. We aim for our children to flourish, unlocking lifelong learning in the classroom and wider world by being confident, resilient, reciprocal readers.

Our choice of books:

At Colne Engaine, we teach children both how to learn to read, and to read to learn. Learning to read focuses primarily on the phonics skills of the children and being able to decode and blend sounds to read. This also includes alien words and high frequency words. Reading to learn focuses primarily upon the reciprocal reading skills children require to read for pleasure and to develop subject knowledge. These reciprocal reading skills are taught explicitly in our daily reading lessons. Through careful research (Doug Lemov) and knowing our children and school community, we have chosen books based on the following:

• Authors we study
• Curriculum links we make with books
• Reading for pleasure

How We Learn

Our children will learn in a literacy-rich environment, have access to high quality texts and be exposed to extensive vocabulary and experience inspiring, effective learning.  Our children learn resilience in reading by accessing challenging books, that are appropriate to their ability and texts that inspire reading for pleasure.

Learning to read at Colne Engaine begins with choosing from a wide range of engaging stories and information books to foster a love of reading and being read to. Daily synthetic phonics lessons using Little Wandle Phonics marks the beginning of a child’s journey towards becoming a fluent and enthusiastic reader.  We use whole class reading from Years 2-6 as our main strategy to teach reading skills.

Using our progression, the children are exposed to a range of high-quality texts.  Each session is sequenced using an introduction and recap, vocabulary check, modelled reading, and comprehension focus where skills taught are being applied.

Our children, as readers, are taught & encouraged to;

• be secure in their phonic knowledge and how to use this to decode unfamiliar words.
• recognise an ever-increasing range of familiar written words
• read fluently
• understand extended prose (both fiction and non-fiction)
• taught to read with purpose, recognising that there are different types of text and adapting their approach to reading accordingly
• actively engage as a reader, adjusting their approach to ensure understanding, e.g varying pace re-reading sections if meaning is lost.
• read for pleasure across a wide range of fiction and non-fiction
• use reading to support their acquisition of knowledge and vocabulary across all subjects.

Reading is taught daily and we use a whole class reading approach to ensure daily opportunities to work on the key reading skills. In addition to this, children are exposed to a wide range of reading opportunities across the curriculum and throughout the school day. Reading is promoted as an enjoyable and enriching experience to both children and parents. The children are able to enjoy books and texts throughout the week. The teacher reads to the children from the chosen class novel from our reading spine. This provides children with positive modelling of expression and intonation. In addition, adults in school hear children read daily to improve fluency, decoding and comprehension skills.

Whole Class Reading

Children are immersed in good quality texts through whole class reading because we believe the best way to develop comprehension skills is through children’s experience of high-quality discussion with the teacher, as well as from reading and discussing a wide range texts.

With the National Curriculum split into three key areas: Reading for Pleasure, Vocabulary Development and Oral Comprehension, a whole class approach to reading enables our children to develop their skills within each of these. The opportunity to read aloud, develop fluency listen to a text read by a teacher or peer and develop their ability to be able to discuss what they have heard in a constructive way and daily discussion of unfamiliar vocabulary ensures a breadth and depth to their reading as well as enhancing their enjoyment.

Please go to the Information Hub – Handy Guides – for information about lots of great books for each year group, to support your child to develop a love of reading