English Curriculum

The English curriculum at Jericho aims to develop children’s skills in reading, writing, speaking and listening in a robust and responsive way. It also aims to develop a love of reading, writing and language which will last our children a lifetime and enable them to fulfil their potential once they leave us.

We use have developed our own bespoke reading curriculum at Jericho and have adopted and adapted the CUSP (Curriculum by Unity Schools Partnership) Writing Units from Y1 6. 

Curriculum aims

The overarching aim for English in the national curriculum is to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written language and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment. The national curriculum for English aims to ensure that all pupils:

• read easily, fluently and with good understanding
• develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information
• acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language
• appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage
• write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences
• use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas
• are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate.

Early Reading, Phonics and Reading Schemes

At Jericho Primary School, children use key skills to help them work out what new words say when they learn to read.   This is called decoding.  Working out what words mean is like cracking the code to reading. Phonics and learning sight words are key skills for decoding.  At Jericho Primary School we are a successful and well-established ‘Read Write Inc’ school.  'Read, Write, Inc' is our phonics scheme.  We combine systematic synthetic phonics with explicit instruction to ensure our pupils gain the knowledge and skills required for reading,  spelling and writing. We want all our pupils to begin their journey to read with confidence and to develop a lifetime love of reading.

What is Read Write Inc?

Read Write Inc (RWI) is a systematic synthetic phonics programme which helps all children learn to read fluently and at speed so they can focus on developing their skills in comprehension, vocabulary and spelling.  In RWI phonics the individual sounds are called ‘speed sounds’. Set 1 sounds are the initial letter sounds e.g. m, a, s, d, t. Set 2 and 3 sounds are made up of two or three letters which represent one sound, e.g. ee as in seen and igh as in light. Children will also be taught that there are more ways in which the same sounds are written, e.g. ay as in day and a-e as in make.  The speed sounds are taught in the following order together with rhymes to help children form the letters correctly and instantly recognise sounds ready for blending and segmenting. Every speed sound has a list of green words linked to it, so your child can ‘sound out’ and ‘sound blend’ words containing the new speed sound they have just learnt, for example, s-p-r-ay = spray. 

We have recorded some super videos to model how we pronounce our speed sounds.  Please click here

Phonics teaching begins in a fun and playful way in our Nursery classes. We introduce phonics through a variety of games, songs and rhymes which encourages careful listening. As children become more confident, they begin to notice and discuss written print and letters in their environment taking opportunities to talk about letters and sounds they may recognise such as the letters in their name. When children are ready we teach set 1 sounds to fully prepare children for their Reception phonics learning. 
Phonics is taught to all children in Reception, Year 1 and those in Year 2 who have not passed the phonics screening check in Year 1. We teach phonics for 40 minutes every day. Children are taught in small ability-based groups.  

Aspects of the phonics curriculum are embedded in learning within the provision of SEND learning to ensure that all children have access to a broad and balanced curriculum.
 
Children learn to:

•  Decode letter-sound correspondences quickly and effortlessly, using their phonic knowledge and skills
•  Read common exception words (red words) on sight
•  Understand what they read
•  Read aloud with fluency and expression
•  Spell quickly and easily by segmenting the sounds in words
•  Learn letter formation and handwriting skills 

Children are assessed regularly to ensure they are making expected progress and being taught in the most appropriate ability group. Groups follow the same plans and routines, so children can transition to different groups smoothly. Progress is carefully monitored by teachers and those children not making expected progress are identified and 1:1 phonics interventions are put in place to help them catch up. New arrivals to the school also receive tailored and age-appropriate phonics instruction if needed.