English and Phonics

At Carden Nursery and Primary School we believe in providing high quality, active, purposeful and experiential learning opportunities. Our aim is to engage and equip pupils with the skills, knowledge and understanding to become lifelong readers, writers and communicators.

Our Core Values and Learning Journey Skills underpin our language rich curriculum; talk being at the heart. We believe that strong oracy and writing skills are the keys for children to express themselves. Every unit of work is underpinned by talk: story-telling, role play, rehearsal – talk comes first. We believe that writerly skills should be explicitly modelled and practised, so children leave as confident writers.

Phonics is a powerful tool in learning to read and write, so this is a priority for our younger learners, alongside our Talk for Writing curriculum.

We believe that the curriculum is everything that happens throughout the day, both in and out of school; we value and celebrate experiences and achievements from home.

We strive to foster a passion and deep understanding of English as a means of communicating information; learning about the world and sharing stories. It is our intention to immerse pupils in the wonders of quality texts in order to instil a love for reading and a passion for discovery.

Our English curriculum challenges all pupils and engages their imagination, encourages their curiosity and motivates them to take the next steps in their learning. We aim to expose children to engaging and challenging texts which fully represent the whole community.

At Carden, we use the principles of Sounds Write to teach phonics and early reading. Sounds-Write is a structured, multi-sensory phonics program teaching reading and spelling through a systematic, code-oriented method, focusing on the connection between sounds (phonemes) and letters (graphemes). It builds foundational skills like blending (combining sounds) and segmenting (breaking words into sounds) through an incremental framework, starting with simple words and progressing to complex ones, teaching that sounds can have one-to-four-letter spellings and that spellings can represent different sounds.

Four Key Concepts:

• Letters are symbols for sounds.
• Sounds can be spelled with 1, 2, 3, or 4 letters (e.g., ‘c’, ‘sh’, ‘igh’, ‘dough’).
• The same sound can have different spellings (e.g., ‘rain’, ‘break’, ‘gate’).
• The same spelling can represent different sounds (e.g., ‘head’, ‘seat’, ‘break’).

The principle of speech-to-print teaches children to hear sounds in words and link them to letters. Essential core skills of blending, segmenting and phoneme manipulation are practised daily.

Sounds-Write is used from early years through to lower KS2. It is suitable for all learners, including those needing extra support, due to its structured and simple approach.

Our English curriculum follows the Talk for Writing and Reading approach. The Talk for Writing approach enables children to read and write independently for a variety of audiences and purposes within different subjects. A key feature is that children internalise the language structures needed to write through ‘talking the text’, as well as close reading. The approach moves from dependence towards independence, with the teacher using shared and guided teaching to develop the ability in children to read and write creatively and powerfully.

We underpin our English curriculum with an established core reading spine of quality fiction, poetry and non-fiction that all children experience and draw upon. Imaginative units of work are developed to create a whole-school plan that is refined over the years; is well-resourced and documented to release teachers from planning and preparation so that they can focus on adapting their teaching for children’s learning.

The key phases of the Talk for Writing process, enable children to imitate orally the language they need for a particular topic, before reading and analysing it, and then writing their own version.

The Talk for Writing approach has three main stages: Imitation, Innovation, and Invention. During Imitation, students internalise a model text through oral rehearsal and actions. In the Innovation stage, they adapt the model text with new ideas, working with the teacher. Finally, in the Invention stage, they write an original text independently, using the language and structure they have learned.

In September 2024, planning and teaching for Y6 pupils moved away from the pure approach of Talk for Writing as it was recognised that most were able to effectively write from the invention phase independently with some scaffolds for those needing support. This proved successful with end of year results above national average for expected and greater depth standard.

Talk for Reading is a comprehensive approach designed to cultivate critical, appreciative, and confident readers. It’s built upon a strong reading culture, effective teaching, and successful leadership, aiming to develop children into thoughtful and strategic readers who can learn from texts, discover information, and deepen their understanding of the world.

This program goes beyond surface-level comprehension, encouraging children to engage with texts critically, question what they read, and develop a love for literature. It fosters the habit of reading and thinking deeply, allowing young readers to participate in the reading conversation that spans centuries and connect with diverse ideas and experiences.

A key element of Talk for Reading is the daily teaching of vocabulary and knowledge across all subjects, recognising that a rich curriculum enhances comprehension. The approach utilises the gradual release of responsibility model, guiding children from dependence to independence through three phases:

Introduction Phase: Children gain a basic understanding of the text through repeated readings, initial responses, and vocabulary consideration.

Investigation phase: Students dig deep into the literary concepts that lie at the heart of the text’s core purpose, using strategic approaches and response activities (like drama or role-play) to build a strong connection with the material. This phase culminates in summarising and evaluating the main ideas.

Independent understanding phase: Children demonstrate their comprehension independently through discussion, in-depth questioning, applying learning to new texts, or creating their own writing in a similar style.

The impact on our children is that they have the knowledge and skills to be able to read and write successfully for a purpose and audience. As all aspects of English are an integral part of the curriculum, cross curricular writing standards will have also improved and skills taught in the English lesson are transferred into other subjects; this shows consolidation of skills and a deeper understanding of how and when to use specific language, grammar and punctuation.