Ashlands Primary School

National Curriculum and Expectations for English Key Stage 1 and 2

English has a pre-eminent place in education and in society. A high-quality education in English will teach pupils to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others, and through their reading and listening, others can communicate with them. Through reading in particular, pupils have a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. Literature, especially, plays a key role in such development. Reading also enables pupils both to acquire knowledge and to build on what they already know. All the skills of language are essential to participating fully as a member of society; pupils who do not learn to speak, read and write fluently and confidently are effectively disenfranchised.

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.

At Ashlands, English is fully integrated into our curriculum and we use a wide range of different resources to aid our English teaching.

Every week, children will take home a new reading book. In order to provide children with a rich reading experience we use books from a variety of schemes including, Oxford Reading Tree, Rising Stars, Project X, Collins Big Cat and Dandelion Launchers.  Children also have the opportunity to visit the school library where they enjoy the opportunity to read for pleasure. They are encouraged to borrow books that they can share at home.  

We teach synthetic phonics following Letters and Sounds as our main resource. This is supplemented with resources from Twinkl Planit Phonics and flashcards and rhymes used in the Ruth Miskin scheme.  

Spelling is taught based on the English National Curriculum.  In Key Stage 1 phonics is taught everyday. As the children progress through Key Stage 2, spelling is integrated into their daily English lessons, Guided Reading and weekly spelling workshop. 

In Key Stage 1 children are taught to use a pre cursive writing script. As they move into Key Stage 2 and their writing style becomes more refined, they learn to use a joined cursive script. 

End of Year Expectations for English

Year 1

Reading

• Identify which words appear again and again.
• Recognise and join in with predictable phrases.
• Relate reading to own experiences.
• Re-read if reading does not make sense.
• Re-tell with considerable accuracy.
• Discuss significance of title and events.
• Make predictions on basis of what has been read.
• Make inferences on basis of what is being said and done.
• Read aloud with pace and expression, i.e. pause at full stop; raise voice for question.
• Recognise capital letters, full stops, question marks, exclamation marks and ellipsis
• Know why the writer has used the above punctuation in a text.
• Know difference between fiction and nonfiction texts.

Writing

• Write clearly demarcated sentences.
• Use ‘and’ to join ideas.
• Use conjunctions to join sentences (e.g. so, but).
• Use standard forms of verbs, e.g. go/went.
• Introduce use of capital letters, full stops, question marks and exclamation marks
• Use capital letters for names and personal pronoun ‘I’.
• Write a sequence of sentences to form a short narrative [as introduction to paragraphs].
• Use correct formation of lower case – finishing in right place.
• Use correct formation of capital letters.
• Use correct formation of digits.

Year 2

Reading

• Secure with year group phonic expectations.
• Recognise simple recurring literary language.
• Read ahead to help with fluency and expression.
• Comment on plot, setting & characters in familiar & unfamiliar stories.
• Recount main themes and events.
• Comment on structure of the text.
• Use commas, question marks and exclamation marks to vary expression.
• Read aloud with expression and intonation.
• Recognise: o commas in lists o apostrophe of omission and possession (singular noun)
• Identify past/present tense and why the writer has used a tense.
• Use content and index to locate information.

Writing

• Write different kinds of sentences: statement, question, exclamation, command.
• Use expanded noun phrases to add description and specification.
• Write using subordination (when, if, that, because) and co-ordination (or, and, but). • Correct and consistent use of present tense & past tense.
• Correct use of verb tenses.
• Write with correct and consistent use of capital letters, full stops , question marks and exclamation marks
• Use commas in a list.
• Use apostrophe to mark omission and singular possession in nouns.
• Write under headings.
• Write lower case letters correct size relative to one another.
• Show evidence of diagonal and horizontal strokes to join handwriting.

Year 3

Reading

• Comment on the way characters relate to one another.
• Know which words are essential in a sentence to retain meaning.
• Draw inferences such as inferring characters’ feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions.
• Recognise how commas are used to give more meaning.
• Recognise inverted commas
• Recognise plurals, pronouns and how used collective nouns and adverbs
• Explain the difference that the precise choice of adjectives and verbs make.

Writing

• Use conjunctions (when, so, before, after, while, because).
• Use adverbs (e.g. then, next, soon).
• Use prepositions (e.g. before, after, during, in, because of).
• Experiment with adjectives to create impact.
• Correctly use verbs in 1st, 2nd and 3rd person.
• Use perfect form of verbs to mark relationships of time and cause.
• Use inverted commas to punctuate direct speech.
• Group ideas into basic paragraphs.
• Write under headings and sub-headings.
• Write with increasing legibility, consistency and fluency

Year 4

Reading

• Give a personal point of view on a text.
• Re-explain a text with confidence.
• Justify inferences with evidence, predicting what might happen from details stated or implied.
• Use appropriate voices for characters within a story.
• Recognise apostrophe for possession (plural)
• Identify how sentence type can be changed by altering word order, tenses, adding/deleting words or amending punctuation.
• Explain why a writer has used different sentence types or a particular word order and the effect it has created.
• Skim & scan to locate information and/or answer a question.

Writing

• Vary sentence structure, using different openers.
• Use adjectival phrases (e.g. biting cold wind).
• Use appropriate choice of noun or pronoun.
• Use fronted adverbials.
• Use apostrophe for plural possession.
• Use a comma after fronted adverbial (e.g. Later that day, I heard bad news.).
• Use commas to mark clauses.
• Use inverted commas and other punctuation to punctuate direct speech.
• Use paragraphs to organise ideas around a theme.
• Use connecting adverbs to link paragraphs.
• Write with increasing legibility, consistency and fluency.

Year Five

Reading

• Summarise main points of an argument or discussion within their reading and make up own mind about issue/s.
• Compare between two texts
• Appreciate that people use bias in persuasive writing.
• Appreciate how two people may have a different view on the same event.
• Draw inferences and justify with evidence from the text.
• Vary voice for direct or indirect speech.
• Recognise clauses within sentences.
• Explain how and why a writer has used clauses to add information to a sentence.
• Use more than one source when carrying out research.
• Create a set of notes to summarise what has been read.

Writing

• Add phrases to make sentences more precise and detailed.
• Use range of sentence openers – judging the impact or effect needed.
• Begin to adapt sentence structure to text type.
• Use pronouns to avoid repetition.
• Indicate degrees of possibility using adverbs (e.g. perhaps, surely) or modal verbs (e.g. might, should, will).
• Use the following to indicate parenthesis: brackets ; dashes; a comma
• Use commas to clarify meaning or avoid ambiguity.
• Link clauses in sentences using a range of subordinating and coordinating conjunctions.
• Use verb phrases to create subtle differences (e.g. she began to run).
• Consistently organize into paragraphs.
• Link ideas across paragraphs using adverbials of time (e.g. later), place (e.g. nearby) and number (e.g. secondly).
• Write legibly, fluently and with increasing speed.

Year Six

Reading

• Refer to text to support opinions and predictions.
• Give a view about choice of vocabulary, structure, etc.
• Distinguish between fact and opinion.
• Appreciate how a set of sentences has been arranged to create maximum effect.
• Recognise complex sentences with more than one subordinate clause and phrases which add detail to sentences.
• Explain how a writer has used sentences to create particular effects.
• Skim and scan to aid note-taking

Writing

• Use subordinate clauses to write complex sentences.
• Use passive voice where appropriate.
• Use expanded noun phrases to convey complicated information concisely (e.g. The fact that it was raining meant the end of sports day).
• Use a sentence structure and layout matched to requirements of text type.
• Use semi-colon, colon or dash to mark the boundary between independent clauses.
• Use colon to introduce a list and semi colon within a list.
• Use correct punctuation of bullet points.
• Use hyphens to avoid ambiguity.
• Use full range of punctuation matched to requirements of text type.
• Use wide range of devices to build cohesion within and across paragraphs.
• Use paragraphs to signal change in time, scene, action, mood or person.
• Write legibly, fluently and with increasing speed.