INTENT 

At Northwick Manor Primary School, we provide our pupils with a high-quality education in English that will teach them to speak, read and write fluently so that they can communicate effectively. 

We encourage and inspire all pupils to read widely across both fiction and non-fiction to develop their knowledge of themselves and the world in which they live and to gain knowledge across the curriculum.  Using the CUSP Reading curriculum, in particular, we aim to establish an appreciation and a love of reading and to develop pupils’ comprehension skills.  

The intent of the CUSP Reading curriculum is to provide a structured, evidence-based approach to reading instruction, ensuring that children develop both fluency and comprehension skills. By focusing on explicit vocabulary instruction, prosodic (fluent) reading, and opportunities for critical thinking, the curriculum aims to foster a love of reading and a deep understanding of a wide range of literature. The curriculum ensures that all children engage with rich, challenging texts that are carefully selected to promote both breadth and depth in their reading experiences. The inclusion of daily story time further enhances children’ engagement and positive attitudes toward reading, contributing to their overall development as skilled and confident readers. 

It is our intention to ensure that, by the end of their primary education, all pupils are able to read fluently, and confidently and will be lifelong readers who read for pleasure. 

IMPLEMENTATION 

Pupils learn to read using an effective synthetic phonics programme.  At Northwick Manor, we use Ruth Miskin’s Read, Write, Inc scheme. 

In Years 2 to 6, reading is taught through daily guided reading sessions.  Each week, all pupils are immersed in an age-appropriate text.  This may be the whole text, an extract or a supplementary text which is high-quality and language rich. There are 3 core principles to this approach based on the CUSP Reading framework: 

• Explicit Vocabulary Instruction 

• Structured Fluency Development. 

• Thinking Hard 

Our Reading Curriculum is delivered through a clear, progressive sequence that immerses children in texts with increasing complexity. Teachers follow a structured routine in every lesson, with specific strategies for vocabulary instruction, fluency, and reading comprehension. Key elements of the curriculum include: 

• Explicit vocabulary instruction to build children’ word knowledge and language skills. 

• Prosodic reading instruction that focusses on the rhythm, intonation, and expression of reading to support fluency. 

• Opportunities to think hard through critical engagement with texts and reflective questioning. 

• Daily story time sessions for all children, promoting positive attitudes to reading and ensuring that they are familiar with the texts studied in class. 

• Fluency-focused lessons, where children rehearse and refine their reading, with an emphasis on self-regulation (e.g., re-reading for improvement). 

• Routine and consistency in lesson structures, ensuring gradual progression in both text complexity and children's response to texts. 

Impact: 

The impact of our Reading Curriculum is seen in children’s growing confidence and competence in reading. By systematically developing vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension, children will: 

• Read with increasing fluency, using strategies like prosodic reading to enhance their understanding and enjoyment of texts. 

• Develop strong comprehension skills, supported by explicit teaching of self-regulation techniques, allowing children to read more demanding texts independently. 

• Experience a rich and diverse range of literature, enabling them to understand complex themes and ideas and appreciate a variety of literary forms. 

• Cultivate a love for reading, fostered through daily story time and consistent exposure to high-quality literature. 

• Show incremental progress across their primary journey, ensuring that each pupil is supported to read effectively every lesson, every day. 

Throughout school, we structure our lessons using a consistent approach with a common language so that children are able to build on previous learning.  

Every day, teachers read to their class.  We select engaging books for each year group, many chosen from the 50 recommended reads –  Year Group Recommended Reads.  This ensures that the class reader is an engaging, age-appropriate text, which introduces the children to different cultures and authors.  This time is for pure reading enjoyment! 

We acknowledge pupils who need additional reading support through on-going formative and summative assessment.  The lowest 20% of readers in each year group are heard regularly by an adult.  This includes reading to a teacher, a teaching assistant or a volunteer.  Our volunteers are trained to support our pupils, so that they have an impact on their reading development.  We also identify groups of pupils to take part in our Reading Fluency intervention.  This lasts for 6–8 weeks.  The sessions focus on Echo Reading and Comprehension style questions. 

To maintain a passion for reading across the school, we take part in lots of events such as World Book Day, World Poetry Day and National Story Telling Week.   

IMPACT 

• All pupils will be fluent readers 

• Pupils’ knowledge across the curriculum will be enhanced by their ability to read and research in all subjects 

• Pupils will enjoy reading and will want to read for pleasure 

• Pupils will be able to talk confidently about a range of texts and discuss their favourite author, providing reasons for their choice 

• Pupils will have a wide vocabulary that they will be able to apply within their own writing 

• The percentage of pupils working at age-related expectations and above age-related expectations within each year group will be at least in line with national averages and will match the ambitious targets of individual children 

• There will be no significant gaps in the progress of different groups of pupils (e.g. disadvantaged vs non-disadvantaged) 

• Parents and carers will have a good understanding of how they can support reading at home, and will contribute regularly to home-school records 

• Year 6 readers will be ‘secondary ready’: fluent, confident and able readers who can use their reading skills to unlock learning in all areas of the curriculum. 

 INTENT 

At Northwick, we understand the importance of acquiring the vital skills of transcription skills to be the foundations for compositional skills. Learning the skills to write is of paramount importance in the early stages of school life – automaticity in handwriting and spelling and grammar/ punctation – as it frees up the cognitive load and enables pupils to compose a range of text types in a range of styles. 

Our aim at Northwick Manor is to encourage children to be independent writers and have the opportunity to write for a range of audiences and purposes across different text types. This readily supports applying new skills in different contexts. Pupils will be taught to apply their writing skills across all curriculum subjects and themes which have been carefully developed around quality texts (which are often challenging and ambitious) for pupils to have high engagement and enthusiasm for their learning. Very often, well-chosen high-quality texts, used in the development of English, link to our chosen study periods in History. 

 For example, Year 6: Goodnight Mr Tom dovetails the History strand ‘How did World War II affect life on the home front?’. 

We constantly strive to create a classroom environment and language-rich curriculum where children are exposed to high-quality language in varying forms in a meaningful, deliberate and engaging way. Pupils are encouraged to be active participants and to have the confidence and ability to work collaboratively with others. Language acquisition and its use is at the core of all the reading, writing, and communication we expect of our pupils, and children are given many opportunities to rehearse their writing through talk. We want children to make well-informed and considered word choices to produce confident writers who can compose, edit and improve their writing and have the skills needed for a 21st Century World. 

We believe that there are four purposes for writing: 

Writing to Entertain;

Writing to Inform;

Writing to Instruct/Explain;

Writing to Persuade. 

We purposefully select texts which act as windows, mirrors or sliding doors on which to base children’s learning. 

• Mirrors: Books act as mirrors when readers see their own lives, identities, or experiences reflected in the story, fostering self-recognition and affirmation  

• Windows: Books serve as windows when they provide insight into lives, cultures, or experiences different from the reader’s own, promoting understanding and empathy 

• Sliding Doors: Literature becomes a sliding glass door when readers feel transported into the story, actively engaging with the characters’ world and experiences, creating immersive empathy and participation 

All children follow a sequence of learning based on a quality text and are encouraged to write daily. The children follow the process of writing, developing the 'writerly skills' needed, working on their specific needs and the demands of the curriculum, and working towards an end piece. Progress is measured at this point and next steps identified for the next sequence. 

As a school we follow the Read, Write Inc spelling programme. This is taught at least twice a week in KS2, with 5 sessions over two weeks. 

In KS1 and EYFS, phonics and spellings are taught daily (information on our approach can be found on our Parent Pages). 

 As well as Read, Write Inc Spelling, we also immerse children in the vocabulary they will need in all subjects through Word Aware and Colourful Semantics; these are displayed in the classroom and in their books for reference. 

Children are given time to practise a number of misspelled words in their journals, or before they write in different subjects (number and choice of spelling is dependent on the age of the child). These are modelled and written on handwriting guidelines so that spelling and handwriting are targeted. The words are then used in writing and acknowledged in marking. 

We follow the Read, Write Inc Handwriting scheme from Reception to Year 6. Handwriting is a basic skill that influences the quality of work throughout the curriculum. By the end of Key Stage 2, all pupils should have the ability to produce fluent, legible and, eventually, speedy joined-up handwriting, and to understand the different forms of handwriting used for different purposes. 

 Our intention is to make handwriting an automatic process that does not interfere with creative and mental thinking. Overall, our aims are: 

• To develop a neat, legible, speedy handwriting style using letters and joins, which leads to producing letters and words automatically in independent writing. 

• To establish and maintain high expectations for the presentation of written work. 

• For pupils to understand, by the end of Year 6, the importance of neat and fluent presentation for different forms, to help communicate meaning clearly.  

Following the National Curriculum’s Programme of Study, Grammar and Punctuation is integrated into the sequences of learning for each year group wherever possible. Where it is not possible this is taught explicitly.