English

CUSP Reading 

Through the CUSP Reading curriculum, children will be exposed to an extensive range of diverse, high quality, fiction and non-fiction texts which cover a range of relevant social issues, big ethical questions and moral dilemmas. The depth and breadth of the literary study intends to empower both the children and the teachers while providing joyful reading experiences. Children will read not just with fluency and understanding but with enjoyment and confidence as the evidence-based (Rosenshine, Shanahan & Rasinski, Law et al, Lemov, Didau, Pankin and Mayer), structured learning sequence explicitly teaches the core reading strategies. Children’s reading attainment will be assessed to identify and close gaps quickly and effectively. Through the quality of texts and teacher modelling, children will be supported in developing their conceptual fluency, prosody and language across the curriculum to prepare them for future demands and develop the necessary cultural capital.

CUSP Progression in Reading Document

Accelerated Reader

Accelerated Reader allows us to ensure that your child is reading a book at an appropriate level and helps them to develop their independent reading. All children in KS2 will take a short online adaptive reading test which will assign them a reading band within their Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). This ZPD level ensures that reading challenge is not too hard and not too easy. Our school library is labelled and put into colour bands based on ZPD levels, so your child can choose their own book to read within their level, rather than having one assigned to them. This will hopefully make reading a much more enjoyable experience as they can choose books that are interesting to them.

It is recommended that pupils spend between 15-20 minutes per day reading.  Doing so can improve creativity, reading age, reading speed, spelling, punctuation, grammar and vocabulary.

Read, Write, Inc. Phonics

We run daily phonics sessions for any children in Year 3-6 who require additional support in early reading. The implementation of this programme has been instrumental in supporting our aim to ensure that by the time they leave Cordwalles, all children are fluent readers with strong comprehension skills for both fiction and non-fiction texts. Children's progress in monitored half termly and we see excellent progress in every child on this programme. Where necessary, we facilitate further support for any children who may require 1:1 tutoring, and these sessions happen daily in addition to the phonics intervention. Staff who deliver sessions are highly skilled and receive frequent training and development, overseen by an external RWI phonics development lead and our school reading lead. 

Pets as Therapy Dog- Sheba

We are delighted to be registered for the Pets As Therapy READ2DOGS programme. We would like to introduce Sheba and her owners Neil and Christine. Sheba visits Cordwalles on every week.

English Lessons are sequenced within a 3-weekly unit structure: 

Full unit structure breakdown can be found here. 

This unit structure exposes children to a wide range of age-appropriate high-quality texts. Each unit, the children read and analyse a new model text which may be fiction or non-fiction. Texts are carefully selected to afford rich writing opportunities and these link to all aspects of the curriculum. Within each unit, there are opportunities for children to read comparative texts which allow for discussion relating to the similarities and differences between each text, picking up on common features, vocabulary and structure of specific purpose and genre. Example model texts include:

• Goodnight Mr Tom
• Diary of Ann Frank
• A Biography of Martin Luther King
• Myths and Legends- Romulus and Remus
• A Nature Documentary by David Attenborough
• Poetry by Benjamin Zephaniah

At the end of each unit, the children will create their own piece of writing which reflects the genre and purpose that they have been learning about. They will incorporate all of the skills that they have learnt throughout the unit to compose their own piece. When their first draft is written, their class teacher will give constructive feedback about how they can edit their work to up-level their writing for its motivational purpose and the children will edit and improve their work over a number of lessons in the third week. The children may they present their work using a range of mediums, for example: written, performance, using technology or green screen. 

Throughout KS2, teaching of skills is progressive. Within each unit of English lessons, children will collate evidence of developing skills within their English books and will end with a final writing output which is filed into a writing folder. This builds a writing portfolio which shows progression in many forms:

• progression of skills;
• progression of writing from an initial draft to a final version;
• progression of writing and composition throughout the year
• progression throughout the Key Stage as they build on prior knowledge each year (for example, nature documentaries are taught in each year group with a structured progression of skills)

We provide writing opportunities across the wider curriculum which enable children to display their written work from a range of subjects within their writing folders. Examples of this may include: formal write ups of science experiments, written explanations of knowledge acquisition from the wider curriculum or even instructions on how to build a bug hotel which they learnt in Eco-club.

Oracy

At Cordwalles, there is a relentless drive to further develop opportunities to embed oracy across the curriculum, ensuring a language-rich experience for every child. The school ensures the teaching of phonics interventions is of very high quality from Years 3-6 and further intervention is timetabled throughout Key Stage 2 to address gaps in phonetic knowledge, where necessary.

Within English lessons, and across the curriculum, we provide opportunities for the children to develop oracy skills across all four strands. This is encouraged through a number of activities, such as: speaking and listening tasks, discussion, debate, developing listening skills and working with others. we do not underestimate the impact of the performing arts in this area, so we seek performance opportunities within all lessons and positively encourage children to participate in school productions, class assemblies and more to develop all four strands.  

Spelling

At Cordwalles, we use Read, Write, Inc. Spelling within discrete, short burst 15-minute-a-day lessons. This programme builds on children’s prior learning of Read Write Inc Phonics to teach spelling strategies which they can transfer to their literacy skills across the curriculum. For proof of impact, read this ‘RWI Spelling Impact Report’.

Handwriting

At Cordwalles Junior School, we are very proud of our pupil’s handwriting and take particular care in our cursive handwriting style. We use Letter-join’s on-line handwriting resource and Lesson Planners as the basis of our handwriting policy as it covers all the requirements of the National Curriculum. Handwriting is timetabled into both discrete ‘Early Morning work’ sessions, as well as across the curriculum.

Delight in Shakespeare

We work with a wonderful charity called Delight, who have created a partnership between Cordwalles and Guildford Shakespeare Company. With GSC, our Year 5 children are given the opportunity to work alongside trained actors to watch a show, participate in workshops and put on their own version of a Shakespearean play. 

Guildford Shakespeare Company perform to the school and then lead workshops with Year 5 to create their own version of a famous Shakespearean play. Previous plays have included: The Tempest, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream. This project develops both an appreciation for Shakespeare's written work and performance, also contributing to the development of children's oracy. 

World Book Day

Each year, we celebrate World book Day and encourage a love of reading. We are always delighted to see the innovative costumes that families have created!

Scholastic Book Fair

In the Autumn and Summer terms, we hold a Scholastic Book Fair at Cordwalles. This is an excellent opportunity for children to stock up on new releases for a reduced price. From sales, the school earns rewards and the more books we sell, the more rewards we receive for our own library.