English - Reading and Writing
English
Believe
At Ridgeway Farm CE Academy, we believe that language is a God-given gift that enables children to communicate truth, express creativity, build relationships and understand the world around them. Through English, we nurture the whole child – spiritually, morally, socially, emotionally and intellectually.
We believe that every child can become a confident, capable and joyful communicator, and that literacy is foundational to identity, belonging, learning and future success. Rooted in our Christian vision, we seek to develop Primary Literate Pupils who believe in themselves, value their voice, and use language with confidence, compassion and integrity.
We believe English education should:
- Inspire a love of language, stories and literature
- Develop strong spoken and written communication
- Nurture imagination, creativity and expression
- Build moral, social and cultural understanding
- Foster curiosity, empathy and reflection
- Develop confident readers, writers and speakers
- Support children to live wisely and serve others
- Equip children with skills for lifelong learning
Our vision is that children leave Ridgeway Farm CE Academy as confident, creative communicators, able to express themselves clearly, think critically and engage with the world faithfully and thoughtfully.
Learn
English at Ridgeway Farm CE Academy is taught through rich, engaging and high-quality learning experiences, with high-quality, challenging texts at the heart of the curriculum.
Learning is shaped through:
- A carefully designed, evolving curriculum supported by subject leadership
- High-quality texts that link with wider curriculum themes
- Daily reading aloud to children to model reading for pleasure and enjoyment
- Rich vocabulary development and imaginative engagement
- Cross-curricular links through writing, debate, performance poetry, reading and computing
- Opportunities to write, publish and communicate in a range of meaningful contexts
Teaching sequences are carefully structured and progressive, focusing on:
- Fiction, non-fiction and poetry
- Writing to entertain, inform, persuade and argue
- Clear modelling of high-quality writing
- Progressive lesson sequences leading to extended pieces of writing
- Application of writing skills across the curriculum
Assessment for Learning is embedded in daily practice. Children are active in:
- Editing and revising their work
- Responding to feedback
- Improving accuracy, structure and expression
Weekly spelling lessons teach explicit spelling rules and key vocabulary. Children follow the school’s Handwriting Policy, progressing from early mark making to the development of a fluent cursive script.
Grow
Through this curriculum, children grow into confident, enthusiastic and reflective readers and writers who:
- Enjoy expressing their ideas
- Take pride in their learning
- Communicate with confidence and clarity
- Show creativity and imagination
- Engage enthusiastically in reading and writing
- Share ideas with others respectfully
- Develop strong literacy skills for life
- Believe in themselves as communicators and learners
Children leave Ridgeway Farm CE Academy as articulate, thoughtful and confident users of language, equipped for learning, life and service.
Reading
Believe
We believe that reading opens minds, shapes character and nurtures imagination. It is through reading that children discover new worlds, develop empathy, encounter truth and grow in understanding.
Rooted in our Christian vision, we believe reading is transformational — building identity, confidence, knowledge and wisdom. We are committed to nurturing lifelong readers who love books, value learning and approach reading with joy, curiosity and confidence.
We believe reading should:
- Be joyful, accessible and inspiring
- Build confidence and independence
- Develop understanding, reflection and empathy
- Foster curiosity and imagination
- Support lifelong learning
- Enable children to flourish academically and personally
Learn
Reading lies at the heart of the curriculum at Ridgeway Farm CE Academy. We are dedicated to enabling all pupils to become fluent, confident and lifelong readers, recognising reading as central to academic success and personal development.
We develop readers through:
- A love of books and storytelling
- Secure reading strategies and skills
- Accuracy, fluency, understanding and response
- Engagement with a wide range of texts
- Reading across all curriculum areas
- Access to libraries, digital media and diverse texts
Early Reading (Word Reading & Phonics)
To ensure every child learns to read, we use one systematic synthetic phonics programme from Reception to Year 2:
Unlocking Letters and Sounds
We have fidelity to this scheme and ensure consistent, high-quality delivery across the school.
Through this programme:
- Grapheme–phoneme correspondences are taught in a clear, incremental sequence
- Children are introduced early to consonants and vowels
- Children learn to blend phonemes to read words
- Children learn to segment words to spell
- Blending and segmenting are taught as reversible processes
- Multi-sensory activities are engaging, purposeful and tightly linked to learning goals
Reading books in EYFS and Year 1 are fully matched to the Unlocking Letters and Sounds progression, ensuring children read texts that directly reinforce the phonics they have been taught. Books are carefully banded and structured to support secure progression and confidence.
Reading Scheme
Our core reading scheme is Oxford Reading Tree, supported by a wide range of additional age-appropriate texts. This provides children with familiar structure, progression and narrative continuity, while also offering breadth, diversity and choice.
Children have access to a rich variety of texts to support independent reading and the development of a love of learning.
Book Talk (Whole Class Reading)
Much of our formal reading teaching is delivered through Book Talk sessions.
Through Whole Class Reading:
- Teachers model reading strategies
- Children learn to use context, phonics, syntax and structure
- Reading comprehension, inference and interpretation are developed
- Children become fluent, confident and reflective readers
- Shared reading builds community, confidence and discussion
Reading Provision Across Phases
EYFS
- Children are heard read weekly
- Daily phonics sessions
- Daily story times
- Sound sheets sent home
- Regular adult reading interactions
Year 1
- Weekly adult reading (more frequently for targeted pupils)
- Daily phonics
- Regular reading aloud
- Individual and group support
Year 2 – Year 6
- Regular independent reading
- Weekly book exchanges
- Weekly adult reading
- Whole Class Reading daily
- Reading Records maintained
- Reading for pleasure promoted
- Teach Hub supports planning and text selection
- Consistent language and strategies used across school
Formal reading assessments (NFER) take place in Autumn, Spring and Summer, alongside ongoing formative assessment, to inform intervention, planning and provision.
Grow
Through this rich reading culture, children grow into fluent, confident, reflective and joyful readers who:
- Love books and stories
- Read with confidence and understanding
- Develop strong vocabulary and comprehension
- Engage deeply with texts
- Read across the curriculum
- Read for pleasure and purpose
- Use reading to explore the world
- Build knowledge, empathy and imagination
The impact of reading at Ridgeway Farm CE Academy is seen through:
- Strong progress from starting points
- High phonics outcomes
- Strong comprehension and vocabulary development
- High engagement in reading
- Reading across all subjects
- A deep culture of reading for pleasure
Children leave Ridgeway Farm CE Academy as readers for life — confident, curious, capable and inspired by the power of words.