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Throughout the English curriculum, we aim to instil a love for language and literacy in our pupils. At Key Stage 1 and 2, students engage in a rich array of activities designed to develop their reading, writing, and speaking skills. The purpose of studying English is to enable children to express themselves clearly and confidently, while also fostering their comprehension abilities. Through exposure to diverse texts, learners will enrich their vocabulary and understanding of grammar, ultimately preparing them for effective communication in both academic and social contexts.
At Devonshire Road, we teach phonics through a systematic synthetic phonics program named 'Song of Sounds', which runs from EYFS to Y2. The program teaches children to read and write by introducing children to the sounds that they can hear in words (phonemes) and their written equivalent (graphemes). Children learn to blend sounds together to read words and segment words in order to spell them. 'Song of Sounds' is a multi-sensory phonics program; it is hands-on and interactive with music, movement and practical activities at its core, to ensure children enjoy the phonics learning process. The program ensures that children become fluent readers and knowledgeable spellers by the end of KS1. More information can be found on their website, which can be found here.
Reading
For EYFS and Year 1, we focus on delivering the Big Cat Phonics scheme according to the sequence, supplementing this for each individual using individual reads on banded books (relevant and applicable to their current phonics stage of learning).
Year 2 focus on completing the Big Cat Phonics scheme according to the sequence before introducing the 'Steps to Read' units from Literacy Counts; these units provide suggested texts to select from which teachers will choose from according to relevance to the curriculum content being taught/already covered (which are indicated in the brackets in the table below).
Years 3, 4 and 5 follow the 'Steps to Read' units from Literacy Counts; this is done throughout the year, following the sequence suggested by Literacy Counts.
Year 6 use a hybrid approach of some of the 'Steps to Read' units from Literacy Counts units, combined with a focus on question-based skills that are suited to each cohort's needs.
Clicking on the links below will take you to a version or extract of the book, or, to a direct link to purchase the book.
| Unit 1 | Unit 2 | Unit 3 | Unit 4 | Unit 5 | Unit 6 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EYFS | 'Song of Sounds' Big Cat Phonics sequence to be taught, supplemented by individual reads with children each week. | |||||
| Y1 | 'Song of Sounds' Big Cat Phonics sequence to be taught, supplemented by individual reads with children each week. | |||||
| Y2 |
'Song of Sounds' Big Cat Phonics sequence to be taught, supplemented by individual reads with children each week. |
'Song of Sounds' Big Cat Phonics sequence to be taught, supplemented by individual reads with children each week. | 'Song of Sounds' Big Cat Phonics sequence to be taught, supplemented by individual reads with children each week. |
Science Focus - Living Things: Habitats and Plants (The Flower; Grandpa's Garden; How to Help a Hedgehog and Protect a Polar Bear; It Starts with a Seed) |
Traditional Tales and Poetry - Contemporary (Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes; The True Story of the Three Little Pigs; The Wolf's Story; The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig) |
History Focus - Events Beyond Living Memory - The Great Fire of London (The Great Fire of London - An Illustrated History; The Baker's Boy and the Great Fire of London; Why Do We Remember? The Great Fire of London; The Great Fire - A City in Flames) |
| Y3 |
Science Focus - Forces, Magnets and Rocks (Wild Robot; My Book of Rocks and Minerals; The Robot and the Bluebird; Forces in Action; The Tin Forest) |
Stories and Poetry - Different forms (Leon and the Place Between; Charlotte's Web; Varjak Paw; Hot Like Fire) |
Geography Focus - Rivers and Mountains (Rivers and Mountains - transforming Earth's Geography; Rivers a Dazzling Journey; King of the Cloud Forest; Where the Mountain Meets the Moon) |
Fairy Stories and Poetry - Different Forms (The Princess and the Pea; The Snow Queen; Fire, Burn, Cauldron and Bubble; The Princess Blankets) |
History Focus - Egyptians (The Genius of the Ancient Egyptians; History Essentials - Life in Ancient Egypt; Secrets of a Sun King; Cinderella of the Nile) |
Stories, Plays and Poetry - Different Forms (Stig of the Dump; Welcome to my Crazy Life; Pippi Longstocking; Harry and the Poisonous Centipede) |
| Y4 |
Science Focus - Living things, habitats, animals and humans (Why the Whales Came; Wild World; Wild in the Streets; Science Skills Sorted: Habitats; When the Mountains Roared; The World of Whales) |
Stories and Poetry - Different forms (The Girl who Stole an Elephant; The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane; Where Zebras Go; Night of the Gargoyles) |
History Focus - Vikings (Viking Boy; The Saga of Erik and the Viking; 100 Facts - Vikings; Explore! Vikings) |
Myths/Legends and Poetry - Different forms (Beowulf; Tales from Africa; The Poetry Chest; Stories from Around the World) |
Geography focus - Europe |
Stories, Plays and Poetry - Different Forms (The Firework Maker's Daughter; Podkin One Ear; The Wind in the Willows; Werewolf Club Rules) |
| Y5 |
Science focus - Space (The Infinite Lives of Maisie Day; Eyewitness Planets; A Poem for Every Night of the Year; The War of the Worlds) |
Modern Fiction and Poetry - Different Forms (Wonderland Alice in Poetry; The Storm Keeper's Island; Sky Song; The Nowhere Emporium) |
History focus - The Victorians (Eyewitness Victorians; How they made things work in the age of industry; Street Child; A Christmas Carol) |
Myths and Legends, Plays and Poetry - Wider Range (The Highwayman; The Lady of Shallot; How the Whale Became and Other Stories; Outlaw; Between Worlds - Folktales of Britain and Ireland) |
Geography focus - North and South America/ World (Mathalon Maps (link 1 and link 2); My Side of the Mountain; Eyewitness Amazon; My Name is River; Poetry) |
Other Cultures/ Traditions and Poetry - Wider Range (Journey to Jo'Burg; Kick; Oranges in No Man's Land; Wicked World) |
| Y6 |
Science Focus - Evolution and Inheritance (When Darwin Sailed the Sea; Darwin - A Life in Poems; When the Whales Walked; The Explorer; The Great Sea Dragon Discovery) |
Mixed comprehension focusing on question-based skills (inference, prediction, retrieval, language use, vocabulary, etc.) | Mixed comprehension focusing on question-based skills (inference, prediction, retrieval, language use, vocabulary, etc.) | Mixed comprehension focusing on question-based skills (inference, prediction, retrieval, language use, vocabulary, etc.) | Mixed comprehension focusing on question-based skills (inference, prediction, retrieval, language use, vocabulary, etc.) |
History focus - WW2 (The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas; Anne Frank - Story of a Young Girl; Poems from the Second World War; Eyewitness World War 2; Fireweed) |
Writing
At Devonshire Road, we have designed our writing process on Jane Considine's approach 'The Write Stuff', utilising key aspects of the teaching of writing. Clicking on the links below will take you to the key stimulus (such as the book/link to purchase the book, the video, the website page, etc.), or, some helpful guidance around what is included and covered in the unit.
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