At Walton on the Hill Primary we want an English curriculum which inspires a love of reading.  We love books and want all of our community to feel the same.  Reading and particularly, reading for pleasure, is a keystone in our curriculum but halos our school ethos.  We also ensure the curriculum offers children the opportunity to become writers with writing tasks that build on their experiences or take inspiration from their wider learning or drama.  We ensure children write for a range of purposes and audiences, while also ensuring the foundational elements of spelling, grammar, handwriting and vocabulary are delivered following a sequenced approach. 

English has evolved to embrace the Talk for Writing approach, predominantly amongst infant classes. This approach brings a structured learning environment in which children are enabled to stretch their vocabulary, establish good sentence structure and use their imagination.  This approach is continued into KS2, where the scaffolding is gradually taken away to increase independence.  Stimulus for writing throughout the school is balanced and varied. 

As stated in the 2021 Ofsted report, "Reading is a high priority in the school".  Following a recent in-house Action Research Project and CPD on Reading Fluency, guided reading lessons are used to model the reading of texts and increase fluency practice.  The subsequent introduction of the FFT Reading Assessment Programme means pupils are assessed on their GPC accuracy, decoding accuracy and fluency levels.

The school library is open every lunchtime, with the help of parent volunteers and Year 6 children, which has been a great addition to the school day.  At this time, children can seek advice, get book recommendations, or simply read.  The library has been improved in terms of layout and signposting. Recent purchases recognised the need to increase our selection of diverse literature, both in terms of culture/ethnicity and hi-lo dyslexia-friendly publications.

In Infants, children follow the Magic Link handwriting scheme and KS2 have moved to 50/50 shaded-line books for weekly practice.  Spelling Shed has been replaced by Doodle Spell and will be embedded into practice.

Both English leads are supported by the Schools Alliance for Excellence (SAfE) and have received CPD sessions, including Talk for Writing, reading fluency and the explicit teaching of vocabulary.  They are also working with counterparts at Kingswood Primary, one of whom is a local authority English moderator.

The school regularly delivers very good outcomes in English.  Our results in this subject are consistent and significantly above the national averages. External KS2 statistics dating back to 2016 shows a 5-year average in which 90% of children achieved the expected standard in writing and 85% in reading - well above the national average of 74% and 73% respectively.

At KS1 last year, 87% of children achieved the expected standard in reading, compared to 75% nationally.  Monster Phonics full SSP was implemented two years ago, in order to bring whole school consistency and further enhance our phonics provision.