English Curriculum

Spelling and handwriting are the two key transcription skills which the children need to master in order to become confident and fluent writers. They need to be able to spell quickly and accurately through knowing the relationship between sounds and letters (phonics) and understanding the spelling structure of words.

How spelling is taught at North Ealing Primary School

At North Ealing Primary School, we use the Read Write Inc Phonic programme to teach children in the Early Years and Year 1 how to read and spell.

• Children learn phoneme/sound correspondence and blend sounds together to read and spell green words – phonetically decodable words.
• Children also learn how to spell Red words – those which have a non-decodable element and therefore are best learned by sight and memory.

For children in Years 2 to 6, we use the Read Write Inc Spelling programme. This enables us to meet the spelling expectations of the National Curriculum 2014 (Appendix 1: Spelling) and provides consistency and progression in the teaching of spelling.

Read Write Inc Spelling is an interactive programme which teaches spellings in a fun and engaging way. It helps children to learn spellings with common patterns and uses rules in order to help them recall spellings as well as teaching exceptions to these rules.

The teaching naturally follows on from the Read Write Inc phonics programme taught as soon as the children enter North Ealing Primary School. Therefore the children are already proficient at using dots (for individual sounds) and dashes (for Special Friends/digraphs and trigraphs) and prefixes and suffixes can be added to root words to help them to spell with greater accuracy, understanding and confidence. Weekly spelling lists are taken home for children to practise and consolidate their spelling.

By the end of year 6:

At North Ealing Primary School, our aim is that children should be able to:

• Understand and apply the spelling rules taught throughout KS1 and KS2.
• Have an understanding that some words do not follow these rules and just need to be learnt. (Those listed in the National Curriculum English Appendix 1.)
• Children are given regular opportunities to use a dictionary, both to check the spelling of some words and the meaning.

English Appendix – Spellings – Click here

How to support your child with their spelling at home

Regular practice of weekly spellings has been shown to help embed spelling patterns as well as individual exception words. Support your child with learning their weekly spelling list by reading out each word for them to write down and helping them with any words they are finding particularly tricky., for example by using a mnemonic rhyme.

Spoken language underpins the development of reading and writing and at North Ealing, we believe that oracy is a powerful tool for learning. By teaching pupils to become more effective speakers and listeners we empower them to better understand themselves, each other and the world around them. Through a high quality oracy education, developed in collaboration with Voice 21 a national oracy education charity, students learn through talk and to talk.

How oracy is taught at North Ealing Primary School

Oracy is taught across the curriculum, with the children being given well planned opportunities to develop their speaking and listening skills both with their talk partners and in larger groups. They are encouraged to build on, respectfully challenge, clarify and probe others’ ideas; summarise discussions; debate and present. By embedding these practices throughout their learning, children learn the skills needed to talk effectively as well as developing and deepening their subject knowledge and understanding.

Spoken language underpins the development of reading and writing and at North Ealing, we believe that oracy is a powerful tool for learning. By teaching pupils to become more effective speakers and listeners we empower them to better understand themselves, each other and the world around them. Through a high quality oracy education, developed in collaboration with Voice 21 a national oracy education charity, students learn through talk and to talk.

By the end of year 6:

By the end of year 6, we aim for every child at North Ealing Primary School to:

• Have the confidence and skills to listen and speak effectively in a range of situations.
• Be able to share their ideas in class, lead discussions and present in assemblies.
• Be active listeners, responding thoughtfully and respectfully to others.
• Ask insightful questions which deepen their understanding and encourage meaningful discussion.

Link to the oracy section on the website: Click here.

Reading is a key life skill and fundamental to all aspects of education. Extensive research indicates that children who read for pleasure are more likely to develop a broader and richer vocabulary, increase their general knowledge and perform well across all subjects.

At North Ealing Primary School, we help to nurture a love of reading by encouraging and supporting children to read every day and through carefully selected high quality texts which are at the heart of our curriculum.

Our aim is to equip each reader with the tools to tackle unfamiliar vocabulary and diverse materials. We want our children to recommend books to their peers and enjoy reading a wide range of genres, including non-fiction. We encourage children to participate in book talk, including evaluating an author’s use of language and how this can affect the reader. We encourage our pupils to see themselves as discerning readers and to be confident in discussing not only whether they enjoy a text but also the extent to which they agree with it.

How reading is taught at North Ealing Primary School

Reading consists of two key elements: word recognition and language comprehension. Both these are taught explicitly and discretely across all key stages.

In the Early Years and KS1, pupils learn to read accurately and fluently through daily phonics lessons following our Read Write Inc phonics scheme. Additional phonics interventions take place for those children identified as needing some extra support.

Link to phonics on the website: Click here.

In addition, all children follow our Rising Stars reading scheme, reading regularly to adults at school as well as at home.

Teachers share stories, rhymes and information texts with children on a daily basis, developing their interest and pleasure in reading. In Year 2 whole class comprehension lessons deepen children’s ability to explore and understand a range of genres.

In years 2-6, whole class fluency lessons develop children’s vocabulary, prosody and automaticity skills in order that comprehension of the text can take place. Children also practice discussing and independently answering a range of comprehension questions.

Children who are not yet ‘free readers’ continue to work through our school reading scheme- levelled books which match the children’s current reading age.

High quality texts are at the heart of our English lessons, giving the children regular opportunities to listen to texts being read out loud and to read out loud themselves both individually and with whole class choral reading. Teachers model expressive, fluent reading and build in regular opportunities to discuss new and adventurous vocabulary. Text analysis also forms part of every English unit, with time built into units for children to discuss what their thoughts are towards the text. This is before they move on to applying the skills of analysis, retrieval, prediction and inference to what they have read.

Pupils’ comprehension skills are formally assessed termly and any gaps in learning are addressed either through whole class teaching or individual and small group booster classes.

Reading for pleasure is also modelled and encouraged through regular story time, quiet reading time and time being given for children to read and choose their own books from their class library or our school library.

We also have a number of reading enrichment activities across the year, including visits by children’s authors (including poets), World Book Day events and reading challenges.

Link to our core text overview for Yr 1-6: Click here.

By the end of year 6:

At the end of year 6, our aim is for all children to:

• Leave as confident, enthusiastic readers who read for pleasure as well as to boost their learning across all subjects.
• Have a secure understanding of the different reading skills which are formally assessed at the end of KS2 and be able to apply them confidently to a wide range of genres (including non-fiction and poetry).
• Able to discuss and evaluate an increasingly wide range of fiction and non-fiction texts and to give their opinion on these.

How to support your child with their reading at home

Reading daily to young children helps build key language and social skills. Once children start bringing home school books (RWI books, books from our Rising Stars scheme and library books), share these together and take the time to listen to your child read their book to you every day.

Here are 7 additional top tips to supporting your child with their reading at home: Click here.

English core text for year 1-6 – Click here

Learning to write is one of the hardest challenges pupils face at school but it is vitally important: learning to speak, read and write well are crucial for children and young people’s success in education, life and work. Pupils who find it difficult to express their ideas in writing are likely to struggle across the curriculum, not just in English. (The writing framework July 2025) Alongside spelling and handwriting, becoming a fluent writer depends on articulating and structuring ideas (the compositional skills) in order that children are able to communicate their thoughts and ideas to a range of different audiences.

How writing is taught at North Ealing Primary School

From EYFS, children at North Ealing Primary School are taught a highly effective and engaging writing curriculum which uses high quality core texts as models for writing. These texts form the basis of our English lessons and are often linked to other topics being studied (for example in history or science).

Early writers are given regular opportunities to practise the transcription skills of spelling and handwriting including writing sentences which are dictated to them. Alongside this, high quality oracy opportunities which include role play, storytelling and rhyme stimulate ideas for shared writing.

Older children also have regular, high quality oracy opportunities to stimulate ideas for writing including writing for real purposes and genuine audiences. The writing sequence involves the children deconstructing and analysing high quality model texts which their teachers have prepared as well as opportunities for shared writing alongside the teacher. Grammar is introduced and taught in a meaningful way as part of this process. Teachers also model and teach the children how to edit, evaluate and improve their written work both independently and with a writing partner.

By the end of year 6:

By the end of their primary school journey, pupils should be able to:

• Write effectively for a range of purposes and audiences, selecting language that shows good awareness of the reader.
• Describe settings, characters and atmosphere in narrative writing.
• Integrate dialogue in narratives to convey character and advance the action.
• Appropriately select vocabulary and grammatical structures that reflect what the writing requires.
• Use a range of devices to build cohesion within and across paragraphs (e.g. conjunctions, adverbials of time and place, pronouns, synonyms).
• Use verb tenses consistently and correctly throughout their writing.
• Use the range of punctuation taught at key stage 2 mostly correctly (e.g. inverted commas and other punctuation to indicate direct speech; some use of colons and semi-colons and dashes; bullet points and hyphens).
• Spell correctly most words from the year 5 / year 6 spelling list and use a dictionary to check the spelling of uncommon or more ambitious vocabulary.
• Maintain legibility in joined handwriting when writing at speed.

How to support your child with their handwriting at home:

In addition to supporting your child when practising their weekly spelling words, provide a range of writing opportunities, e.g. writing letters, shopping lists, party invitations etc. Encourage your child to speak in full sentences using correct Standard English. When reading with and to your child, explicitly point out and discuss new vocabulary and encourage them to use it.

At North Ealing Primary School, we ensure that high standards of handwriting and presentation are established from EYFS. Children begin their journey by making marks and creating patterns with a range of different materials. They may begin with large crayons making circular and straight lines- an important step in learning to write. The marks children make begin to have more meaning for children as they develop a blend of writing and drawing.

Once the children begin practising and forming letters, handwriting is modelled and explicitly taught regularly and consistently using the Nelson handwriting programme. Frequent practice is embedded across the curriculum in small, cumulative steps including the correct pencil or pen grip and how to sit correctly at their desk.

For information on how we teach handwriting, please: Click here.

By the end of year 6:

Our aim at North Ealing School is that, by the end of year 6, children’s handwriting is sufficiently fluent and effortless in order that they can focus on composition when writing.

How to support your child with their handwriting at home:

Whenever your child does any writing at home, ensure that they are sitting correctly at a desk and that they are using an appropriately sized pencil or pen. If supporting your child with specific letter formation, it is helpful to refer to this document:

Fifteen things to communicate to children, Click here.

● Attention and focus: Pupils use movement breaks and sensory tools to help maintain concentration during learning activities.

● Handwriting, posture and fine motor skills: Developed through targeted OT-informed strategies, including pencil grips and, where appropriate, the use of Chromebooks, enabling pupils to write with increasing confidence, control and independence.

● Visual-motor and perceptual skills: Structured activities, such as shape copying, mazes and scissor tasks, support the development of coordination and spatial awareness.

● Speech and language development: Sensory regulation, attention strategies, and visual communication aids are used to enhance communication skills and engagement.