“If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it – Toni Morrison

“Reading is to the mind, what exercise is to the body” – Brian Tracy

English at Hensingham Primary School

At Hensingham Primary School, we believe that English is at the heart of learning. Through reading, writing, speaking and listening, we aim to develop confident communicators, enthusiastic readers and successful writers who are equipped with the skills they need for lifelong learning.

Our English curriculum is carefully designed to inspire a love of language and literature, while ensuring that pupils develop the knowledge and skills required to become fluent readers and effective writers.

Reading

We are committed to fostering a lifelong love of reading. High-quality texts are at the centre of our curriculum and provide children with opportunities to explore different authors, genres, themes, cultures and viewpoints.

To ensure progression across the school, we have developed a Whole Class Reading Roadmap, which outlines the texts studied by each year group. These texts have been carefully selected to expose children to a wide range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry, while also promoting discussion, vocabulary development and a deeper understanding of the world around them.

Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

In EYFS, we use the suggested texts from our curriculum, choosing high-quality books that link closely to each half-termly theme. These carefully selected texts support children’s language development, understanding of the world and love of stories.

Alongside this, we use Ruth Miskin’s Say a Poem, introducing children to a rich range of poems and rhymes to develop language, vocabulary, memory and confidence when performing.

Key Stage 1

In Years 1 and 2, our whole-class reading sessions are closely linked to the texts studied through our writing curriculum. This enables children to develop a deep understanding of each text and make meaningful connections between reading and writing.

Key Stage 2

In Key Stage 2, pupils continue to study high-quality texts through both our writing curriculum and whole-class reading sessions. Our reading spine includes a diverse range of genres, authors, themes, issues and literary traditions, helping children to become thoughtful, reflective and critical readers.

Writing

At Hensingham Primary School, we use the Pathways to Write programme to deliver our writing curriculum.

Pathways to Write is a literacy programme based around high-quality, engaging texts. The approach develops children’s writing through carefully sequenced learning journeys that build vocabulary, grammar, composition and transcription skills. Children are immersed in rich literature, explore the features of different text types and are given regular opportunities to write for a range of audiences and purposes.

The programme supports children to become confident, independent writers by modelling the writing process and providing opportunities to plan, draft, edit and improve their work. Through the use of high-quality model texts, explicit vocabulary instruction and carefully sequenced lessons, children develop a secure understanding of how different text types are structured and composed. The approach builds children’s knowledge of grammar and language in context, enabling them to apply these skills purposefully in their own writing. Regular opportunities for discussion, rehearsal and reflection help pupils develop their ideas, while the editing and redrafting process encourages them to evaluate and improve their work, resulting in greater independence, accuracy and creativity as writers.

To ensure clear progression across school, we have developed a Writing Roadmap which outlines the texts and writing outcomes covered in each year group through the Pathways to Write scheme. This roadmap ensures that children experience a broad range of genres and writing opportunities as they move through the school.

Writing Across the School

EYFS: Children develop early writing skills through engaging, purposeful opportunities linked to their themes and quality texts.
Years 1 and 2: We use Pathways to Write texts exclusively, linking these closely to our whole-class reading sessions to deepen understanding and support writing development.
Key Stage 2: Children continue to access the Pathways to Write texts alongside a wider range of high-quality class reading books, exposing them to different genres, themes, issues and literary styles.

Our Aim

We want every child to leave Hensingham Primary School as a confident reader and writer with a genuine love of literature. By providing exciting texts, meaningful learning experiences and a carefully sequenced curriculum, we equip our children with the skills they need to succeed both in school and beyond.

Curriculum Roadmaps

Please see the documents below:

Writing Roadmap
Whole Class Reading Roadmap

These documents provide an overview of the texts and learning journeys studied across each year group.

Phonics

At Hensingham Primary School we use Read Write Inc Phonics (RWI) to give your child the best possible start with their literacy. We have put together a guide to how the RWI programme works together with some useful links.

Miss Dowell is our Read Write Inc Lead, so if you have questions about RWI, contact school who can refer you to her. Please take the time to read the information as it will provide invaluable information as to how you can help and support your child in reading.

Read Write Inc (RWI) is a phonics complete literacy programme which helps all children learn to read fluently and at speed so they can focus on developing their skills in comprehension, vocabulary and spelling. The programme is designed for children aged 4-7. However, at Hensingham Primary School we begin the programme in Nursery and will continue teaching RWI to children beyond the age of 7 if they still need support in their reading.

RWI was developed by Ruth Miskin and more information on this can be found at

Phonics at Hensingham Primary School – Read Write Inc

Hensingham Phonics Road Map

RWI and The National Curriculum

RWI Letter for Parents

RWI Parent FAQs

Ten top tips for reading to your child

Once a child has mastered the mechanics of reading and can read independently, decoding, understanding and with fluency we continue to widen and strengthen their reading comprehension through the use of whole class reading.

Whole Class Reading

Whole class reading builds fluency, confidence, pace and enjoyment.

All classes from Year 1-6 access a daily whole class reading session predominately focused upon a novel study where they practise and embed the key reading content domain skills.

We regularly update our whole class reading texts to ensure that we have a range of modern, classic texts, significant authors as well as high quality literature from current authors.

High quality teacher modelling of fluent reading and reading with expression ensure that children experience listening to a strong reader and develop expression and fluency in their own reading.

Research shows that reading for pleasure is THE key indicator in raising attainment and a positive marker of pupils’ future success. All children take home a reading for pleasure text that they can share with an adult at home.

HPS Whole Class Reading Pathway Overview 2025-2026

Hensingham KS2 Reading Curriculum

Writing

Writing equips children with communication and thinking skills.

Writing expresses who we are as people.

Writing makes our thinking and learning visible and permanent and it fosters our ability to explain and refine our ideas to others and ourselves.

Here at Hensingham Primary School we passionately believe in the teaching of high quality writing opportunities, hooking children and allowing them to write for purpose and a range of audiences. We build on and refine skills across school and writing is celebrated. We begin our writing journey by exploring the reading phase, where we look at an example text and explore the features of the genre, before moving onto the gathering content phase, where we harvest vocabulary, ideas and features to use in our own writing.

Cross-curricular writing has an important place in our curriculum and is key to ensuring children can write for different purposes and audiences, building stamina and pace.

Handwriting

Our handwriting is taught using LetterJoin, a whole school handwriting programme and more information can be found using the link below. Handwriting is taught discretely, and as part of the English lesson, where appropriate.

http://www.letterjoin.co.uk/

Spelling

Another element of writing, is spelling, and here at Hensingham Primary School we use Spelling Shed, a complete spelling programme designed to meet the needs of the 2014 National Curriculum in a manageable way. Spelling Shed teaches spelling in a ‘little-but-often’ structure which allows children to revisit and review, learn new strategies and apply.

Year 1 and 2 Spelling List

Year 3 and 4 Spelling List

Year 5 and 6 Spelling List

Oracy

Speaking and listening are fundamental to the teaching of English and permeates the whole curriculum – cognitively, socially and linguistically. We want our children to develop effective communication skills for the here and now and also in readiness for later life. We are committed to building and embedding a culture of oracy throughout our curriculum.

We will ensure that teachers and senior leaders are equipped with the skills to develop oracy for teaching and learning, to plan for talk across the curriculum and to elevate speaking beyond the classroom. By building a culture of oracy within our school, we want to develop our children’s confidence, spoken language and written outcomes across and beyond the curriculum.

Our aim is to enable the children to improve their levels of oracy so that they are express themselves clearly and are able to communicate effectively and confidently in front of any type of audience. These skills are being encouraged in every area of our curriculum as good oracy skills can enhance every type of learning including maths and science. A key part of oracy is for children to think carefully about the language they’re using, and tailor it to their subject, purpose and audience.

So much in life depends on being a good communicator, so it’s vital that children learn the importance of oracy from a young age.

HPS Oracy Progression of Skills