English | Greyfriars Academy

Reading Curriculum – Intent, Implementation & Impact

Greyfriars Academy, King’s Lynn

Intent

At Greyfriars Academy, our reading curriculum is ambitious and inclusive, ensuring that all pupils, regardless of background, need or starting point, become confident, fluent and motivated readers. Reading is a fundamental priority across the school and underpins success in all areas of learning. Through reading, pupils develop vocabulary, comprehension, cultural capital and the ability to think critically and communicate effectively.

Our curriculum is carefully designed and coherently sequenced to build knowledge and skills cumulatively. High-quality texts expose pupils to a wide range of authors, genres and themes, enabling them to develop both academic understanding and a love of reading. Early reading is prioritised so that pupils quickly gain the decoding skills they need to access the wider curriculum.

Systematic phonics teaching through Read Write Inc ensures strong foundations in EYFS and KS1, while the CUSP Reading Curriculum provides an ambitious, structured approach to reading from Years 1–6. This ensures pupils encounter increasingly challenging texts, broaden their vocabulary and deepen their comprehension as they progress through the school.

Implementation

Early Reading & Phonics

Early reading is taught with fidelity using the Read Write Inc phonics programme, beginning in Reception and continuing into KS1 and beyond where needed.
Daily phonics sessions are sharply focused and supported by fully decodable books, carefully matched to pupils’ phonics knowledge.
Assessment is used purposefully to identify gaps quickly, ensuring timely intervention so that pupils keep up rather than catch up.

Whole-Class Reading with CUSP

From Year 1, reading is taught through the CUSP Reading Curriculum (please see link to the reading curriculum on this page), which provides a clearly sequenced literature spine and a consistent approach to vocabulary, fluency and comprehension.
Teachers explicitly model reading strategies and provide structured opportunities for discussion, inference and retrieval, enabling pupils to build secure understanding over time.
Vocabulary is taught deliberately and revisited regularly, supporting pupils—particularly disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND—to access increasingly complex texts.

Reading Culture & Wider Enrichment

Pupils are read to daily, recognising the importance of oral language and rich story exposure.
Class libraries, reading events and opportunities for independent reading promote positive attitudes towards reading and encourage pupils to read widely and often.

Assessment & Support

Reading assessment is proportionate and purposeful, informing teaching and identifying pupils who require additional support.
Targeted interventions, guided reading and precision teaching are used to address individual needs, ensuring all pupils are supported to achieve the curriculum’s ambitious end points.

Impact

The impact of our reading curriculum is seen in pupils who read with fluency, confidence and understanding, and who are able to apply their reading skills across the wider curriculum. Pupils can discuss texts thoughtfully, use a growing vocabulary and demonstrate strong comprehension skills.

Outcomes in phonics and reading at KS1 and KS2 have shown steady improvement in recent years, reflecting the effectiveness of our early reading provision and whole-school approach to reading. Pupils with additional needs are well supported and make progress from their starting points.

By the time they leave Greyfriars Academy, pupils are well prepared for the next stage of their education, with the reading skills, knowledge and positive attitudes needed for success in secondary school and beyond.

Writing Curriculum – Intent, Implementation and Impact

Intent

At Greyfriars Academy, we aim to foster a love of literature and language in our pupils through an engaging and well-rounded English curriculum supplemented by explicit vocabulary instruction woven into wider-curriculum lessons. Our intent is to ensure that all children, regardless of their background or ability, have the opportunity to become confident and competent communicators. We aspire for all our pupils to develop fluency and comprehension in their reading as well as the ability to write clearly and creatively and communicate ideas effectively through spoken language.
It is our intention to cultivate an environment where reading is celebrated and encouraged, introducing a broad range of texts that inspire curiosity, imagination and deep thinking. Through engaging and relevant content, we strive to nurture each child’s ability to think critically and express themselves creatively.

Implementation

The Talk for Writing approach, created by Pie Corbett and his team, helps children to ‘learn by doing’. After internalising and understanding the structure, purpose and vocabulary of a carefully-designed model text, children progress to actively creating and inventing their own work. One of the major benefits of this approach is that it can be readily adapted to suit the individual needs of any particular learner or group of learners.
The key phases of the Talk for Writing process (outlined below) enable children to orally imitate the language they need for a particular topic, before reading and analysing it and then writing their own version.

It In EYFS and KS1, we use the Read, Write Inc. Phonics programme to teach children both phonic knowledge and to develop their early comprehension skills. We aim to foster high quality conversations between teachers and pupils in order to support the development of these comprehension skills still further.

Pupils across all phases are read to daily by adults and are encouraged to read widely themselves across both fiction and non-fiction. In doing this, we hope to increase children’s vocabulary, improve their understanding of the world and also help them to gain knowledge across the curriculum.

We build on the phonic knowledge developed in Key Stage One with the teaching of daily guided reading lessons in Key Stage Two. We have a carefully curated reading spine based on the fifty best books in each year group, published by Books For Topics, which forms the backbone of our focused, daily reading lessons in Key Stage Two. Teachers regularly supplement this reading spine with books from our school library or those suggested by the children themselves.

You can find out more about the Books for Topics “50 Best Books” by clicking here. Year Group Recommended Reads – Top Children’s Books by Age

How else do we support the development of reading at Greyfriars Academy?

Targeted interventions are carefully planned to address gaps in learning and prepare pupils for the next stage of their reading journey.
Children in Upper Key Stage Two receive additional teaching both in small groups and on a 1:1 basis (depending on need). Children’s needs are forensically analysed at a question level based on mock SATs papers.
Key Stage 1 pupils benefit from additional, afternoon phonics interventions to consolidate their understanding and address any gaps in their knowledge.
Across the school, the LexiaCore5 phonics interventions support children at risk of not securing a solid foundation in phonics; families are provided with both written and app-based resources to help consolidate this learning at home.
After-school booster sessions take place each week to strengthen reading fluency and comprehension.
Each class enjoys a dedicated weekly story time session in the school library from Reception onwards, helping children to develop positive reading habits and a sense of community around books.
Our popular after-school Book Club in Cromer Class offers pupils the chance to relax, share stories and read for pleasure in a calm and creative environment, quite often with some yummy snacks too!
Children in Y6 apply for ambassador roles within our school and this includes both class and school librarians. Children enjoy taking on this role as it develops their independence and also gives them the opportunity to act as a role model for readers in all year groups throughout the school.

Impact:
The impact of our English curriculum at Greyfriars Academy is evident in our pupils’ growing confidence, enthusiasm and achievement in reading, writing and spoken language. Through our consistent Talk for Writing approach and structured reading curriculum, children develop the skills and creativity needed to communicate effectively and with enjoyment.
Many of our pupils join the school with starting points below those typically expected for their age, and a higher-than-average number of pupils within our school speak English as an additional language or have additional needs. We are incredibly proud of the progress our pupils make from these starting points. Through high-quality teaching, targeted support and a strong focus on vocabulary, fluency and comprehension, all learners are enabled to succeed and to develop a genuine love of language and literature.
Our outcomes reflect this improvement clearly with 14% more KS1 children achieving the expected standard in reading in 2025 than did in 2024. In addition to this, 12% more KS1 children achieved the expected standard in writing across this same time frame.
In KS2, the percentage of children achieving a scaled score of 99 or more in reading is now 20% higher than it was in 2024 and the percentage of children achieving the expected standard in writing is also steadily on the rise too.
These outcomes demonstrate that our curriculum is enabling all pupils – regardless of background or starting point – to achieve and thrive. Our pupils leave Greyfriars Academy as confident, articulate communicators who enjoy reading and writing, are well-prepared for secondary school and possess a lasting love of language and literature.

English Subject Lead – Mrs Thompson – lthompson@grf.unity-ed.uk

Reading and Phonics Subject Lead – Miss Sayer – asayer@grf.unity-ed.uk