English (Literacy)
Intent
At Greenfield we believe that our Literacy curriculum should promote and develop a love of reading, writing and discussion.
We provide well-organised, purposeful opportunities for reading, writing and discussion which follows the aims of the National Curriculum for English 2014. These aims enable children to:
● Read easily, fluently and with good understanding
● Develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information
● Acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of inguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language
● Appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage
●Write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences
● Use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas
●Are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate.
Our curriculum has been planned to allow children to follow a clear pathway of progression in skills and knowledge through each phase of primary school. Assessment and review cycles ensure all children are given the support to succeed and will give our children the tools they need to participate fully as a member of society.
Implementation
At Greenfield we have developed a core literacy spine of key texts for each phase which has been organised into a two-year cycle. Early Years has a one-year cycle.
These texts have been chosen to provide enjoyment, interest and high-quality vocabulary and cover fiction, non-fiction and poetry.
Reading
Reading is taught in discrete daily lessons across all phases.
The importance of phonics is prioritised by the whole school. We follow the structured Read, Write Inc programme to teach early reading and phonics. The expectation is that this phonics teaching programme will start on entry to Reception. There are clear expectations for phonics attainment term by term. Children are ability grouped for phonics lessons, within the Foundation Stage and across Key Stage One. RWI Phonics lessons are carefully planned with a structured, cohesive approach in order that all children become readers as quickly as possible.
When children have completed the RWI programme, they develop deeper reading skills through the Reciprocal Reading approach. Books from our literacy spine are explored. This involves four key components - predict, clarify, question and summarise. Oral and written responses are used to illuminate the text and develop children’s personal responses and critical interpretation.
In Reception and Key Stage One children experience one session of Guided Reading per week. Children are grouped within their class for Guided Reading. This provides children with opportunities to take part in discussion where they can learn and enthuse from one another. Oral and a range of written responses to the text are developed throughout and following the guided reading session.
In KS2, ERIC (Everyone Reads In Class) is timetabled 4 days a week and allows children to select their own reading books from class book corners. ERIC promotes reading habits and promotes the love of reading. Children can use independent reading times to extend their knowledge or undertake research in other areas of the curriculum as such becoming more independent learners. Children develop the ability to read not only increasingly challenging and lengthy texts but also a wide range of texts so that they can ultimately make informed decisions about personal reading choices.
All children have an individual reading book. Individual reading books are used from RWI, phonically decodable books and other reading schemes. This book is taken home for home reading with parents and is changed at least weekly in class. Across the school, children experience a minimum of one individual reading session per fortnight with the class teacher. Children are targeted for additional individual reading when required.
The love of reading and response to texts is promoted throughout a child’s time at Greenfield.
Children are introduced to a variety of famous authors. Classes are named after famous authors and time is spent researching these authors and their books.
Teacher led class story time across the school is timetabled daily.
Teachers select a range of quality texts to read to children throughout the course of the school year. These texts may be selected based on the interests of the children or to enhance and support on going topics.
Each class’s timetable is organised to enable weekly access to our library, with an up-to-date selection of books to provide quality reading materials for all children to promote reading for enjoyment.
Writing
We teach writing as whole class lessons so all children can build on skills from year to year.
Quality texts from our literacy spine form the basis of our writing which provides children with regular opportunities to write across different key genres and at length. Teachers also make links to other areas of the curriculum to ensure that cross curricular links provide further context for learning.
The sequence of lessons builds progressively towards an extended piece of writing every week.
Thinking out loud and modelled writing is used to illustrate a deeper understanding of the impact that writing has on the reader and by using a higher level of vocabulary and grammar features.
Support is given to targeted children by using Colourful Semantics, a greater level of scaffolding and access to word banks.
Writing is celebrated across the school with displays of high quality writing along with sharing successes for the children in our celebration assemblies.
Grammar
There is an expectation that grammar will be modelled and used correctly by all teachers.
Grammar is taught weekly as a discrete lesson in KS1 and KS2. To ensure progression in grammar skills, we use Nelson Grammar.
We also undertake weekly Assertive mentoring Grammar Hammer skills tests. This consists of questions which revisit all areas of each year’s curriculum and follows a fortnightly cycle. One week the teacher supports children in completing the questions, addressing focus areas and the following week the children complete the same questions independently.
Spelling
We follow the Assertive mentoring programme for spelling. Spelling is timetabled for 45 minutes per week and is broken down into short sessions so the spelling rule can be revisited.
Once every 5 weeks pupils are given a dictated spelling test where gaps are identified and teachers address these in subsequent teaching.
Children also given ownership of their own spellings. Teachers identify around 5 words that need to be spelt correctly in their writing. Children are then encouraged to identify and check these words after writing.
Common exception words are sent home for pupils to practise and consolidate their learning.
Termly spelling tests of common exception words allow teachers to assess progress and identify gaps for future lessons.
Handwriting
We use a cursive style of writing. This is introduced in Reception and used across KS1 and KS2. A weekly handwriting lesson is timetabled. During handwriting sessions children are taught letter formation according to handwriting letter families, as stated in the National Curriculum.
In KS2, pen licences are awarded for those children who have accomplished a high level of presentation across all written outcomes.
Speaking & Listening
It is recognised that speaking and listening is the foundation of all learning in English. There is an expectation that speaking in full sentences will be modelled and used correctly by all teachers from the beginning of a child’s education. In formal and informal situations, we create and facilitate opportunities for conversation, discussion and talk around learning. Teachers support the use of spoken language through the use of sentence stems, drama, presentations, listening to and participating in stories, poems, rhymes and songs, oral story retells and the use of ABC questioning in KS2.
Impact
The impact of our English curriculum is reviewed regularly through learning walks, lesson observations, talking to children about their learning and by the senior leaders in school examining the work in children’s books. These inform future areas for improvement and the impact of new initiatives. This is also used to support the professional development of all staff and so improve the quality of teaching and learning at Greenfield.
We undertake regular assessments to monitor the impact of our curriculum.
- RWI assessments are undertaken to monitor progress and attainment of children. The outcomes of this assessment process determine the children’s future placements on the programme. Ongoing teacher assessment occurs in all lessons, informing future planning and allowing for movement between groups and / or intervention if needed, such as 1:1 intervention, wobbly wallets (which helps children that miss any phonic learning or are falling behind with their phonic learning to catch up) and our weekly Fred Club (which focussed on helping children with additional practice of their phonics through small group intervention around games and teacher support).
- Statutory Assessment Test in Reading for Year 2 and Year 6 and the Phonic Screening Test for Year 1 pupils.
- Assessments take place termly using Pira tests. The results are analysed, gaps identified and shared with staff to inform future planning.
- Half-termly, teachers moderate pupils written work in school and also attend cluster meetings with other schools to ensure accurate assessments are made.
- Assessments are undertaken through Assertive Mentoring programme for grammar and spelling.
- Statutory Assessment Test in SPaG for Year 6.
- Regular writing teacher assessments in all year groups.
- Progress and attainment of our pupils are reviewed and discussed at regular pupil progress meetings.
The English subject leader provides an action plan for the subject and addresses areas for development and improvement which is then shared with all staff and governors. This then feeds into the school development plan.
For more information, please click here to see the National Curriculum document