Shaw-cum-Donnington C.E. Primary

At Shaw-cum-Donnington Primary School we believe that the English curriculum should develop a child’s love of reading, writing and discussion.  We want pupils to harness a lifelong love of reading for pleasure with a range of text types, genres and authors.  We intend to create confident, independent writers.  Pupils will write for a variety of purposes and audiences whilst developing their own individual flair.  English is both a subject in its own right and the medium for teaching across all subjects; for pupils, understanding the language provides access to the broader curriculum.  Our staff develop pupils’ spoken language, reading, writing and vocabulary as integral aspects of the teaching of every subject.  We aim to expose our pupils to a wide range of vocabulary so that they are able to decipher new words and use them when speaking.  Pupils will be able to increasingly write clearly, accurately and coherently with grammatical accuracy and to be able to apply spelling patterns correctly using a neat, cursive handwriting style. 

The national curriculum for English aims to ensure that all pupils:

• 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 linguistic 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.

Underpinning our pedagogy, is the belief that all children can learn to read and write with confidence and that high-quality English education provides a foundation for understanding the wider world and a tool for life.

Reading

Early reading is supported by the teaching of phonics, which begins in Reception.  Staff are equipped to teach the knowledge and skills required to promote good progress as well as a love of reading.  Phonics is taught daily until the children are fluent readers.  We follow the Supersonic Phonic Friends programme.

In Reception and Key Stage One, there are a wide range of planned and incidental opportunities for pupils to develop their oracy, reading and writing skills.  To provide adequate time for developing English skills, each class teacher will provide a daily hour-long English lesson. In addition to this, reading is taught for half an hour 3 times a week in Key Stages 1 and 2. The children are given a series of questions to develop a range of reading skills from the VIPERS system:

• Vocabulary
• Inference
• Prediction
• Explanation
• Retrieval
• Sequence/Summarise

In Reception, reading is taught for up to 20 minutes 3 times a week.  All children are individually listened to reading regularly, according to the needs of each pupil, to a teacher or teaching assistant. In early reading, pupils have reading books that match their phonics knowledge. Once secure, they move to coloured book banded books (turquoise to lime). ‘Red read’ books are suitable for KS1 and above, ‘Yellow read’ books are suitable for KS2 and ‘Green read’ books are suitable for fluent KS2 readers. Books only appropriate for year 5 and above must be kept within their classroom (blue band books).

Pupils have daily opportunities to read for pleasure.  All pupils will have the class teacher or teaching assistant read to them frequently to model fluency and appropriate expression, for a minimum of 20 minutes each week. Pupils have the opportunity to visit the school library regularly to explore a range of authors and genres. Class reading areas contain a variety of age-appropriate authors and genres, including short and long texts, non-fiction, graphic novels, poetry and magazines.  Pupils can borrow a book weekly from the library and pupils that are ‘free readers’, can borrow an additional book to their chosen reading book.  Year 6 Reading Ambassadors support adults to keep our library areas tidy, put away returned books, organise peer-reading and purchase new books.  Pupils can enjoy weekly Book Club sessions with their class and have the opportunity to discuss and make new book recommendations to others.  Year 5 and 6 keep personal records of their reading journey through their independent reading journals, which feed into their class journal.

On occasion, links will be made to reading and writing within other subjects so pupils can develop and apply their English skills.  Lessons are planned and sequenced so that new knowledge and skills build on what has been taught before. Teachers use the objectives taken from the National Curriculum statutory guidelines and follow the school’s Long-term Curriculum overview for English to ensure a continuation and progression of skills.

Writing

The English writing curriculum is based on a high-quality text so that pupils are inspired and exposed to a broad diet of picture and chapter books.   The writing process involves techniques such as an interesting hook, mapping, boxing up and short burst writing.  Teachers have the professional scope to make adjustments where they think they are needed.  A high-quality model text is used so that it enables pupils to identify features within the genre so that pupils know what they are aiming for.  This format is complemented by the use of a wide range of writing prompts, such as: school trips; visiting speakers; hands on experience with artefact objects; music and film stimuli; cross-curricular links and other hook point opportunities to capture the imagination of the writer.   A 10 minute ‘flashback’ is used at the beginning of each lesson to recap prior learning and to address vocabulary.

The teaching model will last for approximately 3 weeks, adopting the following sequence:

Hook         Model Text         Analyse Language & Structure          SPAG         Short Burst Writing                          Draft Writing     Extended Writing         Edit         Assess

Handwriting

At Shaw-cum-Donnington, daily handwriting follows the Supersonic Phonics Scheme.  Each year, every class will start from the beginning of the scheme and then when appropriate, progress to using handwriting as a strategy to practise weekly spellings on a daily basis and dictation.

Spellings

Pupils in Years 1-6 have weekly spellings to practise at home. They will focus on a spelling rule/ pattern based on the curriculum for each year group.  A list of spellings, which will include words from the specified spelling pattern and those from the Common Exception Words list will be given to pupils each week.

English lesson structure

Celebrating reading and writing success

We recognise the importance of celebrating individual achievements and giving pupils a real sense of pride in their work.  The English Co-Ordinator sets a weekly “Writer of the Week” challenge, which is open to all year groups, and winners are presented with a certificate and special pencil during our Celebration Worship on a Friday.  Pupils are also rewarded for their personal reading achievements.  They receive a “Reading Leaf” to place on our whole school Reading Tree in the library to mark their 15, 25, 50, 75, 100, 150 and 200 reads to an adult.  They are also presented with a certificate during our Celebration Worship on a Friday.

Impact

At Shaw-cum-Donnington Primary School we expect that by the end of Year 6 pupils will:

• Talk and perform confidently and fluently in a range of situations, using formal and standard

English as appropriate.

• Listen to and consider the views and opinions of others in discussions.
• Be confident to take risks in their reading and writing and love to discuss and share their ideas.
• Independently and confidently write for a range of purposes and audiences.
• Take pleasure in an increasingly wide range of texts and authors.
• Infer and deduce information such as characters’ feelings, thoughts and motives from their

actions using evidence from the text.

• Maintain legibility, fluency and speed in handwriting through choosing whether

or not to join specific letters.

• Proof-read and edit work in line with the Year 6 curriculum expectations for

spelling, grammar, punctuation and spelling choices.

At Shaw-cum-Donnington Primary School we expect that by the end of Year 6 pupils will:

• Talk and perform confidently and fluently in a range of situations, using formal and standard

English as appropriate.

• Listen to and consider the views and opinions of others in discussions.
• Be confident to take risks in their reading and writing and love to discuss and share their ideas.
• Independently and confidently write for a range of purposes and audiences.
• Take pleasure in an increasingly wide range of texts and authors.
• Infer and deduce information such as characters’ feelings, thoughts and motives from their

actions using evidence from the text.

• Maintain legibility, fluency and speed in handwriting through choosing whether

or not to join specific letters.

• Proof-read and edit work in line with the Year 6 curriculum expectations for

spelling, grammar, punctuation and spelling choices.