English
Let us remember: one book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world.
- Malala Yousafzei
We believe that the ability to read and write is the life-blood of learning. Equipped with this vital knowledge, our pupils will be able to understand and express themselves effectively. Our academy passionately believes that we are the starting point for engendering a life-long love of literature and the creative expression that writing offers us. This said, the technical knowledge of successful reading and writing is of utmost importance and forms the basis of all teaching and learning.
Reading
The reading journey of our learners is carefully curated by knowledgeable staff and leaders. The road to reading is long and varied with learners beginning at the point of interpretation of single letter shapes and associated sounds and moving through to becoming discerning readers using their knowledge for their own reading pleasure or further accumulation of subject knowledge. By the end of their primary school journey, we want to have fostered a life-long love of reading that will open the door to a multitude of pathways and experiences of discovery.
Reading Lessons
Children are also taught in individual and guided reading sessions, led by an adult. Teachers select texts carefully, linking these to other areas of the curriculum or chosen for their ability to engage or inspire the reader and these are shared with the whole class. Initial phonics teaching sessions focus on the decoding of letters as symbols and words as children learn to read. The focus shifts towards the children’s understanding and appreciation of the texts they are reading as they become more fluent readers and they begin to develop the skills of retrieval, explanation of authorial intent, inference, prediction and summarising. In guided reading sessions, children may be sharing a book, poem, newspaper article or any other text relevant to their year group curriculum or expansion of their reading world. This enables the children to read, listen and really understand the meaning of the texts. It is also an important opportunity for children to share their thoughts and ideas and to learn from one another.
Shared texts
Class novels are also read to the children regularly. These texts are chosen to expand the horizons of the children through the content or viewpoint they offer, with the reading process modelled and guided by the teacher.
Reading at home
Children are encouraged to read books targeted to their reading level to help the development of their reading and to select books that interest them to read with parents at home. Teachers use reading records to monitor engagement with reading at home. Children and parents are encouraged to read at home on a daily basis and to have conversations about what they have been reading. We want this time to show children that reading can be an enjoyable, shared activity that stimulates conversation as well as ensuring that children have a good understanding of what they have read and supporting them to decode the words.
Assessment
The assessment of reading is a constant and ongoing process that happens in many different forms:
* Teachers hear children read. This could be taking place one to one, on an individual basis (e.g. from a reading book at their level of understanding, from class work as teachers support at the point of learning), or through children reading aloud to the class (e.g. text on an interactive whiteboard during a lesson, from a class reading text).
* Teachers watch children when they are reading. They support and guide children when they read: noting habits, asking questions and assessing book choices with the children.
* In phonics, assessment takes place during daily lessons and with summative assessments at key points every term.
* Star reader – from year 2 and throughout KS2, children take star reader assessments 4 times a year (September baseline, term 2, term 4 and term 6). Reports generate pictures of the children as readers and support identification of children’s needs.
* Reading lessons – teachers select texts and questions that assess pupils’ articulation of their understanding of specific texts and reading abilities, both written and orally.
Using tests and teacher assessments we track all children’s progress in reading. Children not on-track to achieve the ‘expected’ level for their age are quickly identified. These children may begin to read every day for a short time with an adult in school or they may be placed on our ‘Rapid Reading’ intervention.
Writing
Teachers plan stimulating and engaging experiences to encourage the children’s writing, from finding giants’ footprints in the classroom, to investigations of who was to blame for the sinking of the Titanic. These are all designed to give a ‘real’ context and purpose to writing.
Writing lesson objectives are planned for the explicit teaching of spelling, punctuation and grammar to ensure that the technical elements of writing develop as the children progress through the school, whilst always focussing on the quality and content of the children’s writing. Children are encouraged to make links between reading and writing, using techniques and skills employed by authors of texts they have read. They also make links between writing and speaking, working hard to understand the differences in the language used for both. The publishing of work is often linked to performance, whereby our children have the opportunity to perform aspects of their writing and develop their abilities in both speaking and listening.
Writing is taught as a process:
* First, we think about why we are writing and what the purpose is.
* Then, we consider who we are writing for.
* After that, it is time to look at the type of writing we need to achieve our purpose.
* We collect and share ideas about the language and style of writing.
* We plan what we want to do at each stage of our piece.
* We draft and write down all the ideas that bursting from our heads.
* Next, we go back and look for what we are proud of. We then edit our work to try and make all of it as good as those best parts.
* When we think it is as good as we can get it, then we publish. This could be a letter in our neatest handwriting or a speech performed to a camera or audience.
Spelling
Spelling is a key part of both reading and writing. It supports the development of new vocabulary and teaches spelling patterns found within the English language and words that do not always follow a rule.
Our teachers use the Read Write Inc spelling programme from year 2 through to year 6. Employing the Read Write Inc. approach provides consistency of teaching from reception to year 6. Teachers and support staff trained in the Read Write Inc. phonics programme use the identification of phoneme-grapheme correspondence to assist the teaching of spelling and can update their training and skills using the online training resources from the Read Write Inc online subscription. Lessons use engaging characters and interactive elements. Clear and well-structured lessons and support materials provide teachers and children with consistent approach to the learning of spelling.
Assessment
In school we use ‘quality marking’ to ensure that children gain a good understanding of the things they are doing well and what they need to improve. This is achieved through our ‘Yippee Yellow and Green For Growth’ highlighting process. The strengths of the writing are highlighted in yellow and the areas for development in green. The children are taught how to edit and improve their writing. Teachers make detailed assessments of children’s writing and, in conjunction with the child, identify individual targets for further improvement and development. Parents are encouraged to help with their child’s writing development by helping their children to write for different purposes at home and by supporting in written homework tasks.