English

Intent

We believe that a quality English curriculum should develop children’s love of reading, writing and discussion. By the time children leave Kingsway Primary School, we expect them to have developed the life skills needed to communicate effectively and with confidence through speaking and listening, writing, reading fluently.

We aim to inspire an appreciation of our rich and varied literary heritage and develop a habit of reading widely and often.

We recognise the importance of nurturing a culture where children take pride in their writing, can write clearly and accurately and are able to adapt their language and style for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences. We want pupils to acquire a wide vocabulary, a solid understanding of grammar and be able to spell new words by applying their knowledge of spelling patterns and rules. We believe that all good writers refine and edit their writing, so we want children to develop independence in being able to identify their own areas for improvement.

We want to inspire children to be confident in the art of speaking and listening and develop children who can use discussion to communicate and further their learning.

We believe that children need to develop a secure knowledge-base in English, which follows a clear pathway of progression as they advance through the primary curriculum.

It is our aim that throughout their school journey and upon leaving year six,

Children see writing to as an essential life skill.
Children understand the relevance of writing to their future.
Children write with a purpose and enjoy writing though creativity and for an audience.
Each child develops the necessary Vocabulary, Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling skills to be the best writer they can be.
Each child is a confident and successful writer.
Children enjoy and engage with, a range of text types and genres.
Children read for both enjoyment and to develop their knowledge.
Children can read with fluency and expression.
Children are independent readers with the ability to question and infer.
Children foster an interest in words and their meanings, and develop an extended vocabulary in both spoken and written form.
Children can express opinions, articulate feelings and formulate responses.

Every Child, Every Chance, Every Day.

Implementation

Reading

At Kingsway Primary School children regularly access a wide range of reading opportunities that include:

Guided reading
Regular independent reading
Home/school reading, through scheme books
Use of the school library and local library visits
Audio Books
Class reading areas that include access to journals, comics and magazines
Paired reading and reading buddies
Hearing texts read aloud, and modelled by a teacher, on a daily basis
Reading in other subjects through a range of texts and including the use of technology

In Early Years and Key Stage 1 children learn to read effectively and quickly using the RWI programme. Click here for more information about our approach for the teaching of Phonics and Early Reading.

They progress into guided reading once they can read with accuracy and speed. Early comprehension skills are developed through story times and small comprehension sessions. These are further supported using Chatta to share stories and make inferences as a class, in small groups or on a one to one basis. Children read books that are closely matched to their increasing knowledge of phonics and the common exception words. Children read books from the reading scheme in school. Re-reading and discussing these books with the teacher supports their decoding.

Developing Comprehension (Guided Reading)

This AREA is UNDER REVIEW and WILL BE UPDATED SOON

Writing

We provide a wide range of well - planned opportunities for children to develop their writing skills. We ensure that activities are purposeful and linked to other curriculum areas which provide contexts for children to apply their skills, endeavouring to ensure real audiences as often as possible. Our learning objectives are taken from the National Curriculum which we use to support our planning of the teaching sequence; ensuring children develop their writing skills across a wide range of genres. A range of techniques are used in the teaching of writing, including:

Hooks for writing
Chatta
Colourful Semantics
Cold writes
Hot writes
Drama and role play
Film and digital images and technology
Application of phonics
Application of spelling rules

All children are involved in daily English lessons. These lessons follow a writing sequence. In Early Year and Key Stage 1, Chatta is used as a “hook” for writing. The writing process starts with visual cues and allow the children to orally compose their sentences, using previous knowledge including songs and actions for SPAG. This eventually transfers into a written piece. There will be modelled/ shared writing activities throughout this process. These pieces are then edited both with the teacher and independently.

For Key Stage 2, the writing sequence starts with a “hook” for writing. This allows for children to activate their prior knowledge. Once children are hooked, children complete a cold write. A cold write involves children completing a writing task without prior teaching and modelling. Children are required to apply previously taught skills and knowledge to complete the task, without prompts and reminders from the teachers. From this targets are set for the unit. The features of each genre are explored and taught in more detail. SPAG is planned throughout the unit of writing. Children will plan their own piece of independent writing and teachers will model/share writing during the writing sequence. Once any misconceptions are re-taught, the children will plan, draft and edit a fully independent piece of writing that will be assessed by the teacher at the end of the unit.

The writing sequence allows children the opportunities to write for a sustained amount of time to develop both speed and flow through their writing, and to give time to evaluate and edit their work. Staff within school provide opportunities for children to respond to marking and feedback using blue pens to edit and improve their work. Teachers use open questioning to encourage children to think and explain. Teachers invite responses to class discussion in a range of ways in order to promote participation including, but not limited to, talk partners, allowing for children to explore and extend their ideas. Children are encouraged to independently find evidence in their work using a bronze, silver and gold grid which they use to self and peer review.

Assessment for learning will inform planning, ensuring that children are working on areas of need and giving enhancements to challenge children further. Talk4writing principles and activities are incorporated into lessons when appropriate, to develop and improve sentence structure and vocabulary choices.

Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPAG)

In order to maintain accuracy within children’s writing, SPAG feeds into all lessons across the curriculum. Within the reading sequence, vocabulary is taught in all lessons, based on the text the children are working with. Within the writing sequence, SPAG is planned into lessons, based on the assessment of work. Vocabulary toolkits are used within Theme lessons to ensure children are spelling topic specific words correctly, increasing their understanding of words used and improving their vocabulary range. Teachers follow the year group expectations for VGPS, and ensure children are given opportunities to apply their SPAG knowledge within all elements of writing.

Children are taught spellings each day using the RWI Spelling Programme. Click here for more information about our approach for the teaching of spelling.

Please click on the documents below to access the long-term plans for each year group:

Handwriting

It is important children write correctly at an early age. The school aims to develop a fluent and legible handwriting style for all children. Please support school and help to avoid your child getting into bad habits which are often difficult to correct later on. When writing, children's posture should be emphasised from an early age and for this in school we use the acronym 'BBC' which stands for bottoms, and backs on chairs!

How we teach Handwriting

The photo grid below documents our Extreme Reading Challenges.