ENGLISH
Introduction/Rationale
English has a pre-eminent place in education and in society. A high-quality education in English will teach pupils to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others and through their reading and listening, others can communicate with them. Through reading in particular, pupils have a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. Literature, especially, plays a key role in such development. Reading also enables pupils both to acquire knowledge and to build on what they already know. All the skills of language are essential to participating fully as a member of society; pupils, therefore, who do not learn to speak, read and write fluently and confidently are effectively disenfranchised.
Skills
We want to develop the children’s ability to:
Read and write with confidence, fluency and understanding, using a range of independent strategies to self-monitor and correct.
Express opinions, articulate feelings and formulate responses to a range of texts both fiction and non-fiction using appropriate technical vocabulary.
To be able to write in a variety of styles and forms showing awareness in all areas of literacy.
Use grammar and punctuation accurately.
Understand spelling conventions.
Produce effective, well-presented written work.
Planning, Organisation, Delivery and Structure
All planning meets statutory requirements for the teaching and learning of English as laid out in the National Curriculum English Document (2014). The school have adopted the ‘Read to Write’ scheme which covers a range of genres and cover grammar and spelling objectives.
All children have daily English Lessons which have an emphasis on real texts and include contextual teaching of spelling, grammar, handwriting and punctuation. Additional English sessions include guided and independent reading with English skills further developed across the curriculum. Provision is made for children who require extra support through intervention programmes and differentiated class teaching.
All texts used throughout school are carefully planned according to the age and stage of the year group. All ‘real texts’ used have been chosen for their high quality language and their ability to engage children as readers and writers.
Speaking and Listening
The Four strands of Speaking and Listening: Speaking; Listening; Group Discussion and Interaction, and Drama permeate the whole curriculum. Interactive teaching strategies are used to engage all pupils in order to raise reading and writing 4 Subject Policy standards. Children are encouraged to develop effective communication skills in readiness for later life.
Reading
Teachers model reading strategies during shared reading sessions, whilst children have the opportunity to develop reading strategies and to discuss texts in detail. Whole Class Guided Reading provides time for assessment. Each Whole Class Guided Reading session within a class will be a teacher led session and happen a minimum of three times per week. The children will answer a range of questions based on the piece of text they have read which will cover all the content domains. Thelwall Community Junior School is following the ‘Steps to Read’ scheme which ensures progression within and across year groups.
Children who require additional support in reading, as identified through assessment, will be given a licence to access Reading Plus which is a reading programme designed to provide differentiated personalised learning which targets skills gaps and increased fluency leading to accelerated progress. Reading Plus can be accessed from home and has a recommended usage of sixty minutes per week.
In Key Stage 2 children choose books to take home and read which are suited to their national curriculum reading level. Class libraries are well organised and accessible to all children. Books may be grouped by author, genre, recommended reads etc. depending on year group and genre currently being covered. Each class has a text for the half term that English will be taught through. These books are celebrated within the class library and classroom environment. Please find below examples of questions you can ask your children based on their year group.
Writing
We aim to develop the children’s ability to produce well structured, detailed writing in which the meaning is made clear and which engages the interest of the reader. Attention is paid throughout the school to the formal structures of English, grammatical detail, punctuation and spelling. Teachers model writing strategies and the use of phonics and spelling strategies in shared writing sessions through the use of the ‘Read to Write’ scheme. Each session has been carefully crafted to ensure the curriculum objectives are met and progressed throughout the year.