English

What makes a good English pupil at All Saints?

A pupil who has passion for reading and writing, an ability to think and work independently, an ability to persevere, an enquiring mind, a good knowledge of grammar, an ability to share ideas, is able to attempt new things and explore creativity. The ability to articulate their thinking and ideas eloquently and to listen and respond aptly to their peers.

 

Why do we teach English?

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.

 

Aims of English curriculum

The overarching aim for English in the national curriculum is to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written language, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment. 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.

Reading

Reading is at the heart of All Saints school. We recognise that reading is an important life skill, but we also wish our children to leave the school with a love of reading that will stay with them for life.

Within class, children will read regularly, including through whole class guided reading sessions, where the children build up their VIPERS skills.

The children are also given opportunities to read independently regularly throughout the school day.

Children learn at different rates and we recognise that children will be at different points on their reading journey. To support them on this reading journey, children may be given additional 1:1 reading time with an adult or may take part in a small group intervention. Children from across the whole school may also have additional phonics support to support their class sessions.

At All Saints, we have recently introduced a new whole school library, with books which cater from 2 year olds in our nursery provision to competent Year 6 readers. The room is now a haven for those who love to read and provides an amazing selection of fiction and non-fiction for all age groups within the school. We have School Librarians who will look after the library and support children in choosing new books to read and checking them in and out.

Reading at home is important to each child’s progression. The children have access to high quality reading books used across school. We have books that are high interest for all abilities, and we match books that are sent home to phonemes learnt and ability so as to continue to support reading away from the classroom. Alongside this, each child can access online reading books through the use of Bug Club for EYFS and KS1 and Reading Plus for KS2 pupils.

 

Writing

We are following the Write Stuff approach across the school, building the language acquisition and modelling high quality writing from EYFS to Year 6. The Write Stuff is based on two guiding principles; teaching sequences that slide between experience days and sentence stacking lessons. With modelling at the heart of them, the sentence stacking lessons are broken into bite-sized chunks and taught under the structural framework of The Writing Rainbow. Teachers prepare children for writing by modelling the ideas, grammar or techniques of writing.

The core principles of this method of teaching are:

  • Pupils understand how to apply sentence scaffolds to their independent writing as they develop their expertise.
  • Standards improve because many worked examples are provided over the year that extend understanding through a wide range of genres and non-fiction text types.
  • Children have a clear view of what high quality writing looks like and their learning is structured clearly and misconceptions dealt with.
  • Pupils know how to improve their writing and make it more focussed and actionable feedback is provided to guide their learning.
  • Children have a concept of how to build, plan and complete a piece of writing due to narrative maps and non-fiction shapes.

In addition to this, extended writing opportunities are planned throughout the wider curriculum so that the children have more opportunities to work towards greater depth writing.

We know that some of the vocabulary around Primary English can be very confusing, so please click on the link below to see a handy jargon buster:

Jargon Buster

 

Handwriting

As a school, we follow the Letterjoin programme which allows children to build their fine motor skills in preparation for writing, gradually builds up letter formation, moving to cursive writing when appropriate and consolidating cursive writing throughout KS2.

LetterJoin

Spellings

Whilst we realise that spellings is only part of the writing process, we also realise how important it is in order to communicate effectively. Spellings continues to be a focus within school to improve both communication skills and to develop a wider vocabulary. We follow the Spelling shed approach which allows the children to build upon their phonics knowledge, while learning new spelling rules and year group spelling lists though a fun and engaging manner.

Spelling Shed

 

Oracy

We work closely with the Oracy charity, Voice 21 to provide our children with opportunities to develop their oracy skills. We believe that speaking and listening skills are fundamental to success in both learning and life. We provide high quality oracy teaching and learning as we believe that oracy, the ability to communicate effectively using spoken language, can bridge the disadvantage gap.

Voice21

Pupil Voice

“Reading helps our imagination to grow”- Emily Y6

“I love to experience stories I’ve never heard of before”- Ethan Y5

“I get to create writing which is thrilling and exciting, with story writing the possibilities are endless”- Matthew Y5

“We can’t learn if we can’t read”- Louis Y6

“I enjoy being able to develop my vocabulary” – Joel Y5

“I like when I read facts that I didn’t know”- Yanis Y3

“I love being able to share my writing with others in lessons”- Jacob Y5

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