English

English at Buntingford First School encourages students to read widely for pleasure and, ultimately, to use literature as a gateway to access the world and its different viewpoints and perspectives.  Our aim is to develop analytical reading and critical thinking skills that will enable students to discover, evaluate and critique the texts that they engage with.  Moreover, we'll strive to build a fluency in written and oral communication so that students are equipped to explore and present their thoughts, feelings and viewpoints and to produce students who have the confidence, articulacy, creativity and skills to contribute to their societies.

Why is English important?

English forms the basis for our development, relationships, and our understanding of the world around us. The study of English is key to our personal growth and, through the development of effective written and spoken communication, it is the foundation for all our learning. All the skills of language are essential to participating fully as a member of society; pupils who do not learn to speak, read, and write fluently and confidently are effectively disenfranchised.

Our English curriculum is developed to equip our pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written word, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for pleasure. Only by immersing our pupils in rich reading materials can they develop their own language capacities – the depth of their vocabulary, their handling of grammatical structures, their comprehension skills, their ability to write with a strong voice, and with confidence. Our curriculum supports students in becoming effective communicators who understand the need to adjust the language they use to meet different contexts.

When is English taught?

We want our children to become enthusiastic, lifelong readers and writers, and we know that phonic provides the foundation for this. The ‘Little Wandle: Letters and Sounds Revised’ is our chosen systematic synthetic phonic programme (SSP). Regular training and development days ensure that staff are equipped to teach with the expertise and skills required to promote excellent progress, as well as a love of reading for all.

In our EYFS, the development of children’s spoken language underpins all seven areas of learning and development. Children’s back-and-forth interactions from an early age form the foundations for language and cognitive development. The number and quality of the conversations they have with adults and peers throughout the day in a language-rich environment is crucial. By commenting on what children are interested in or doing, and echoing back what they say with new vocabulary added, practitioners will build children's language effectively.

Reading frequently to children, and engaging them actively in stories, non-fiction, rhymes, and poems, and then providing them with extensive opportunities to use and embed new words in a range of contexts, will give children the opportunity to thrive. Through conversation, storytelling and role play, where children share their ideas with support and modelling from their teacher, and sensitive questioning that invites them to elaborate, children become comfortable using a rich range of vocabulary and language structures.

In Nursery, children are exposed to a language-rich environment. Adults take every opportunity to support children’s language development, through regular conversations and activities to promote talk. After their settling-in period, children have a daily rhyme time phonics lesson. In this short, focused lesson, children learn nursery rhymes and early reading skills such as syllables in words, rhyme, and alliteration. In addition to this, children engage in adult-led activities where they explore and play with sounds. This helps them to learn their initial sounds and how to correctly say each sound. Children also learn to orally blend sounds to prepare them for reading. Reading is a key part of our day in nursery and always cherished. Children are given direct access to our core texts and props, to encourage and enable retelling.

In Reception, children have daily phonic lessons. The Early Year’s Environment is language-rich and there are plentiful opportunities in their Child Initiated Learning which are literacy-based to enable them to build on and extend their comprehension, speaking, word reading and writing skills. This occurs inside as well as in the outside learning environment.

In addition to this, any reception children who have gaps in their phonic knowledge when reading or writing, will receive phonic ‘catch-up’ lessons to address specific reading/writing gaps. These short, sharp lessons last 20 minutes and take place at least three times a week. These children will also engage in practice reading sessions three times weekly. Each reading practice session has a clear focus, so that the demands of the session do not overload the children’s working memory. The reading practice sessions have been designed to focus on three key reading skills:

• decoding
• prosody: teaching children to read with understanding and expression
• comprehension: teaching children to understand the text.

In KS1 and KS2, the children receive a daily English lesson which uses a book as the core context for learning. It is through these lessons that the children are exposed to the reading, writing and grammatical elements of the National Curriculum.

In addition to this, any child in KS2 who has gaps in their phonic knowledge when reading or writing, will receive phonic ‘catch-up’ lessons to address specific reading/writing gaps. These short, sharp lessons last 20 minutes and take place at least three times a week. These children will also engage in practice reading sessions three times weekly. Each reading practice session has a clear focus, so that the demands of the session do not overload the children’s working memory. The reading practice sessions have been designed to focus on three key reading skills:

• decoding
• prosody: teaching children to read with understanding and expression
• comprehension: teaching children to understand the text.

From Year 2 onwards, when children have completed the phonic programme, they develop deeper reading skills and further investigate spelling strategies. Children receive a spelling lesson once a week whereby a new spelling rule is investigated and then further spelling practice sessions throughout the week allow them to consolidate this learning. Children learn their spellings both in school and at home. Handwriting is taught discretely, and teachers promote a high level of pride and presentation across all written outcomes in every subject.

Every class has regular access to the library which has an up-to-date selection of books to provide quality reading materials for all children in order to promote reading for enjoyment. As well as this, all children have opportunities for regular independent reading in class and the chance to enjoy a daily story time session together.

 

How is English taught?

By placing books at the core, we are allowing teachers to use the text as the context for the requirements of the national curriculum. The national curriculum states that:

‘‘This guidance is not intended to constrain or restrict teachers’ creativity, simply to provide the structure on which they can construct exciting lessons.’

This would suggest that a context for learning is vital – and this is where our chosen approach can support teachers with ensuring that objectives for reading and writing, including those for grammar can have purpose.

We will always aim for our writing opportunities to be meaningful and to feel authentic. Whether these are short or long and that the audience is clear. Books offer this opportunity: our aim would be that that children have real reasons to write, whether to explain, persuade, inform, or instruct and that where possible, this can be embedded within text or linked to a curriculum area. Writing in role using a range of genres is key to our approach and we will always model the tone and level of formality required. This sits comfortably alongside the following statement from the English national curriculum:

‘The national curriculum for English aims to ensure that all pupils write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences.’

Through using The Literacy Tree, we have mapped the coverage of the entire English Programme of Study for KS1 and KS2 for Writing and Reading Comprehension, as well as meeting the needs of the statutory 2021 Early Years Framework. In many cases, objectives are covered more than once and children have opportunities to apply these several times over the course of a year, as well as to consolidate prior knowledge from previous years. This approach supports children to think deeply and develop skills with depth. Where needed, planning sequences are adapted, personalised, and differentiated to ensure all children can enjoy and achieve.

We provide children with various events and plentiful opportunities throughout the school year to develop their love for reading, writing and to develop their speaking and listening skills:

• National Story-Telling Week
• Mystery Readers
• World Book Day
• Visits to our local library
• Librarian visits
• Local poetry competitions
• Roald Dahl Day
• Workshops for parents to support with early reading development
• The chance to present in assemblies
• The chance to perform in school concerts/plays
• Presentations to other members of the school (school election process)

 

How do we assess and monitor English?

Assessment is used to monitor progress and to identify any child needing additional support as soon as they need it. Teachers use assessment for learning in the classroom daily to identify children who need further support within a particular topic or for a specific skill. In the Early Years, children are assessed against the Development Matters statements document working towards the statutory Early Learning Goals which a child is expected to achieve by the end of Reception. Alongside Development Matters, teachers use their professional judgement to ensure provision matches the correct level of challenge.

Progress in Early Reading is assessed and monitored through use of the ‘Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised’ assessments. This allows the gaps in phonic knowledge to be identified and then catch-up sessions planned accordingly. Progress is monitored weekly in ‘Review’ lessons which allows teachers to identify gaps from that week and therefore address them immediately in order to secure fluency of GPCs, words, and spellings. Summative assessments also take place every six weeks to assess progress, to identify gaps in learning that need to be addressed, to identify any children needing additional support and to plan the keep-up support that they need.

In KS1 and KS2, progress in writing is assessed within a topic by the completion of a ‘cold’ and ‘hot’ task. At the start of a new writing unit, the children will complete a ‘cold’ task to show what they already know about writing in the style of a particular genre. At the end of the writing unit, the children will then complete their ‘hot’ task. This will enable them to use and apply the skills they have learned within that unit to an independent piece of writing.

We use Herts for Learning to assess our children each term formally.  HfL TAFs are used to support assessments in all year groups.  We assess the pupil’s depth of understanding each half term and use this to forecast as to whether pupils are on track to meet our curriculum expectations for the end of the milestone.