English
English at Lockwood
One book, one pen, one child and one teacher can change the world’ – Malala Yousafzai
Intent
The teaching of English at Lockwood is designed to instill in children a love of speaking and listening, reading and writing that will last them a lifetime. Giving pupils the key skills in English enables them to access material in all curriculum areas, and provides a foundation for their learning throughout their school career. To achieve this, teachers are focussed on making English interesting and exciting, engaging the pupils with the joy and wonder of books and piquing their imagination and creativity. At Lockwood we view the teaching of English as a fundamental part of the holistic development of the pupil, fostering positive behaviours and attitudes toward learning, and providing key knowledge and skills, to benefit pupils throughout their education and beyond.
At Lockwood we know and understand our children. We have created a curriculum which is bespoke to our children and encourages them to become enthusiastic and engaged with English. We aim to develop pupils’ abilities within an integrated programme of Speaking & Listening, Reading, Writing & Vocabulary. Pupils will be given opportunities to interrelate the requirements of English within a broad and balanced approach to the teaching of English across the curriculum, with opportunities to consolidate and reinforce taught English skills. At Lockwood Primary School we are committed to providing rich and varied opportunities for children to become literate pupils. Through our English Curriculum, we strive to teach the children how important their reading, writing, speaking and listening skills will be in the real world. By giving this context to their learning, the children understand the value of English to them now, and in their futures. They can indeed aspire to be the best they can be.
We believe that a quality English curriculum should develop children’s love of reading, writing and oracy. We have a rigorous and well organised English curriculum that provides purposeful opportunities for reading, writing and discussion. Our curriculum closely follows the aims of the National Curriculum for English 2014 to enable all children to:
- 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.
These aims are embedded across our English curriculum and across the wider curriculum. We will provide the means for children to develop a secure knowledge-base in English, which follows a clear pathway of progression as they advance through the primary curriculum. Rigorous assessment and review will ensure that we are able to provide targeted support so that all children experience success in English; we believe that a secure basis in English skills is crucial to a high quality education and will give our children the tools they need to participate fully as a member of society.
Implementation
At Lockwood we want all of our pupils to be capable, skilled readers, writers, listeners and speakers, who can transfer their English skills to other curriculum subjects and who are prepared for the next steps in their education. Our English Curriculum places high quality texts by accomplished authors at the heart and aims to develop pupils’ spoken language, reading, writing, spelling, grammar and vocabulary. We teach our pupils to speak clearly, to convey their ideas fluently and confidently and to ask questions. We know the value of excellent vocabulary and this is developed and practised, modelled and applied across our curriculum. Our pupils are encouraged to read for pleasure and to read widely through our reading scheme, class readers and engaging classroom reading areas. Daily class reading sessions help to foster a love of reading throughout the school with teachers and pupils modelling the art of storytelling and Book Talk. School Librarians and Subject Ambassadors help to promote English and reading throughout school.
We use Read, Write Inc for our phonics programme. Read, Write, Inc is a focused teaching strategy that teaches children how the alphabet works for reading and spelling. It is taught as a discrete lesson daily where children are taught at the phonic stage they are at, with additional targeted support for identified pupils to ensure that all children make good progress in order to become fluent, competent and confident readers. 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.
Our shared reading sessions cover a wide variety of both fiction, poetry and non-fiction texts and help to advance the children’s comprehension skills focusing on the VIPERS Reading domains. Children learn to work on their retrieval and inference skills and become more fluent and confident at sharing their thoughts and ideas. Parents are also given reading guidance and clear expectations about reading at home.
Through quality first teaching, our children are provided with the opportunity to review, refine and develop skills, building writing stamina and developing experience in writing across a range of genres, for different audiences and purposes at the age expected standard and for some, at Greater Depth. To support children in moving towards independent writing, we provide a wide range of learning opportunities through the use of high quality texts, film and imagery, music, modelled, shared and guided writing, peer assessment, Drama and discussion. We provide varied and exciting opportunities for writing for purpose and we encourage pupils to see themselves as authors and poets. We promote the importance of written work by providing a writing purpose and opportunities for children’s writing to be read aloud and listened to by an audience. When planning English lessons, links to other areas of the curriculum are utilised providing further context for learning. Through our carefully planned Literary Curriculum, teaching and learning sequences enable pupils to ‘read as a writer and write as a reader’: exploring Fiction, non-fiction and poetry, in line with the National Curriculum, embedding comprehension, spelling, grammar and writing through sequential learning. Lesson sequences themselves build progressively towards an extended piece of writing across a range of genres and for a specific audience and purpose. Handwriting is also taught within English lessons and discreetly through the Letter Joins Scheme of work.
Assessment for Learning is embedded in English lessons and children are active in reviewing the successes in their work and identifying, with support from their teacher and through peer work, target areas for development to ensure a continuous and individualised approach to improving their work.
At Lockwood we welcome the opportunity to celebrate and promote English across the school through whole school community events such as our Get Caught Reading Challenge, Masked Reader, The Fantastic Book Awards, World Book Day, home reading awards, Whole school Poetry Slam and the Lockwood Laureate Award. To enrich the English curriculum, we ensure that children have access to writers and book illustrators from the local and wider community such as through Puffin Live events and visiting authors who act as positive role models for our budding scholars. Children also take part in poetry and creative writing competitions, which are celebrated in whole school assemblies.
Impact
The organisation of the English curriculum, has realised a community of enthusiastic readers and writers who enjoy showcasing their developing English knowledge and skills. Children are confident to take risks in their reading and writing, and love to discuss and share their ideas. Outcomes of work in both English and the wider curriculum evidence the high quality of work and the impact of varied and cross curricular writing opportunities. These enable children to write across a range of forms and adapt their writing successfully, considering the purpose.
At Lockwood we believe in using a wide range of assessment and observation evidence to ensure that pupil progress is carefully monitored and that any needs are identified and supported through robust and timely intervention to ensure that all children succeed in meeting their progress milestones. We utilise standardised, summative and teacher assessment to measure attainment against the Year group National Curriculum objectives, informing the next steps in a child’s learning journey.
NFER summative assessments for Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar and Reading are administered termly, with diagnostic analysis used to address any gaps through targeted teaching. Such information is used alongside teacher assessments to assess pupil attainment.
Termly pupil progress meetings, led by the English Lead, are carried out with year group teams to monitor data, discuss pupil progress and to identify barriers to learning, ensuring that any additional needs are identified and that support is successfully targeted so that all children make at least good progress or better.
Salford Reading tests are used to measure comprehension and reading age and to match independent reading books to the relevant Book Band.
Read, Write Inc assessments are implemented every 6 weeks (or sooner if need is identified). Sequential, targeted next steps in learning are then identified to ensured focussed and rigorous progress towards pupils’ milestones in reading.
Conducted by the English Lead, termly moderation meetings across the school ensure continuity and veracity of assessments for Writing through focussed discussion, scrutiny of evidence against writing assessment criteria and the agreement of next steps in learning. Lockwood has also been recently moderated in Year 6 for writing and Year 2 also. We also participate in cross-school writing moderation groups and attend LEA led Moderation training.
Statutory Assessments: Year 1 Phonic Screening; Year 2 National tests (SATs) and Phonic Screen for those pupils who did not pass in Year 1; Y6 national Statutory tests (SATs).
EYFS track pupil progress using assessment checkpoints at designated points through the year in order to ensure that children are on track.
Speaking and Listening at Lockwood Primary School
Intent:
Our Lockwood Curriculum is designed with the intent to maximise potential of all of our pupils; intellectually, socially, morally, emotionally and culturally. We take every opportunity to encourage a love for learning within all of our pupils, based around a resilience for learning and achieving greatness. Most importantly we allow our children to learn in a safe and stimulating environment, where their views are valued.
Speaking and listening is central to the Lockwood Curriculum and is developed from EYFS throughout our school, across the curriculum. We nurture children’s speaking and listening skills through a variety of approaches: exploratory play, story time, hot-seating and through collaborative learning. We develop these skills so that our children are capable of expressing their own ideas clearly and confidently, in a safe and supportive environment, in all aspects and areas of their school life and into their future.
Implementation:
All staff in our school model the use of higher-level vocabulary within their speech and expanding children’s vocabulary is a key focus from EYFS. Children and adults reflect on the use of language within the classroom and develop this further. Subject specific vocabulary is embedded across the curriculum, through teacher modelling, in context. Contextual learning helps children to understand new words and supports them in including them in their work. This model is reflected in shared reading sessions, where children are given the chance to explore unfamiliar vocabulary and expand their knowledge of words. We are keen to model the correct grammar in speech, for example using ‘we were’ instead of ‘we was’ and encourage children to reflect this in their use of spoken and written language. Children are given the chance to orally rehearse ideas for writing regularly.
Drama and discussion activities are used across the curriculum to explore and engage children in their learning. This gives children the chance to embed vocabulary in shared activities and connect the use of topic-specific language.
Our PSHE and SMSC curriculum, class assemblies and pupil voice groups such as School Councillors, Headstarters and Eco Champions promote an open forum for honest dialogue, where our children are encouraged to exchange ideas and opinions. Children are encouraged to ‘build’ on each other’s ideas, sift through different points of view and communicate their ideas, using ‘I agree with’ and ‘I disagree with’, to create discussion, rather than a debate. Above all, they try to understand each other and alternative points of view.
Impact:
Speaking and listening give us the basic skills we need to communicate with the world around us. Children are given a range of opportunities to develop these skills, in a safe and stimulating environment. The wide range of speaking and listening activities – which are weaved throughout our curriculum – help to develop ideas, vocabulary and confidence, as the more we talk, the more we pick up on different words that other people use. Our children are encouraged to express themselves sensitively and articulately with confidence.