English

Subject Leader - Mrs G Price & Miss J Spencer

Intent

At St. Andrew’s Benn, we believe that our text-driven English curriculum, which is personalised to meet the needs of the children in our school, enables them to develop a love of reading, provides them with opportunities to explore and make comparisons between a range of authors, genres and styles of writing, and develops their spoken language and vocabulary. Alongside this, our fidelity to a high-quality phonics programme ensures that our children develop their fluency so that they can access a range of reading materials. We regularly evaluate and make changes to this curriculum to incorporate new high-quality texts, to ensure the texts and authors are engaging and relevant and to check we are consistently meeting the needs of the children in our school.

These aims are embedded across our English, Reading, Spelling and Phonics lessons and the wider curriculum. We provide children with the tools they need to become ‘readers’ and ‘writers’ as they follow the clear pathway of progression that has been mapped out in our English curriculum. Rigorous assessments, moderation, monitoring and staff training ensure that we provide targeted support so that all children are successful in English. We know that a high quality English education will give our children the tools they need to access other areas of the curriculum and have high aspirations for their future.

Implementation

At St. Andrew’s Benn, we use the Read Write Inc. phonics scheme to teach early reading. All staff in EYFS and Key Stage 1, and all Key Stage 2 teaching assistants and Year 3 and 4 teachers have received comprehensive Read, Write, Inc. training from a qualified Read, Write, Inc. trainer. In addition to this, the reading lead monitors the teaching of phonics and early reading and the progress of children to ensure staff are equipped to teach with the expertise and skills required to promote excellent progress, as well as a love of reading. Areas for development are identified and staff are given the appropriate training to address any gaps in their knowledge.

When children have completed the RWI programme (this will usually be towards the end of Key Stage one, however we assess children on a half-termly basis and move with the needs of the children) and are fluent readers, they further develop their comprehension skills through whole class reading. During these sessions, children are presented with a range of age appropriate texts and extracts which will challenge them, enable them to develop their reading skills and further build a love of reading. At this time, children also move on to learning to spell using the Literacy Shed spelling scheme. This scheme teaches children specific spelling rules and patterns which are supported by the fact that they can access the games and activities of this from home. Class teachers also set children personalised spelling activities to complete at home to further develop their spelling skills.

Some children in Key Stage 2, who require it, continue to learn to read and spell through the Read, Write, Inc. scheme. For some, this is the original Read, Write, Inc. scheme, however, those in from Year 4-6 may attend Read, Write, Inc. Fresh Start (a rapid, learning to read phonics programme) lessons to learn to read.

At St Andrew’s Benn, we have an extensive reading spine which incorporates a vast range of texts and authors to ensure our children are exposed to a range of high-quality literature. Children have S.T.A.R. time (Stop Tasks and Read) at least three times per week, which is when their class teacher reads to them. The texts used during this time are either taken from our reading spine, are chosen by the class teacher, or are voted for by the class. As well as this, each class was assigned a class author so that they can start to build links between books by the same author.

To further develop the reading for pleasure element of our English curriculum and to ensure all children in our school have access to books at home, each child in our school is given an age-appropriate book for their birthday. As well as this, we run a monthly ‘Reading Café’ where children and their parents/guardians meet in the hall to read together whilst enjoying refreshments. They can then take several books home with them to keep.

All English lessons are planned around a high-quality, age-appropriate text. These are sometimes linked to their Curriculum theme, but this is only when a suitable text has been identified. Teaching blocks focus on fiction, non-fiction or poetry (though children are taught that there are no finite lines between these and in fact, they are linked), in line with the 2014 National Curriculum. Grammar and punctuation is taught through these Literacy lessons with children being taught these skills at the beginning of the lesson and through the shared and modelled writing, linked to the text they are reading for Literacy. There is no set time frame teachers will spend on any English unit; instead they plan to meet the needs of the children in their class. During an English unit, children are taught the skills to enable them to write for a range of purposes and are given the necessary experiences to enable them to meet their full potential. During their English unit and throughout other areas of the Curriculum, children are given opportunities to complete incidental pieces of writing, linked to ones they have previously been taught. Handwriting teaching begins in the early years with teachers planning activities for children to develop their gross and fine motor skills. We follow the Nelson scheme of handwriting; children have weekly handwriting lessons and are expected to apply the skills learnt in these sessions in all their written work.

To further enrich the English curriculum, the whole school works on the same text three times per year. Although the main focus of this is English, children complete cross-curricular work which, along with their writing, they produce for display. This means they produce polished pieces of work and as a school, we can celebrate progression in writing and other subjects.

Assessment for Learning is embedded in English lessons and children are active in reviewing the successes in their work and that of their peers. With guidance from their teacher, they identify areas for development and then edit and improve their work.

Impact

The organisation of the English curriculum at St Andrew’s Benn is developing a community of enthusiastic readers. Children demonstrate that they are taught the required skills to be able to fluently read, comprehend and enjoy a range of texts. They are competent readers who can recommend books to their peers, have a thirst for reading a range of genres, and participate in discussions about books, including evaluating an author’s use of language and the impact this can have on the reader. They can also read books to enhance their knowledge and understanding of all subjects in the curriculum, and communicate their research to a wider audience.

In writing, pupils make at least good progress from their own personal starting points. Outcomes of work in Theme books evidence the progress children are making and impact of children’s exposure to a range of texts, the experiences they are given and the varied and cross curricular writing opportunities. These enable children to write across a range of forms and adapt their writing successfully, considering the purpose. By the end of Year Six, children will be able to write clearly and accurately and adapt their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences. Pupils will acquire a wide vocabulary and have a strong command of the written word. Most importantly, they will develop a love of writing and be well equipped for the rest of their education.

Read, Write, Inc. Fresh Start

Read, Write, Inc. Fresh Start is a phonics based reading programme that we use to teach some children to read in Years 4, 5 and 6. It has been specially written for children aged 9 and above and uses phonics, alongside age-appropriate texts which engage children and build their confidence. We have several members of staff who are trained to deliver this.

To find out more about Read, Write, Inc. Fresh Start, please watch the video below.

Reading Spines

Library

We are lucky to have a beautiful and well-stocked library and each class is given the opportunity to visit each week. Children are allowed to borrow one book per week which they can take home to share with an adult or their siblings. As a school, we continuously promote 'Reading for Pleasure' and as part of this, children are frequently asked about what books they would like us to purchase for the library. Each month we promote an author of the month so that we can introduce children to as many new authors as possible.

SAB Reading Champions!

All children at St Andrew’s Benn CofE Primary School are expected to complete their home reading 5 times per week (they can choose any 5 days of the week to do this). We reward those children who do complete their reading homework and get their diary signed by an adult.

If children read 5 times in one week, they will earn a special ‘Reading Star’ sticker.

If children read 5 times per week for 5 weeks of a half term, they will be invited to listen to stories and eat ice cream with Miss Spencer- yummy!

If they read 5 times over 10 weeks of the term, they will be allowed to choose and order a new book from Amazon which they will be allowed to take home.

We will only consider reading homework to have been completed if an adult has signed the blue reading diary.