English

INTENT

At Wallington Primary Academy, our intention is that all pupils are provided with an education, not only appropriate to their needs, but one which extends and develops their interests and abilities in English and raises standards. We are an inclusive school. We set high expectations and recognise the importance of accurate and regular assessment in order to support individuals at every part of their learning journey in whatever circumstances. 

At Wallington Primary Academy we: 

• Promote reading, alongside the teaching of high quality synthetic phonics, so that children read easily, fluently and with good understanding. 
• Develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information. 
• Teach children to acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language. 
• Teach children to appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage. 
• Provide children with the skills they need to write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences. 
• Promote the use of discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas. 
• Develop children’s speaking and listening skills so that they are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, engaging in drama based activity, demonstrating to others and participating in debate. 

IMPLEMENTATION

EYFS: 

Children experience a language rich environment, where the development of speaking and listening skills plays a central role in all learning. Reading is taught through sharing and enjoying a range of rhymes, songs and stories. Reading books are sent home on a twice-weekly basis. Reading groups are central to the week and differentiated phonics activities are planned for.  

Writing is taught through experiences that develop gross and fine motor skills. The children are immersed in a print rich environment with opportunities for oral language and written communication. Children are introduced to handwriting through a variety of hands-on activities. 

KS1: 

Children’s speaking and listening skills are developed within English lessons and through a range of cross-curricular activities such as drama. Reading is taught within daily phonics lessons, daily 1:1 reading and guided reading sessions and within topic lessons. Children take decodable reading books home from the reading scheme and are read with at least twice a week. Children are introduced to comprehension skills beginning with verbal comprehension in Year 1 and moving onto written responses in Year 2. A broad range of quality texts from a variety of authors are shared with the children through class novels and writing stimuli. Children benefit from the Talk Through Stories approach which celebrates the language of literature whilst deepening childrens' understanding of vocabulary and prosody.

Writing is taught within the daily teaching of phonics, spelling and English lessons linked to high quality texts which build up to writing through role play, analysis, planning, drafting and editing with a focus on grammatical awareness and punctuation skills. Handwriting is taught discretely focusing on fine motor activities and pre-cursive into cursive joins. 

KS2: 

Speaking and listening skills are developed at a deeper level and practiced across the curriculum, with children engaging in debates, presenting information and taking part in discussions that further their learning. Reading is taught through guided reading sessions based around high quality texts.  Reading journals allow pupils to comprehend key content whilst practising fluency. Children continue to take books from the reading scheme along with book corner books until they become fluent readers. Phonics continues to be embedded within our curriculum and in interventions to support developing readers. A variety of quality texts are used to help children develop an appreciation for reading during class novel time, guided reading and as a stimulus for writing.  

Writing is taught through exposure to a variety of genres, planned around a purpose for writing each half term. For example, to entertain. The children begin each genre by reading a range of example texts, discussion, analysis, planning, writing, proof-reading and editing. Spelling is taught through discrete ‘Spelling Shed’ sessions with handwriting embedded throughout. Punctuation and grammar objectives are usually taught within English sessions, linked to the genre.  

A faster feedback approach is used to assess and aid progress throughout the English curriculum. 

Impact 

We believe that language and literacy are fundamental to the overall development of the child and their access to the curriculum in all its aspects. We aim to deliver high quality teaching in reading, writing and speaking and listening skills to enable children to become confident and successful in all areas of English. We follow the National Curriculum, alongside other guidance, including Read, Write Inc, to enable quality learning and teaching to take place, including language rich texts which celebrate diversity. Our English units are embedded and where appropriate make cross curricular links. Some aspects are still taught discretely when needed for example Grammar, Punctuation, Spelling and Phonics.