English
Intent at Pott Shrigley Church school
At Pott Shrigley Church school, we believe that literacy and communication are key life skills. Through the English curriculum, we strive to help children develop the skills and knowledge that will enable them to communicate effectively and creatively through spoken and written language and equip them with the skills to become lifelong learners. Literacy is at the heart of all children’s learning. Literacy enables children both to communicate with others effectively for a variety of purposes and to examine their own and others’ experiences, feelings and ideas, giving these order and meaning. Because Literacy is central to children’s intellectual, emotional and social development it has an essential role across the curriculum at Pott Shrigley and helps pupils’ learning to be coherent and progressive.
At Pott Shrigley Church school we strive for all of our children to be literate. By the end of Year 6 we aim for all children to be able to:
• Be effective, competent communicators and good listeners;
• Express opinions, articulate feelings and formulate responses to a range of texts both fiction and non-fiction using appropriate technical vocabulary;
• Foster an interest in words and their meanings, and to develop a growing vocabulary in both spoken and written form;
• Have an interest in books and to read for enjoyment, engaging with and understanding a range of text types and genres;
• Be able to write in a variety of styles and forms showing awareness of audience and purpose;
• Develop powers of imagination, inventiveness and critical awareness in all areas of literacy;
• Use grammar and punctuation accurately;
• Understand spelling conventions;
• Produce effective, well-presented written work.
To instill a lifelong love for reading and writing, nurturing a curiosity and appreciation for language.
Implementation at Pott Srigley Church school
Reading
We have implemented the Reading Framework 2023 to guide our teaching of reading comprehension strategies, including inference, prediction and analysis.
• Through Ready Steady Phonics we wil ensure the systematic, synthetic phonics instruction to develop strong decoding skills and fluency in reading.
• Our reading curriculum encompasses a diverse range of texts, including fiction, non-fiction, poetry and digital media, catering to different interests and abilities.
• We target children working below the expected level daily and other children may only read with an adult once a week (they all read independently daily for 10 minutes).
• Regular guided reading sessions provide opportunities for teachers to support and assess students’ reading progress, offering targeted interventions as needed.
• We promote reading for pleasure through initiatives such as library visits, author visits, and reading challenges, encouraging students to explore a variety of genres and authors. We also ensure this is timetabled daily for every child and class.
Early Reading and Phonics
We believe that high quality teaching of Phonics is the key to developing independent readers and this is given the highest priority. We want ‘every child to be a reader’ and we implement a rigorous and sequential approach to developing speaking and listening and teaching reading, writing and spelling through systematic phonics.
Phonics is taught daily as a discrete lesson and we use Ready steady phonics as a core scheme to teach synthetic phonics which is multi-sensory, exciting and engaging. The Ready steady phonics sessions follow a set structure with a focus on reading, spelling and handwriting. During the Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 children develop their phonic knowledge and skills and apply these in both reading and spelling. As developing readers, children are encouraged to use a wider range of strategies to aid decoding of text and to enhance their understanding of material across a range of genre.
Children are assessed every 6 weeks using the ready steady phonics assessment grids in order to track progress and plan early intervention when needed.
Writing
At Pott Shrigley Church school, we work hard to make sure that children have a love of books and literature and we are very proud that so many of our children enjoy reading. Each class, from Reception to Year 6, will study a different class text each half-term and this is supported by the Read to Write programme. These high-quality texts are used throughout our English lessons and, where possible, link to other curriculum areas.
Read to Write (Literacy Counts) provides high-quality teaching of writing through high-quality literature. From Reception to Year 6, these detailed units of work centre on engaging, vocabulary-rich texts, with a wealth of writing opportunities within and across the curriculum. They also provide clear, sequential episodes of learning; contextualised spelling, grammar and punctuation; wider reading for the wider curriculum; curriculum enrichments for all year groups; model texts linked to writing outcomes and a wealth of supporting resources.
Grammar, Punctuation and Vocabulary
Teachers understand, teach and demonstrate in their everyday practice the formal conventions of Standard English language. They emphasise their importance to meaning and effect. Teaching in all areas forms part of everyday English lessons, whether discrete or in active context and is developed across all areas of the wider curriculum.
Spoken Language
At Pott Shrigley Church school, we believe that speaking and listening form the foundations of all learning in English. In formal and informal situations, we create and facilitate opportunities for conversation, discussion and talk around learning. Questioning forms the basis of teaching and we strongly encourage pupils to be inquisitive and to share their thoughts confidently in a supportive environment.
Spellings
In order to ensure coverage of the statutory requirements for the National Curriculum, we follow the Twinkl spelling programme. Children are assigned spellings weekly in line with their year group and ability. They will then use the SpellingFrame platform to practise these both at home and in school. Children are assigned spellings on Spelling frame which apply to the rule they have been learning in school. There are weekly tests to assess the progress that children are making towards these spellings. It is
the teacher’s judgement on how long a class spends on a spelling rule and how many spellings they take home to learn.
Handwriting
Alongside Ready, steady phonics handwriting development, we teach twice weekly handwriting lessons to support our pupils with learning cursive writing. This is timetabled for Children from Year 1 and twice weekly practise enables transferable skills across the curriculum.
Impact at Pott Shrigley Church school
Throughout each lesson, formative assessment takes place and feedback is given to the children through verbal feedback, marking and next step tasks to ensure they are meeting the specific learning objectives taught. Teacher’s then use this assessment to influence their planning and ensure they are providing an English curriculum that will allow each child to progress. The teaching of English is also monitored on a termly basis through annual book scrutinies, learning walks and lesson observations.