Writing.

Intent.

We aim to ensure that by the end of Y6, our pupils:

• have developed a love of writing and acquired the skills they need for life beyond school;
• are able to express their thoughts and ideas clearly, through the written word;
• are able to write effectively for a range of audiences with clear purpose;
• have developed a wide range of vocabulary, which supports both their written and spoken language.

Implementation:

• The teaching of English is structured from the National Curriculum and we use a variety of materials to enhance the delivery of quality teaching – see the Curriculum Progression for Writing
• We believe that reading feeds into writing and use a wide range of high quality and diverse reading materials to inspire writing.
• We adopt a cross curricular approach to writing, taking opportunities to make meaningful links with other curriculum areas and creating a clear purpose and audience for writing.
• We encourage creative responses to texts, through drama, art, speaking and listening activities.
• Children are given opportunities to develop their own authorial voice, within a range of genres, through a carefully planned teaching sequence for writing:

immerse – analyse - skills – plan – write – review.

• We have a school-wide system of explicitly teaching spelling, using phonics, etymology and morphology, introducing new spellings and working on them little and often in three 20-minute spelling sessions per week. Children who require additional support with spelling and phonics make access phonics support (using the Little Wandle school) or may work in small targeted spelling intervention groups.
• We follow the Sheffield Structure handwriting scheme.

Impact:

• children will have a lifelong love of writing;
• children will be able to express their thoughts and ideas through the written word, writing fluently and with accuracy;
• children will use their experience as readers to develop their own authorial voice;
• data will reflect the children’s progress in writing.

Reading.

Reading is the key to unlocking most of the curriculum and is essential for developing vocabulary, knowledge and understanding of the world, as well as speaking and listening.

Intent. 

We aim to ensure that by the end of Y6, our pupils:

have developed a love of reading and become lifelong readers, with the skills they need for life beyond school;

have learnt the decoding, fluency and comprehension skills they need to access a wide range of texts;

have been exposed to a broad, rich and diverse range of quality reading texts, enabling them to develop a strong repertoire of vocabulary and understanding of language;

have been exposed to a variety of texts and authors, giving them a good understanding of different genres and text types;

           Every year, we invest in our classroom libraries to ensure that children can access a range of excellent books for personal reading. Our class libraries all contain copies of at least 100 books that have been chosen as excellent reads for Y3/4 and Y5/6 and class teachers will actively promote these books, encouraging children to aim to read as many of them as possible.  See our 100 books to read:

 

Implementation:

• The teaching of English is structured from the National Curriculum and we use a variety of materials to enhance the delivery of quality teaching – see the Curriculum Progression for Reading
• We believe that reading feeds into writing and actively seek out high quality texts to stimulate creativity and curiosity.
• Book study sessions are taught 3 times per week, developing the VIPERS reading skills:

vocabulary – infer – predict – explain - retrieve – sequence or summarise.

• Guided reading small group sessions taught in year 3.
• Pupils listen to a class novel being read by a teacher.
• We have daily individual personal reading time, where children can be engrossed in a book of their choice.
• Children who require additional support with different elements of reading may access phonics support (using the Little Wandle scheme); 1:1 reading support; small groups to support reading fluency; or may work on individualised Lexia programmes.

Impact:

• children will have a lifelong love of reading;
• children will be able to read fluently and accurately;
• children will be able to apply their reading skills to acquire new knowledge and build their own repertoire of vocabulary;
• children will use their experience as readers to develop their own authorial voice;
• data will reflect the children’s progress in reading.

 

Our Governor Subject Lead for English is: Krysia Woofinden