“Reading is an exercise in empathy; an exercise in walking in someone else’s shoes for a while.”

Malorie Blackman

“A word after a word after a word is power”

Margaret Atwood

Intent

At Bladon School, we understand that achieving a good level of English language allows pupils to flourish. As stated in the National Curriculum, fluency in the English language is an essential foundation for success in all subjects.

Speaking and Listening

Pupils need to learn to express themselves creatively and imaginatively and to communicate with others confidently and effectively. Children need to develop skills in speaking, listening, reading and writing in order to participate fully in society. We want our children to be exposed to a wide range of language, we plan opportunities for children to develop their speaking and listening skills, as we fully believe that if they cannot talk it, they cannot write it. We believe one of the best ways to do this is to make learning exciting so they cannot help but talk about what they are doing! We want them to go home and talk to their families about what they are learning. We aim for our children to be active listeners and to respond and build on what they hear.

Reading

We strive to develop a love of reading. This begins with a solid foundation in a systematic, synthetic phonics programme using Read, Write, Inc. We want to make sure our youngest children are given the tools and selected books so they can confidently begin to decode and read text. At Bladon, we want our children to have access to a range of high quality books from a young age so they are excited to read more and become immersed in a world of books and stories. Our staff get to know our children as readers, to know what they enjoy and what might capture their interest next.

Writing

We want the children at Bladon School to take a pride in their writing, using a wealth of language and higher level vocabulary. We aim to give children opportunities to write for a purpose, to see the power of writing and making them think carefully about the needs of the reader.  Through our English curriculum, we want to inspire, enable all our children to flourish and to encourage creativity – recognising each child’s individuality.

 

Implementation

At Bladon School, these aims are embedded across our English lessons as well as the wider curriculum. Our staff plan purposeful opportunities for reading, writing and discussion.

Speaking and Listening

To develop children’s speaking and listening skills, we begin with high-quality interactions between adults and children and this begins even before children join the school. We then build on this language by encouraging children to join class discussions; to agree, build and challenge others points of view. We encourage active listening, being respectful and responding to or building on what they have heard. We give the children opportunities to speak in front of larger audiences such as during Church services, assemblies, performances and deliver speeches for roles such as school councillor or House captain. We have recently introduced the concept of ‘sticky knowledge’ in some subjects giving children the chance to revisit key vocabulary and concepts. We provide parents with regular updates on what the children have been learning in school to prompt and encourage further discussion at home.

Reading

At Bladon School we want to create avid readers, as reading is the foundation for any learner and over 85% of the curriculum is taught by reading. We understand that developing a love of reading can be more important for a child’s educational success than their family’s socio-economic background. We develop early reading through the Read Write Inc programme from Reception into Year 1. Phonics is taught explicitly in Foundation Stage and KS1 and where necessary in KS2. We invite parents into school to introduce them to phonics and ways to support their child at home. Children being taught phonics take home a phonetically decodable book relevant to the sounds they have been learning, as well as a quality picture book that their parents can read to them and help immerse them in books and stories.

Teachers plan further development of reading skills through a mixture of small group and whole class guided reading sessions from Year 2 onwards this is assessed through the use of NFER assessment papers or SATS reading papers. There are a variety of quality texts and resources used to motive and inspire the children. We believe it is important for all children to be exposed to higher level texts in this way and engage in discussion, whilst also reading texts that are at a decodable level for them individually. Some texts have also been chosen because of the fantastic route they offer into discussing and exploring many social, emotional and cultural issues thus developing the cultural capital of our children. We have found that by exposing children to short extracts of some novels, they become hooked and want to read more! Our teachers are avid readers and engage in book discussions with the children, getting to know what they enjoy but also encouraging them to try books they may not have considered before. Children in Reception and KS1 read 1:1 with an adult each week to help develop accuracy and fluency. Children in KS2 who need additional practice with this are prioritised to read with an adult and all children are given the chance to read out loud during guided reading lessons. Staff are now working on a whole school plan to ensure children are exposed to all five text types needed to successfully navigate reading with confidence: archaic language, non-linear time sequences, narratively complex/complex plots, figurative/symbolic text and resistant text. They are also developing a poetry spine for the school so that a wider range and diversity of poets are introduced as well as identified performance poems for each year group each year.

At Bladon School, we think all children deserve a well-rounded, culturally rich education and plan a number of opportunities to enrich children’s experience supporting our English curriculum. These include: author visits; whole school activities to celebrate World Book Day and storyteller visits.

Writing

Our staff recognise the importance of a high-quality stimulus to spark children’s interest when writing and we found Literacy Shed English units using books or film clips, are perfect for that. Teachers tailor the units as they feel suit their own classes and the needs and interests of the children they are teaching. Once every long term, each class completes a Write Stuff unit. This allows the children to embed skills and grammar in context, and focusses on the importance of quality sentences. Teachers also sometimes plan their own writing units based making links to topics or with a focus on particular criteria. There is a tracking document for each year group to ensure curriculum coverage across the year and identifiying which units objectives are covered in. Teachers are encouraged, where possible, to make cross curricular links to broaden and deepen children’s understanding as we know this is an evidence-informed way to embed learning. Another method used to inspire the children is to provide an audience, a purpose for what they are writing. This could be a class assembly where poems on deforestation are shared or a persuasive letter to the Prime Minister on child poverty. Where possible, grammar is taught in context during English lessons as we feel this helps to promote a better understanding of grammatical terms and structures. Some discreet grammar lessons are taught in UKS2 to further embed these skills and address any misconceptions. In line with the EEF recommendations for improving literacy, teachers plan extended time for editing after an independent piece of work. The children use purple pen for their own editing and orange pen for peer marking. Spelling Shed and a phoneme-focussed teacher planned spelling programme form the basis of spelling teaching from Year 2 to Year 6. Children are taught to then apply rules they have learnt across the curriculum. The school follow LetterJoin for handwriting and this is taught weekly. Each class from Year 2 have an alphabet display of joined letters to aid presentation.

Writing is assessed formally at least once every short term, using writing descriptors agreed as a whole staff. Teaching staff meet at least twice a year to conduct moderation across the school and teachers in EYFS, Year 2 and Year 6 also attend local partnership moderation meetings to ensure quality assurance. Teachers use marking codes in children’s books to make feedback consistent and accessible to children across the school. Year 6 have recently trialled child-teacher conferencing about writing, where a teacher discusses an assessed piece of work with the child, giving feedback on what they have done well, objectives met and then talks through targets for their next piece of work. This has been well received and the children are talking more about what they need to do next in their writing and are keen to discuss progress with their teacher. Target sheets have been added to their English books to track these discussions and the conferencing is being expanded to our Year 4/5 class. Children in Year 2/3 have weekly writing feedback sessions with the class teacher which enables them to receive more regular feedback with smaller steps appropriate to their age.

SEND

We want all children to reach their potential and use a range of strategies and adapted equipment to support children with SEND. This includes: laptops for children with dyslexia, spelling or processing difficulties; using devices to record sentences verbally; adults supporting with modelling and scribing and targeted 1:1, small group work or interventions.

Impact

• Pupils can speak with increasing confidence in front of small and large audiences.
• Pupils actively listen and can respond appropriately.
• Pupils enjoy reading regularly, for information and for enjoyment/pleasure.
• Staff and pupils discuss books with excitement and interest.
• Staff know the children as readers and can help recommend books to them.
• Pupils enjoy writing and use the features of different genres and styles.
• Pupils show consistent neat presentation with legible handwriting.
• Pupils have an understanding of language and grammar features and can use them to make purposeful writing choices for impact.
• Pupils can write confidently for different purposes and audiences.
• Pupils are proud of their writing.
• Pupils know that others value their writing.
• Pupils are adventurous with vocabulary choices.