English

English has a pre-eminent place in both education and society. A high-quality English education is the foundation to teaching pupils to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others and through their reading and listening, others can communicate with them. More than any other subject, English – and especially reading – gives pupils access to the rest of the curriculum and is fundamental to their educational success. Through studying literature, pupils’ eyes are opened to human experience; they explore meaning and ambiguity, as well as the beauty and power of language. English also has a strong creative and expressive dimension (English Research Review, 2021).

At Godstone Primary and Nursery School, we follow a ‘talk for writing’ style approach in the teaching of writing across the school to motivate, inspire and engage the children and to instil in the children a real sense of enjoyment and passion for the subject. Accomplished word reading is taught to children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 (until required) through our systematic, synthetic phonics programme (SSP), Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised. Following this, the children are taught reading explicitly three times a week through a skills-focused approach.

 

Writing

Intent

• To provide all pupils with a rich and varied English curriculum focused around achieving expected standards as laid out in the national curriculum.
• To engage all pupils by providing them with diverse opportunities to write in a variety of styles.
• To ensure all pupils are exposed to a wide range of high-quality texts.
• To ensure for coverage and progression across the English writing curriculum through best practise teaching and learning.
• To develop all pupils' ability to communicate effectively through promoting the importance of phonics, handwriting, vocabulary and grammar.
• To develop effective composition of all pupils – forming, communicating, articulating, organising and writing.
• To teach all pupils how to best plan, revise and evaluate their writing.
• To speak, plan and write fluently in order to communicate effectively.

 

Implementation

• 3 week learning journey:
  • Week 1 – Imitation
  • Week 2 – Innovation
  • Week 3 – Invention
• Opportunities to write extended pieces with a clear focus.
• Engaged through the text-based focus.
• Exposed to both fiction and non-fiction to provide opportunities to write in a range of styles across the years/key stages.
• Incorporating of grammar, reading and drama lessons within each three-week sequence.
• Spelling rules explicitly taught each week.
• Opportunities to plan, write, edit and improve their own/others writing.
• Reading for writing – exploring and analysing a range of carefully selected texts showing the key features of that text type.
• Cultivating a ‘love of literature’ to inspire ‘writing for pleasure’.
• Promoting of poetry – one nit per year.

 

Impact

• Pupils achieving the expected level of attainment in writing, or better, at the end of each academic year/key stage.
• Pupils who enjoy writing in a variety of styles now but also beyond their time at GPNS.
• Pupils to ‘write for pleasure’.
• Pupils to use their improved writing ability to better succeed and apply it to other areas of the curriculum with increased confidence, thus raising attainment levels.
• Pupils to use and include a wide range of taught skills within their writing.
• Closing of the attainment gap when comparing writing to that of mathematics, reading and science.

 

Reading

Intent

• To provide all pupils with a rich and varied English curriculum focused around achieving expected standards as laid out in the national curriculum.
• To provide all pupils with the skills needed, and plentiful opportunity, to recognise familiar words and decode unfamiliar words.
• To emphasise the importance of phonics in the early teaching of reading.
• To encourage all pupils to read widely across both fiction and non-fiction to develop knowledge of themselves, knowledge of the world in which they live and knowledge across the curriculum.
• To promote and instil a ‘love for reading’ in all of or pupils.
• To expose pupils to a wide range of high-quality texts to develop their expressive and receptive vocabulary.
• To provide all pupils the opportunity to engage in high-quality discussions with both teachers and peers around a range of stories, poems, non-fiction and personal experiences.
• To inspire pupils' learning, feed pupils’ imagination and develop a spark of wonder, joy and curiosity for the subject through exposure to a wide range of high-quality texts.
• To reduce the impact of educational inequality through greater access to cultural capital.

Implementation

• All pupils engaging with high-quality texts.
• Diverse range of texts covered across the school (in English and ‘Reading for Pleasure texts), including those involving individuals from different ethnic minority backgrounds.
• Reading taught explicitly three times a week.
• Reading lessons differentiated to allow those working below the expected standard/SEND children to still be exposed to/access the high-quality texts.
• Reading skills covered within three-week English writing sequences.
• Moving away from ability groups/sets.
• Greater focus on vocabulary in line with the school’s vocabulary drive.
• Skills-focused, age-appropriate reading dogs for KS1 and KS2:
• Vocabulary Victor
• Sequencing Suki
• Predicting Pip
• Inference Iggy
• Rex Retriever
• Vocabulary Victor
• Predicting Pip
• Inference Iggy
• Rex Retriever
• Summarising Sheeba
• Cassie the Commentator
• Arlo the Author
• Following of a systematic, synthetic phonics programme (SSP) – Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised.
• Keep-Up; Rapid Catch-Up; Reading Groups.
• Reading dogs linking to each of the curriculum statements for KS1 and KS2.
• ‘Reading for pleasure – 15 minutes a day.
• Reading bands – secure in Phase 5 graphemes move to turquoise book band.
• Introducing of ‘reading raffle tickets’.
• Inviting parents in for reading mornings.
• Intervention for bottom 20% of readers.
• NFER assessments to quality assure teacher judgements/assessments on Target Tracker.

 

Impact

• Pupils achieving the expected level of attainment, or better, at the end of each academic year/key stage.
• Pupils who enjoy reading a variety of texts now but also beyond their time at GPNS.
• Pupils fluent in reading and comprehending texts.
• Pupils to ‘read for pleasure’.
• Pupils having the articulacy to discuss what they have read and understood.
• Pupils able to use their improved reading ability to better access other areas of the curriculum with increased confidence thus raising attainment levels.
• Pupils able to use a wider range of high-level vocabulary within their everyday speech and writing.
• All pupils able to make expected, or accelerated, progress.