English at Colden

Reading

Intent

Our intent is to instil a passion for books and a love of reading for every child from the start of their journey at Colden which will remain with them throughout their lives. We believe that not only will this unlock the whole curriculum and thereby increase their chances in life, reading also crucially enhances the quality of our lives.

Every child should be a confident decoder with a maturing understanding and passion for books by the end of KS1. We build upon this fluency by focussing on further improving comprehension and language in KS2. We intend to develop confident readers that continue to develop a love of books which educate, challenge and enthral them throughout their time at Colden and beyond.

Inclusion

Colden is an inclusive school. For all pupils, including those with SEND, those known (or previously known) to social care, disadvantaged pupils and those who may face barriers to their learning and/or well-being, adjustments are made based upon individual needs so that all have full access to the reading curriculum. These may be to access arrangements. At the same time, the importance of fostering independence and developing the confidence and ability to meet appropriate challenges is understood and promoted.

Implementation

At Colden we develop decoding and comprehension skills. We use the Little Wandle synthetic phonics scheme for the discrete teaching of decoding. This is taught daily from Reception in a highly structured approach, systematically building up children’s knowledge and skills of phonics. Whilst learning new sounds, children apply the skills learnt to read phonetically decodable books pitched at an appropriate level of challenge. These books are changed twice a week and sent home along with their Reading Record to encourage practice at home with parents. At the same time, comprehension skills are modelled via regular reading of a range of books to and with the children in order to develop confident readers and inspire them with high quality literature.

Once children are at an appropriate level of fluency with their reading, they are then assessed using Accelerated Reader (AR). This calculates a range of relevant books for children to read that will be at an appropriate level in order for their reading to progress. In years 3 and 4, children record the title of the book they are reading, the page they have read to and any relevant evaluations of the text in their Reading Records. Once they have read a book on the AR system, they then take a quiz which gives feedback to the child and teacher on their reading comprehension skills. With some titles, there are also vocabulary quizzes which help children to clarify their understanding of words and expand their word knowledge.

Alongside this emerging independent reading practice, teachers also explicitly teach the key reading comprehension skills in order to ensure children are not, ‘barking at print’ but are able to truly understand and enjoy their book. The four key skills are: prediction, clarification, questioning and summarising. This explicit teaching of reading comprehension takes place as a whole class, small group and where appropriate, on a 1-1 basis. In order for children to develop a passion for books, as is our aim, developing their comprehension skills is key. This cannot be left to chance or for children to naturally acquire. Rather, it needs to be modelled, practised, encouraged and monitored.

In addition, a scheme of work is used that provides constant opportunities for the above to be further reinforced. A selection of high-quality texts from a range of authors and genres has been carefully chosen for each class. A text then forms the focus for a series of English lessons, usually lasting several weeks. This ensures that children are being supported in really pushing their comprehension skills to a greater depth. The teacher models, for example, how to use inference and how to analyse authorial intent to really enhance the children’s understanding of the text. Gradually, children are then supported and encouraged so that they begin to do this for themselves, thus becoming independent, confident, critical, inquisitive readers with a lifelong love of books.

Impact

In Reception and Year 1, children’s phonics progress is regularly assessed in order to inform planning. Their reading comprehension skills are meanwhile assessed via 1-1 reading with staff. From Year 2, formal reading comprehensions are also used regularly so that teachers can see the impact of their teaching and adapt planning if there are causes for concern. Pupil discussions inform teachers of children’s attitudes towards reading.  With these best teaching practice models in place and regular practice at home, it is intended that children will achieve Age Related Expectations at each stage of learning and by the end of Year 6.

 

Writing

Intent

At Colden, we believe all our children should have the opportunity to become fluent, creative, confident and purposeful writers. We believe they should all have experience of writing for a purpose, be clear of their audience and know the features of the text type they are constructing. We aim to inspire children with a range of high-quality texts which model the use of ambitious vocabulary and a variety of writing styles. We intend children to develop and become increasingly confident with their transcription, dictation and handwriting skills as they progress through school and develop a secure understanding of how to compose writing for different purposes.

Inclusion

Colden is an inclusive school. For all children, including those with SEND, those known (or previously known) to social care, disadvantaged pupils and those who may face barriers to their learning and/or well-being, adjustments are made so that all have access to the full writing curriculum.  The process will consist of fully implementing the new writing framework which will include the foundational skills of spelling, handwriting and dictation. At the same time, the importance of fostering independence and developing the confidence and ability to meet appropriate challenges is understood and promoted.

Implementation

Integral to this is that all children in school are taught to have a positive approach to writing and are encouraged to explicitly use the meta-cognitive strategies modelled to support their own writing. We have based the teaching of writing on the understanding that the process of writing is composed of 7 main components (as identified by the Education Endowment Foundation, EEF). They are planning, drafting, sharing; evaluating; revising; editing and publishing. These components are modelled by the teacher, followed by the opportunity to practise, share, draft and redraft and act on feedback before children are then given the opportunity to follow the same processes independently. Throughout the process the children are expected to reflect on their own learning and take an active role in improving their work by using the given success criteria, peer and teacher feedback.

In KS1 our implementation of the teaching of phonics supports developing transcription, dictation and handwriting skills outlined in the new writing framework, that are built upon from EYFS. Again, metacognitive strategies are modelled in writing lessons. The EEF guidance is used to help structure the process of writing in KS1 and utilises strategies including pre- writing activities; structuring text; sentence composition; summarising and drafting, editing, revising and sharing. Children are encouraged to become confident writers who are willing to have a go and become confident thinkers about their writing.

Throughout school, children are taught the grammar and punctuation they will need to be successful as part of their writing outcomes and in the wider curriculum. Some elements of grammar and punctuation are taught discretely, others are integrated as part of the main teaching dependent upon the context

Impact

Children are assessed against Age Related Expectations termly. The use of success criteria for a piece of work is shared with children so that they and their teachers can be clear about expectations and standards. Internal and external moderation, including writing scrutinies, take place regularly with staff sharing their books with colleagues to ensure judgements are moderated and correct.

It is expected that all children will attain at least age-related expectations for writing throughout their time at Colden.