Intent 

At Woodlands Primary School we believe that literacy and oracy are essential life skills. We aim to develop children who are confident speakers, listeners, readers and writers and who can utilise their skills to communicate effectively through placing English at the heart of our curriculum. 

We follow the National Curriculum and use this as our progression model. Each year group is sequenced to build on prior learning, with clear end points which teachers use to assess progress. Teachers adapt the curriculum as required to meet the needs of all pupils, however, all pupils, including those with SEND and vulnerable children, are taught the full English curriculum.

We recognise the importance and value of children reading for pleasure and strive to help pupils to develop a love of reading for pleasure, as well as for information, by reading widely and often. We understand the importance of helping to children to develop their vocabulary and aim to do this through specific vocabulary lessons and during reading sessions. We aim for pupils to acquire strategies to enable them to become independent learners in English (for example use spelling rules and patterns and know how to tackle unfamiliar words when reading). In developing confident writers, we recognise the need for pupils to write for a variety of purposes and audiences; clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style as required. We aim for pupils to take pride in their writing and to present their work to a high standard. In preparation for later life, we aim for pupils to enter into discussion and to present their ideas to each other by talking, being able to elaborate and explain themselves clearly, make presentations and participate in debates.

English as an additional language: we are fortunate to benefit from a wide and varied number of languages spoken by the pupils, families and staff at Woodlands Primary School. Whilst we speak English in school, we encourage parents to continue to provide opportunities for their children to continue developing an understanding of their family’s first language. 

Implementation*

All children have a daily English lesson where children have the opportunity to respond to feedback, practise basic skills and develop confidence as a reader, writer and orator.

Reading: we teach reading in a range of ways – whole class reading (VIPERS) where teachers use challenging texts to model good reading and help children develop comprehension skills; guided reading – where adults work with smaller  groups of children using a text matched closely to ability and focusing mainly on developing reading aloud skills whilst also asking questions about the text; and 1:1 reading – where adults help children to develop reading fluency. To help children develop a love of reading, we have invested over £10,000 in high quality texts suitable for EYFS to Y6 and have completely redesigned and stocked our school library. Every day, teachers read aloud to their class at least once per day. Each half term we buy a selection of recently published books – Hot off the Press – and share these in assembly to further promote interest in books and reading. Once a term, parents are invited for Books and Bagels – a book sharing session in the morning where parents can sit with their children to browse/read a wide range of books. We have also participated in schemes such as Author Penpal, where a published author writes regularly to the children to recommend books and asks what they are reading. Interaction with authors of class reads via Twitter is highly encouraged also. Author and illustrator visits to school have also been arranged on a yearly basis again to raise the profile of reading in school.

Writing: following whole school training on Talk for Writing, F2 and KS1 have adopted many of the strategies, including story maps and oral retelling. In LKS2, some aspects of T4W are used but the predominant method is sentence stacking, with a focus on correct vocabulary for sentence cohesion. Similarly, UKS2 use some aspects of T4W, e.g. boxing up the text, but predominantly use WAGOLL (What A Good One Looks Like). Purposes for writing is key to planning and teaching units and ties together the writing experience for children as they move through the school.

Vocabulary: following whole school INSET, every class has direct teaching of a minimum of five words per week – these are often taken from the text shared in English. Vocabulary words are displayed on a Word Collector display in infants and on word walls in KS2 and children are encouraged to use them in their writing.

Spelling: a whole school programme is used from Y1 to Y6. In F2 and KS1, high frequency words are displayed on word walls to aid independent spelling. LKS2 children have individual dictionaries where they are encouraged to have a go first. In UKS2, children use dictionaries during editing to check and correct spelling independently. Each week spelling rules are taught and a list of words (from the statutory word lists) given to children to practise. Once a term, all children from F2 to Y6 are tested on the ARE words for their year group (unless they are working significantly below ARE in which case they are tested  on HFW from F2 to Y2) and these scores are recorded and tracked to monitor progress throughout the year.

Handwriting: as a school we have adopted the Letter-join font and this is displayed in every classroom throughout the school. The handwriting policy gives details of when to teach specific joins but cursive is taught from Y1 to Y6.

Grammar and punctuation: the teaching of grammar and punctuation follows the ARE as outlined in the NC. In KS1 this is taught as a standalone lesson and then practised in writing lessons. In KS2 it is embedded within English lessons.

Oracy: we recognise the importance of speaking and listening skills and have devoted time to developing these across the whole curriculum – not just during English lessons. Teachers will have a number of CPD sessions enabling them to plan for progression in oracy.

* Please read in conjunction with the statement about early reading and phonics 

Impact

Regular monitoring enables the English lead, in conjunction with SLT, to closely evaluate the impact of our English curriculum. Phonics acquisition has increased by 20% over the last five years and more children are now applying their phonetic skills when reading a wide range of books. We have also seen a sustained improvement in spelling across the school. Children are beginning to talk more confidently about books and during our school library sessions many children are recommending the book they are returning to other children. Staff continue to model book talk to further develop the children’s knowledge of genres and authors. Communication skills are improving – both written and oral. Having been explicitly taught speaking and listening skills, children’s listening skills are also improving, with children taking turns and listening to each other as well as the adults. Many children are now responding to the viewpoints of others in class discussions. The skills taught and practised in English lessons are being applied across the whole curriculum. Children are more engaged as a result of being better able to access the wider curriculum.