English
English is a core subject in our curriculum as it provides the medium through which we communicate and learn. English is all about communication and our desire is to enable our pupils, through the development of their language, to think deeply, express themselves clearly in spoken and written forms and gain enjoyment from high quality literature because they have the comprehension skills to be drawn into texts, the imaginations to see, hear and feel what is happening and the empathy skills to put themselves into the character's shoes.
Our English curriculum is divided into the teaching and learning of writing, reading and GPS. However, this includes the teaching and learning of many skills such as oracy, phonic decoding and blending, comprehension and all of our learning attributes. Whilst the development of these strands of English require a focus on specific skills and knowledge, they are also interwoven.
Phonics (Early Reading)
In Reception and Key Stage 1, children follow the 'Little Wandle Letters and Sounds' phonics scheme. Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised is a complete systematic synthetic phonics programme (SSP) developed for schools by schools. Based on the original Letters and Sounds, but extensively revised to provide a complete teaching programme meeting all the expectations of the National Curriculum.
We use the Collins Little Wandle reading scheme. The books in this are perfectly matched to be accessible for our young readers at each stage of their development. The children will bring their weekly decodable book home on a Wednesday to share their reading with parents. The children will have practised reading the book in school, so this is a chance for children to enjoy the book together with family members. Each Monday our KS1 and reception children visit our school library, where they select a book to bring home for the week. This is their sharing book and will not be fully decodable for them independently, but is a chance to share a book together and for the children to develop good habits and a love of literature.
Following the autumn term in year 2, all children who have achieved a secure understanding of phonic strategies will move onto accelerated reader. They will take part in an assessment to determine their ideal development zone and then get the opportunity to select a reading book from with their development area. Once the book is completed they then take a quiz to demonstrate their understanding of the text.
Children who have not reached a level where they have a secure understanding in phonics by the end of year 2, despite phonic intervention strategies outlined in the Little Wandle programme, will begin to Toe by Toe structured support programme. This will be communicated with parents and is a daily intervention programme which is administered at home and in school. This will avoid any children missing out on English and maths learning, but enable catch up.
The genres, text types and literary books studied are outlined in the English content coverage and literary framework below.
Grammar, Punctuation & Spelling
In order for every child to reach the required level of knowledge, we teach GPS through our English lessons at Abberley Parochial V.C. Primary School.
Once children are secure in phonics (ideally from the start of year 2) they follow the spelling shed scheme to ensure that they continue to be taught the rules and structures of words. For further details, please follow this link Spelling Shed
Grammar refers to the way we put words together in sentences and paragraphs to form meaning. It’s the fundamental structure of language, describing what words should go where, and why.
Punctuation refers to all the little symbols we have used to enhance sentences and add clarity. These symbols can indicate pauses between ideas, the relationships between words, and even the emotion sentences convey, among other things.
Grammar applies to language when it's written or spoken, but spelling only applies to language when it's written. From year 3, children have a grammar lesson two mornings each week for 30 minutes.
Below is a progression document which outlines the age related expectations for pupils from year 1-6 during their time with us in line with the National Curriculum:
Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling Progression Map
Reading
At Abberley Primary, we are passionate about reading. Reading skills are taught across the school every morning for thirty minutes. Children in Reception and year follow the Little Wandle letters and sounds progress and are taught in individual year groups. Once children are secure in their phonic understanding, the focus turns to the skills of comprehension. Twice each week, children are exposed to a wide variety of short texts including poetry, non-fiction drawn from a range of genres. Children are taught the thinking processes involved in each of the reading domains below to allow them to develop the deeper comprehension skills. In each session, their reading will have a specific focus based on the acronym VIPERS. This stands for vocabulary, inference, prediction, explanation, retrieval and sequence or summarise. In this way, we ensure that children are not only exposed to high quality literature and a range of genres, but that they develop their understanding of the rich experiences that can come from being deeply engrossed in a story.
Books in our library are organised based on their ATOS level. This is a measure of how difficult a book is, based on the challenge of the vocabulary, the length of sentences and the difficulty of the content. Each half-term, children who have completed our phonics program take a digital assessment which gives them a zone of proximal development from where they should select books in the library, which are most suitable for their reading ability. We find this helps them to develop a love of reading as we know they can access the content and enjoy the story.
Our School Library
We are very fortunate to have a such fantastic library space. This area of the school offers a huge range of age-appropriate fiction and non-fiction stories. Children feel comfortable and peaceful in our school library and have opportunities to choose from a varied collection of books.
We use Accelerated Reader Star Reading to assess pupils reading ability once their phonics learning is secure. This provides pupils with a reading range from which they can select library books, which are both accessible and challenging for them. This assessment also provides a diagnostic approach whereby teachers can adapt the English curriculum in order to work on the specific areas of development for pupils in their class.
For further information, please follow this these links:
A parent's guide to accelerated reader
What parents need to know about Accelerated Reader
Reading Progression
Writing
Our core writing curriculum is taught through a 'literature study' format. Each half-term, a carefully selected and challenging book is used for the basis for learning. Books can provide the best opportunities for children to write for a range of meaningful and ‘real’ reasons… From writing letters to the mayor of Hamlin to convince him to rid the town of rats, to creating a guide to looking after your lost thing; from creating a Wikipedia page about Bluchers in Boy in the Tower to creating a conservation campaign for an endangered animal in The Journey Home. When the context feels strong and necessary then audience and purpose is easy.
The children at Abberley Primary have opportunities to read and write a diverse number of text types from varying genres. Our approach to teaching writing is aligned to the 14 principles of effective writing teaching developed by The Writing For Pleasure Centre. More details relating to this can be found in the link below.
Much of our writing curriculum will be linked to texts pupils study as part of the literature framework. Pupils develop the knowledge and skills to write for a range of purposes and in different styles and formats.
Across a two-week cycle, children from year 2 onwards will develop the skills to include the layout and language features of specific text types. They will develop their sentence level and paragraph level work before completing an extending draft of writing demonstrating the skills they have been taught. This may require editing and reviewing.
At Abberley, the children complete a best piece of writing each half-term. This might be a re-draft and improved piece from something they have already written. These pieces of writing are assessed against the children's age related targets and are used to inform future planning for each class to enable pupils to develop their skills and knowledge.
It is our goal that children recognise the purpose of writing and where appropriate find joy in authentic purposeful writing opportunities. We teach children to write for the following purposes:
In order to ensure that children write a wide range of text types, we use our school 'Text Type Progression' which outlines which text types should be covered each year to ensure children develop the skills to write to entertain, inform, persuade and discuss. A growing theme of our writing, is the idea of painting with words and the children are encouraged to write in rich detail and to observe and sense in depth and to use their experience in their writing.