Intent:
At Forest View Primary School we believe that reading and writing are the skills that open the door to all other learning experiences. We are passionate about creating a positive reading and writing culture in school, where both are promoted, enjoyed and considered ‘a pleasure’ by all pupils.
When our children leave our school, we want them to be avid readers who read fluently and widely with understanding and confidence. We encourage them to read for both pleasure and information in preparation for their secondary school education. We teach them to express preferences and opinions about the stories, poems and non-fiction texts that they read. Texts are carefully chosen to enable our children to appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage and develop their cultural capital through the diversity of books.
Our aim is that our children will be able to write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences whilst developing their own individual flair. It is our mission to ensure that our children acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language.
Implementation:
At Forest View we have a rigorous and well organised English curriculum and framework that provides many opportunities for reading, writing and discussion. We use a wide variety of quality texts and experiences to motivate and inspire our children. Teachers ensure that cross curricular links are woven into the programme of study.
Phonics and Early Reading
Delivering high quality phonics is at the heart of our approach to teaching reading at Forest View. This process begins in our Nursery, where children learn the pre-requisite skills to phonics by developing their phonemic and phonological awareness.
All of our Early Years, Key Stage 1 and Year 3 teaching and support staff have been trained to deliver the linguistic phonics programme ‘Sounds-Write’. Sounds-Write begins with what the children already know: the sounds of their own language. From there, it takes them through carefully sequenced steps to teach them how each of the sounds in the English language can be written in words.
Our approach teaches children four key concepts:
- that letters are symbols that represent sounds.
- that sounds can be spelled with one, two, three or four letters.
- that the same sound can be spelled in different ways.
- that the same spelling can represent different sounds.
It also gives children the skills necessary to be confident with reading and spelling:
- to be able to segment, or separate the sounds in words.
- to be able to blend, or push sounds together to form words.
- to be able to manipulate sounds by taking sounds out and putting sounds into words.
Our teaching of early reading, spelling and writing in school is based around this programme. It begins very early on in Reception class and continues until a child is confident and competent with reading and spelling. At first, children learn to read and write one syllable words with a simple structure and the complexity of word structure systematically builds as they move through the programme. Daily phonics lessons take place from Reception to Year 2, alongside group and one-to-one intervention sessions throughout school.
In Early Years and Key Stage 1, Dandelion and Sounds-Write decodable readers are used both in school and at home to encourage the children to apply their phonic skills and knowledge. Decodable readers are used when children are learning to read and they only contain the phonetic code that the children have been taught. This leads to success in reading which helps to build confidence and encourage a love of reading. It also helps to reinforce the skills and knowledge introduced during Sounds-Write sessions. Children read their books at least twice per week with an adult in school and children at risk of not meeting expected standards read more regularly with an adult. Children take their reading book home daily to share with their families. Parents are encouraged to comment in a home-school reading diary.
At the end of Year 1 there is a statutory assessment in phonics (Year 1 Phonics Screening Check) which takes place in June each year. Parents are informed of the outcomes of this check and any child who has difficulties in meeting the expected standard at this stage will be given additional support in Year 2 to ensure that they have the skills to develop their reading further.
Assessment for learning is a crucial part of all phonics sessions and teachers quickly identify any children that need some support to keep up. Intervention programmes are immediately put into place and then reviewed through subsequent assessments. Termly summative assessments provide further information about progress and any gaps in learning.
Reading
In Key Stage Two, reading remains at the centre of the curriculum. A whole school core text overview has been created to underpin English lessons and also support the wider curriculum. Sharing high quality texts with the children continues, sometimes in the form of shared reading sessions and other times as part of story time. Texts are carefully chosen to develop children’s cultural capital and curiosity of the world around them. We choose fiction, non-fiction and poetry that provides opportunities to develop reading fluency and comprehension with a focus on key reading strategies and skills. Many of the texts we use have been recommended by the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education, as they develop grammar and punctuation knowledge and provide opportunities for exploring the writing structure and features of different genres.
Alongside a daily English lesson, Children from Year 2 to Year 6 participate in a daily whole class guided reading session based on the John Murray approach. Children are again encouraged to read and discuss texts from a range of genres to develop their reading fluency and this enables them to direct their attention on their knowledge and skills in retrieval, understanding of vocabulary and comprehension, including inference. Assessment is an integral part of the teaching sequence and allows teachers to plan future learning opportunities based on the learning needs of all children within their classes. Teachers use assessment for learning strategies within all reading activities and also use termly summative assessment to further track progress.
Once the children are confident with their phonic sounds, they begin to read books from the Accelerated Reader programme. The children take a Star Reading Test which will give them a ZPD which enables them to select home reading books at an appropriate level. Once they have completed their reading book at both school and home, they take an Accelerated Reader reading practice quiz to ensure their understanding and comprehension. This helps us to identify when children need to move on to more challenging texts to ensure progression.
Termly NFER reading assessments alongside daily formative assessments allow us to carefully monitor attainment and progress. We also use the Lexia programme to support children where necessary and Reading Plus to develop the reading stamina, speed and comprehension of pupils in Year 6.
Reading for Pleasure
At Forest View, we want our children to leave us with the ability to read with fluency and understanding, but to also have developed a love of reading that will follow them to secondary school and beyond. Throughout the school, story time is a daily and dedicated part of the timetable. Children are introduced to a range of authors and poets and they are encouraged to discuss their favourites. Texts are carefully chosen to expose children to high quality vocabulary which will have a significant impact on their own ability to be authors and develop their own, individualised style of writing.
Our school and class libraries allow children to immerse themselves in the wonderful world of books. They are stocked with an attractive range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry to support every ability and reading choice. We aim to draw on the latest reading trends and also classic texts that should be part of every child’s primary school experience to build on their cultural capital. We engage the children in celebrations of reading and books, for example during World Book Day and during regular study of whole school texts. Reading ambassadors have been appointed in school to emphasise the views of the children.
Writing, including Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling
At Forest View we aim to develop children’s ability to produce well-structured, detailed writing which engages the interest of the reader. Attention is given to the formal structures of English, grammatical detail, punctuation and spelling. Our approach comprehensively covers the requirements of the National Curriculum.
Writing begins in the EYFS, where early mark making is considered and developed. Phonics and handwriting sessions provide children with the skills to form letters correctly, build words in writing and combine words to form sentences. This gives children a firm foundation for writing in Key Stage One and Two.
Throughout school, teachers promote writing and look for ways to inspire and motivate children to see themselves as ‘writers’. Children are given frequent opportunities to write in different contexts, using quality texts as a model for a variety of purposes and audiences.
The quality texts that we use in our English lessons are used to teach grammar in a meaningful context. Our teaching sequences provide opportunities for children to fully immerse themselves in a text and then apply what they have learned to their own writing. Drama and spoken language activities are included to further develop the children’s vocabulary. We aim to move from modelled writing, to shared writing, to guided writing and finally independent writing. Children are taught to plan their own writing, draft it, edit it and up-level it to make it the best that it can be. They are encouraged to present their work to the best of their ability and sometimes perform it for others.
Grammar is woven into every English lesson alongside some discrete lessons to ensure full coverage of curriculum objectives. All staff in school use accurate grammar when speaking and writing. The English overview gives teachers a clear progression across year groups so they can track the grammar skills that they have taught and reflect on any gaps in learning.
The ability to spell is an essential life skill. In Reception and Key Stage One spelling objectives are covered through the Sounds-Write programme and additional time is given in English lessons as part of the teaching sequence. This continues into Key Stage Two when teachers begin to follow the Hartlepool spelling scheme to ensure coverage and consistency. Alongside learning spelling rules and patterns, children develop an understanding of morphology (how the word is made up) and etymology (the origins) of words to support their spelling ability. Discreet spelling sessions are taught and spelling is also embedded within English lessons.
Writing is celebrated throughout school and children’s writing is displayed in classrooms and shared areas. Children are encouraged to choose their best pieces to include in the portfolio which follows them from class to class and then they are presented with it when they leave Year 6.
Assessment for learning is used throughout writing sessions to identify next steps to inform future planning. Teachers quality mark children’s writing to provide them with feedback about how they can improve their work and also to challenge them to extend their learning even further. It is the expectation that children will respond to their feedback using their purple polishing pens. Children are encouraged to discuss their own writing and that of their peers. They have target cards so that they know their personalised next steps. Children’s writing is assessed formally against year group expectations on a half termly basis. Teachers regularly attend writing moderation sessions both in school, and with teachers from other schools, to ensure that assessments are robust.
Handwriting
It is paramount that children are rigorously taught the correct letter formation from the very beginning of their time in school. As soon as the children are ready, they should be encouraged to sit properly in order to have the correct posture for writing, hold a pencil in the correct tripod grip and develop a legible and, eventually, cursive handwriting style.
At Forest View we follow the Letter-join handwriting scheme across school and this teaches children to develop a neat, legible, speedy handwriting style using continuous cursive. This scheme also helps children to see and remember spelling patterns and it fully covers all handwriting objectives from the National Curriculum. We take a little and often approach with handwriting, and children are expected to practise their handwriting in ten minute daily sessions at regular intervals throughout each week. Children across school take pride in the presentation of their work and this is evident in both English books and books across the wider curriculum. Staff across school model the school handwriting style.
Speaking and Listening
Throughout school, all staff model speaking in correct Standard English to support pupils in developing language and vocabulary well.
In EYFS we nurture children’s speaking and listening skills through a variety of approaches including exploratory play and story time. Language is repeated, discussed and displayed in order to immerse children in sophisticated vocabulary.
The discussion of language and vocabulary is continued throughout school in all subjects. Children regularly work alongside a talk partner to discuss and express their opinions. Story time continues to be an effective way to give children regular opportunities to engage in ‘Book Talk’.
Monitoring and Assessment
At ForesT View, the impact of our English curriculum is measured through the monitoring cycle in school. Lessons are regularly observed and children’s work is considered against age related expectations. We moderate the work of our children both as a school and alongside other schools. We talk to pupils to check their understanding and find out about their views. The outcomes of both formative and summative assessments are taken into account and used to plan next steps and identify any barriers to learning. Pupil progress meetings ensure that the progress of different groups of learners and individual children is monitored and interventions are organised to support good and better progress.
Impact:
The impact on our children is clear: progress and transferable skills. We aim that by the end of Key Stage Two, all of our children have made considerable progress from their starting points in the Early Years Foundation Stage. They are ready for the next stage in their education. Pupils with specific needs achieve the best possible outcomes.
Our pupils develop the knowledge and skills that they need and they achieve well as a result. This is increasingly reflected in statutory tests and assessments.
The children leave our school as fluent readers who are able to discuss a wide range of different authors, from different literary traditions and genres.
When children leave Forest View, they can express their opinions and creativity in writing that is clearly structured, technically accurate and interesting to read. Their work across the curriculum is of good quality.
Our children can express themselves verbally and engage with others articulately. They have had the opportunity to find their ‘voice’ and their efforts have been valued.
We hope that by the time our children move into secondary school, their high aspirations and passion for English travel with them and continue to grow.
