English

Intent

There have been a range of exciting new initiatives introduced across the English curriculum over the course of the 2021-22 academic year. 

We have taken on board the key recommendations of The Reading Framework to enhance our Early Reading and Phonics practice, alongside our chosen Systematic Synthetic Phonics programme 'Story Time Phonics'. 

 In Key Stage 2, our new and bespoke Reading Comprehension Strategies framework - the 'Key to Reading' - supports children to develop key comprehension skills across the breadth of the National Curriculum reading domains. 

From the spring term 2022, our new approach to the teaching of Writing focuses on understanding the Purpose, Audience and key Text Type of our writing before identifying and developing our understanding of the skills and vocabulary we need to write an effective piece, which we will then share with an appropriate audience.

        Our approach to teaching units of Writing:

• Immersion phase – Children have the opportunity to explore the focus text-type through close reading and investigation of a ‘what a good one looks like’ (WAGOLL) text. Other strategies such as talk and drama allow the children to experience the purpose and specific language, vocabulary, tone and register necessary for a successful write. This phase may be enriched by linking the current Guided Reading text to the unit in terms of text-type or vocabulary content.

• Skills phase - Children are taught key punctuation, grammar and sentence-structure skills and objectives from the appropriate National Curriculum programme of study. Skills are practised and are applied within sentences or paragraphs that match the chosen text-type and theme. The selection of these objectives is guided by the text-type itself alongside the key priorities identified by regular review of our class formative assessment grids. To develop writing stamina, an extended mini-write is completed here, applying the key skills taught within this phase.

• Writing and editing phase – Having explored the text-type, understood their purpose for writing and practised the key skills required for a successful write, the children are given the opportunity to plan, write and edit a final piece. They edit for spelling, punctuation, language choice and sentence structure independently, with peers and in response to adult feedback.