English
INTENT
Our inspiring and exciting English curriculum here at Gislingham will support our children to be avid readers who read fluently and widely and are able to express preferences and opinions confidently. We want them to read for pleasure, having had access to a wide range of text types, genres and authors in order for them to make informed opinions about their favourites. We aim for all our children to become confident writers who are able to use the wide range of writing tools they have accessed and developed whilst on their writing journey with us. Most importantly we want all our children to see themselves as writers who write with confidence and accuracy for a variety of purposes and audiences whilst using a rich vocabulary and developing their own individual style.
We believe that a secure basis in literacy skills is crucial to a high quality education and will give our children the tools they need to participate fully as a member of society.
Our practice is continually evolving. Both teachers and TAs are supported and aided in their roles ensuring confidence in the skills and facts they are required to teach.
IMPLEMENTATION
Our writing lessons, alongside our reading lessons, are carefully structured to deliver the complete English National Curriculum.
In Reception children are given opportunities to:
Talk and communicate in a widening range of situations, to respond to adults and each other, to listen carefully and to practise and extend their communication skills.
Explore words and texts in a vocabulary rich environment with a new story or traditional tale every day to enjoy, to decode and to read for pleasure.
Enjoy rhyme. Rhyming helps children to break words down and to hear the sounds that make up words in preparation for reading and writing, so we sing songs and rhymes with our youngest children every day.
Read and write through their daily phonics lesson.
Encourage writing, discussion and storytelling in our role play areas and linked in to the topics we are studying
Spoken Language
The importance of spoken language to underpin the development of reading and writing is reflected in opportunities to develop vocabulary and confidence in speaking and listening. Through strong, explicit modelling of language and communication, children are encouraged to develop effective communication skills in readiness for later life. Children are provided with continuous opportunities to speak in front of the class when presenting work, in collective worship, drama, debates, group activities, class and sharing assemblies and through our various pupil councils which represent the voices of each class.
Reading
Children begin their reading journey at Gislingham through our rigorous phonics programme. Pupils receive daily phonics sessions from the minute they start in Reception and are regularly assessed and grouped.
Children are taught to decode, comprehend and read for pleasure through engaging texts and a variety of reading experiences as part of the English lesson,
Please see our 'Reading' and 'Phonics' pages for further information about our reading curriculum.
Writing
Pupils are given creative and engaging contexts to write within, encouraging them to become confident, fluent writers. Acquisition of language is of vital importance and through our writing lessons we support children to widen their vocabulary, accessing language beyond that which they use naturally. Pupils are provided with high quality texts and there is a balance between teaching the features of specific genres and covering the technical aspects of writing.
We have adopted ‘The Write Stuff’ as our primary approach to bring clarity to the mechanics of writing. High quality initial instruction and scaffolding enables children to feel confident to write independently using the wide range of writing tools they have been taught to use. Sentences are stacked together and organised to engage children with short, intensive moments of learning that they can then immediately apply to their own writing. Children are challenged to ‘Deepen the Moment’ which requires them to independently draw upon previously learnt skills and apply them to their writing.
In EYFS and KS1, we follow Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised for phonics and apply our phonological awareness for spelling. Incorporated into the programme are tricky words (these are words that children have to learn by sight and memory as they cannot be sounded out by using phonics). In KS2, spellings patterns are learnt and one main spelling lesson is taught per week linked to the national spelling curriculum. but this is followed up with spelling games and activities where key tricky, or statutory, spellings are revised.
Writing is assessed after each writing unit. Moderation of pupils’ writing takes place within school during staff meetings, through MAT writing audits and through 'No More Marking', a standardised and nationally benchmarked assessment for Y1-6.
Subject expertise allows the intentions of our English curriculum to be executed successfully. CPD is important and all staff are receptive to developing their practice which may take place through staff meetings, observations, team teaching, sharing of resources or online learning.
IMPACT
Children at Gislingham flourish in their English learning so that they have the tools to enjoy a life-long love of reading and writing. Pupils have a wide vocabulary that they use within their spoken and written work to communicate effectively and confidently and write for a range of meaningful purposes.
We hope that as children move on from Gislingham to further their education and learning, their creativity, passion for English and high aspirations travel with them and continue to grow and develop as they do.