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Gunness and Burringham CofE Primary School
Learning Together
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English
"Writing floats on a sea of talk..."
James Britton
English has a pre-eminent place in education and in society. A high-quality education in English will teach pupils to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others, and through their reading and listening, others can communicate with them. Through reading in particular, pupils have a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. Literature, especially, plays a key role in such development. Reading also enables pupils both to acquire knowledge and to build on what they already know. All the skills of language are essential to participating fully as a member of society; pupils who do not learn to speak, read and write fluently and confidently are effectively disenfranchised.
Our Intent:
We intend for all pupils to experience an inclusive, inspiring, language-rich and motivational English environment where our children develop wisdom and become resilient learners who flourish in their deep understanding of the subject. We aim to foster a love of books and reading where high quality books are a central part to all areas of the curriculum and classrooms. We aim to create a positive culture of purposeful writing, for a variety of purposes and audiences and across all subjects within our broad curriculum.
We intension is that every child will thrive in their reading and writing and will leave our care as able and independent communicators, with the confidence, wisdom and resilience required to read and write fluently. They will have a love for reading and will have developed a good range of comprehension skills. They will understand how English is embedded in all aspects of the curriculum and will be important in their future. They will be thoroughly prepared in all aspects of English and fully equipped for the next step in their educational journey.
Implementation
Our youngest children will begin their early reading through the delivery of the Read, Write, Inc program giving them the foundational knowledge needed to confidently segment, decode and build words. All staff who teach phonics follow a consistent structure and teaching sequence: new sound, speedy sound green words, special friend, Fred talk, say the word, writing words, green and red words linked to the book, reading book, comprehension, and have received specific training in the delivery of the program.
We ensure that children’s reading books match their phonic ability by using R,W, Inc book bag books in EYFS and year one which ensures fidelity to the scheme. Formal assessments in reading are carried out half - termly and staff regularly listen to children read in order to ensure that their books remain at an instructional level. Staff have regular discussions, moving children quickly to ensure they remain challenged. The whole school uses a banded book scheme.
In KS2, teachers use a carrousel approach where children follow the same structured tasks but work in differentiated groups. The structure is: reading for pleasure session (children have the opportunity to share and talk about their books); teaching session where children read the focus text and discuss (with a specific comprehension focus), answering oral questions and teaching new comprehension skills; comprehension session supported by an adult where children answer written questions based on text read and discussed over the previous session; independent comprehension activity where children will complete a range of different comprehension-based activities, consolidating and embedding pre-taught skills.
Through differentiated groups, this allows all children to be challenged and supported including SEND children.
Any SEND children,the lowest 20% and children who are below expected or not making the expected progress also receive further support through interventions linked to their specific needs (such as phonics, fluency, comprehension). Class teachers organise and are in charge of the interventions for their class and ensure that they are being carried out and are effective. Interventions are then monitored by the SLT and the SENCO. Intervention groups are assessed and monitored termly. Intervention groups are kept to small numbers currently varying between 1:1 and a group of 6. Children who are identified as above expected are also identified on the interventions in order to ensure they are challenged. Greater Depth children in year 6 have access to texts, authors and genres they will be exploring at Secondary School.
Staff are supported by the English Lead through internal CPD (staff meetings, discussions, drop-ins), visits to other schools, support from the English Hub as well as phonics training.
All teachers read to their class daily and check children are reading at least three times a week at home on a weekly basis. Any child not reading at home, reads in school and discussions are had with parents/carers about the importance of frequent reading.
Reading is celebrated weekly in the celebration assembly with Golden Tickets, hot chocolates, biscuits, ice creams.
All pupils will be given the opportunity to immerse themselves in a wide variety of texts from a range of different cultures. Through shared texts and explicit teaching, they will experience a wide range of vocabulary, giving them the understanding and power of language that they need to flourish as well as being able to communicate clearly as a writer.
Reading
Our reading scheme in EYFS and KS1 ensures that the books children are reading at home match with their phonic ability and reading level. Teachers also read daily with the children to nurture and cultivate a love of reading. Teachers in years 2 and above deliver daily guided reading sessions using banded books to meet the needs of groups of learners and to practise essential comprehension skills, as well as building resilience, confidence and fluency. This also provides ongoing assessment and learning opportunities for teachers to regularly check progress and adapt the teaching of reading.
Writing
A consistent structure to teaching writing has been established and shared with staff and the long-term plan has been updated to ensure a range of text types are being covered within and across year groups. Grammar and spelling is being taught at the beginning of every English lesson and is then used within the main part of the lesson to help deepen the children’s grammatical knowledge. Children are given time to explore a text type, practise using the features of the text type before creating a piece of writing independently.
Impact
Our children have a good start to their education with high-quality teaching in the Foundation Stage.
In EYFS, 75% of pupils reached GLD. 91.67% met the standard in Reading and 75% in met the standard in Writing.
Our end of KS1 assessments for 2022 show 83.33% of children met the expected standard in Reading, Writing and GPAS and 8.44% achieving above. This is significantly above National—68% in Reading and 59% in Writing.
Our end of KS2 assessments for 2022 show that we are above National in Reading and GPAS with Writing a key priority for the school.
Through evaluation of work in children’s books at Gunness and Burringham C of E Primary School, it is clear to see the high quality of writing throughout the school. Children are resilient and able to confidently talk about their work in English lessons and can apply age-appropriate skills and knowledge in their work. They are willing to take risks and learn from their mistakes, showing both perseverance and resilience in English learning.
Children’s English knowledge is well-embedded as the children are able to apply this wisdom into other curriculum areas.
All children read regularly in school and the majority of children read at least three times a week at home. There are good levels of communication with parents and carers and regular conversations are had to keep parents informed. Parents are quickly contacted for any child not reading regularly at home and these children are monitored and listened to in school.
Skills Progression
English One Page Profile