English
Reading
At Mount Pleasant we instil a love for reading. We want children to appreciate our rich and varied literature heritage and to develop a habit of reading widely and often so that they become lifelong readers. We want our children to have a secure basis in English as we fully appreciate how the skills learnt in this subject are vital in them accessing and achieving in the wider education and participating fully as successful members of society. We have a rigorous and well organised English curriculum that provides many purposeful opportunities for reading, writing and discussion. We use texts recommended by Pathways to Write some of which also link to our topic so that cross curricular learning can take place.
Phonics - In addition to daily English lessons, children excel in early reading through daily phonic sessions from Reception to Year 2. As well as daily phonic sessions, we have reading sessions where children have the opportunity to apply their phonics to read books and also develop their fluency skills.
Whole Class Reading - Reciprocal Reading- this is a whole class teaching of reading where children fully engage with texts using the skills of clarifying, predicting, questioning and summarising. Children are exposed to high quality and meaningful texts across the school.
Story Time - Love of reading is promoted extensively through a number of ways especially at story time, which is a calm and relaxing end to each day. We have carefully selected stories and poems which build upon literature from English lessons and widen children’s exposure even further. See the attached document of story time books across the school.
Libraries - We have invested heavily in two Libraries in the school; this was a deliberate decision to promote love of reading throughout the school. The EYFS-KS1 Library is furnished to promote excitement and engagement with bright colours, low level bookcases, cubby hole to curl up with a book, a fun enclosed area, and plenty of space for story time. The KS2 Library recognises the age of the children with a more ‘grown up feel’ as children become used to a more formal library approach.
Reading Challenges - We promote reading at home through our Reading Challenges with children recording in their Reading Journals any reading they do at home. Children then earn badges which they proudly wear on their school jumpers. The older children have reading challenge books that they are encouraged to take home and read.
Writing
We recognise that spoken language underpins the development of writing. The quality and variety of language that pupils hear and speak is vital for developing their vocabulary and grammar and understanding for reading and writing. Teachers ensure the continual development of pupils’ confidence and competence in their knowledge of spoken language and listening skills. They are assisted in making their thinking clear to themselves as well as to others and teachers ensure that pupils build secure foundations by using discussion.
Building on this foundation, we teach writing using a range of strategies which include:
Modelled Writing – teachers model writing and editing to demonstrate their high expectations. They verbally ‘think aloud’ in order to make the writing process explicit and provide a rich and varied vocabulary for the children to utilise in their own work.
Shared Writing – teachers use the ideas from the children to create shared pieces of writing. This enables the children to see the writing process in action as well as having pride and ownership over the finished piece.
Independent Writing- where most children work independently to create a piece of writing which shows the application of spelling, grammar and punctuation skills they have been practising. There are also opportunities for pupils to give and receive feedback for their writing in order to edit and improve it.
English activities are effectively differentiated so that all children feel empowered by their own accomplishment. Nevertheless, all children are given the chance to reach the same high level in every lesson. Effective differentiation and scaffolds are in place so that all children have the opportunity to meet every learning intention through having vocabulary word banks, writing frames and sentence starters, mixed ability groupings and adult support. Teachers also ensure that children are taught and know how to demonstrate greater depth in their outcomes of work, and this is reinforced through the success criteria which children refer to throughout their work and assess against on completion.
Displays are used throughout the school to promote discussion and writing. We recognise the important role display has in the teaching and learning of English. Each class displays work, which celebrates a variety of children’s achievements to a high standard of presentation. Aspects of the writing learning process are illustrated through displays including vocabulary enrichment, grammar and punctuation support and finished pieces of writing.
Planning and Resources
From nursery to year 6, Pathways to Write and Read texts are used as a foundation for creating our own exciting and varied English lessons. There are other resources throughout the school which support the teaching and learning of English:
The Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) is an evidence-based oral language intervention delivered to children EYFS who show weakness in their oral language skills and who are therefore at risk of experiencing difficulty with reading and writing.
Each class in EYFS and KS1 have a complete set of Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised phonics resources. These are used to support the teaching and learning of phonics.
EYFS and KS1 group rooms, contain books which are used for reading practise and are matched to the phonics sounds/phases. The books in the Year 2 group room also support children in improving their fluency.
KS2 group rooms have multiple copies of banded books that are used for one-to-one reading for individuals working below age related expectations.
The KS1 Library has an excellent stock of fiction and non-fiction books. The library is timetabled for EYFS and KS1 children to enjoy reading books in the library. They are able to take books out weekly.
Like the KS1 Library, the KS2 Library has an extensive range of fiction and non-fiction books and is used by children from Y3-Y6. Children access the library once a week with their classes and are able to take out books.
Children have access to an online reading resource at home- Oxford Reading Buddy. This site has hundreds of books and the children simply login to access the books at their correct level. Teachers can monitor how much a child reads at home and use the results from the quizzes they complete to determine how well they are reading.
Spag.com is used in UKS2 for children to practise their grammar skills both in school and at home. The site covers all areas of grammar and allows children to practise their skills by answering SATs style questions. Teachers use results from mini test children complete as formative assessment and plan accordingly.
Letter-join is used to develop continuous cursive handwriting across school. There are a variety of resources available to use in class, often making links with other areas of the curriculum such as phonics and spellings. It is desktop and tablet compatible so tasks can be set
Impact
As a result, we have a community of enthusiastic readers and writers who enjoy showcasing their developing literacy knowledge and skills. Children have a good stamina for writing and love to discuss and share their ideas. Our attainment at the end of KS2 for both reading and writing is above national for the Expected Standard and broadly in line with national for the Greater Depth standard, which despite low entry upon school is outstanding progress.