English Reading Skills and Knowledge Document
English Writing Skills and Knowledge Document
WRITING
Intent
At Elmlea, we want all children to be passionate about writing and appreciate the power of their words. Through our culture of reading, we foster a language-rich environment where children are eager to express themselves effectively in both the spoken and written word. Our progressive and creative English curriculum enables children to become skilful and confident writers.
Implementation
Our largely story-based curriculum ignites our children’s creativity and provides the inspiration for a range of written and spoken outcomes over the course of every year. Units always begin with an exciting ‘hook’ be it a glimpse of the story, a thought-provoking illustration/object or meaningful experience such as a workshop or trip. From mark-making at the beginning of their Reception year to writing simple sentences to writing narratives and beyond, children build the skills they need to become successful writers. Alongside our ‘Little Wandle’ phonics teaching, children learn to write letters linked to sounds, spell phonetically and confidently whilst writing sentences and develop their own writing style linked to our termly topics. Opportunities for writing across a variety of genres is a key feature of our English curriculum at Elmlea and develops carefully as children progress through key stages.Following the exciting writing ‘hook’, children then explore the text genre and work together to identify its features. These features we call ‘tools’ which form the ‘toolkit’ of what’s needed to write successfully in a particular genre. It allows the teaching of key grammatical skills to be woven purposefully into the curriculum, equipping children with the confidence to write independently and successfully.
A typical writing cycle involves: engaging, deconstructing, reconstructing, planning, drafting, editing and improving, and celebrating their work. Teacher feedback forms a significant part of the writing journey and enables children to independently improve and adapt their writing.
Each term, children complete a fully independent write, an opportunity to demonstrate what they have learnt over the course of the unit. These outcomes are published into special writing progress books/folders which stay with the children over their time at Elmlea. They inform teacher judgements enabling best support and next steps to move the childrens’ writing forward. Children take huge pleasure in the process and love to see their writing progress.We promote high standards of presentation and alongside writing lessons, children spend time developing a neat and efficient handwriting style.Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar: Spelling is taught through discrete weekly lessons which follow a progressive series of spelling patterns (led by ‘Little Wandle’ phonics in KS1) and is assessed through weekly and termly spelling tests. Children are provided with personalised weekly spelling lists to ensure that they are consistently challenged and are offered a range of tools and time each day in which to learn and practice their spellings and the meanings of words they have been given. Vocabulary and spelling are a central focus of feedback across the curriculum, and lists of key topic vocabulary are displayed and utilised in all classrooms. Grammar and punctuation are also taught both through discrete lessons, and as part of students’ regular writing lessons. For more information about our spelling programme, and examples of word lists and spelling tools that we use, please have a look at the documents in the links below:
Enrichment and Support:
- Visiting theatres and shows (e.g. Shakespeare)
- Poetry recitals in assemblies
- Yearly ‘Creative Writing Week’ where the whole school immerse themselves in a theme (mysterious eggs, unearthed coins, curious keys)
- In Reception our role-play areas provide independent writing opportunities linked to our termly topics that are chosen by the children.
- Productions feature highly at Elmlea! EYFS, Year 1 and Year 2 enjoy performing in the Nativity/Winter shows and their class assembly performance once a year linked to their topic area. Each year in KS2 the children take part in an all-singing-all-dancing musical spectacle; a wonderful opportunity to develop their performance and oracy skills through drama.
- Writing opportunities take place where KS2 children can write to their buddy classes
Impact
Our approach to writing fosters independent writers who are motivated to express themselves effectively for their given audience. The purposeful process encourages children to continually strive to achieve their best and makes for a real celebration of final outcomes, be them beautiful publications, sending writing off to authors or competitions, performances or the simple pleasure of reading aloud their story with a friend.
READING
Implementation
In EYFS/KS1, Phonics and reading is taught daily in order to enable children to develop fluency and understanding. At Elmlea, we use the ‘Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised’ scheme which provides our school with a systematic synthetic phonics programme that is progressive and supportive of both word reading and comprehension. Children are taught phonemes (sounds) for graphemes (letters) and how each letter is written. Oracy and phonological awareness, where children begin to blend sounds together and segment sounds in words to spell, starts in the Reception year and builds as the children move through each key stage.
Within each year group, there are specific sounds that are learnt and children are exposed to these new sounds within a range of books where they can consolidate their learning. The books that the children take home to read with parents/carers link to their current reading stage and provide daily challenge and practice. Children also learn to sight read common exception words that they cannot use their sounds to decode and these progress as they move between key stages in the form of spelling lists.
Daily story times, as a whole class or small group, enable children to become immersed in a wide range of literature (such as traditional tales, poems and rhymes). The texts we choose are usually above the children’s independent reading capability, in order to expand their vocabulary and facilitate rich talk with peers. Children develop the ability to infer meaning from stories, predict what they think might happen next and ask questions on character and storyline within our supportive learning environment.
In KS2, children continue to develop their reading fluency and comprehension, predominately through whole- class Guided Reading lessons. To maintain consistency across the two schools, The Little Wandle Scheme is still used to support children that require it. Upon completing the phonics programme, the Fluency Programme is then available to improve the comprehension of pupils that are then able to decode fluently. Alternatively, our wide selection of Stretch and Challenge books are aimed at children who need to increase their reading speed and would benefit from a longer book with more complex grammatical structures. For children in key stage two that are fluent decoders, they work through the Collin’s Big Cat Coloured Book Bands and are benchmarked every term. Following this, they then become free readers where they are able to choose any book they like from the book corner or library.
Each week, in whole class guided reading sessions, a particular text is explored during two guided reading sessions and a comprehension lesson. Teachers select extended texts which are captivating and rich in vocabulary, in order to build stamina and provide challenge. Teachers also create opportunities for the children to build links in their learning through text selection. Texts will often be selected to link to the children’s writing theme and/or the other areas of the curriculum in order to provide an immersive experience of a particular genre or topic. This enables children to draw upon prior learning and their wider knowledge. We encourage children to identify and learn from individual authors’ styles and to then apply similar writing structures to their own written work.
Whole class reading sessions provide opportunities for reading aloud and quality discussions which help to develop children’s understanding of language and expand their vocabulary as well as build upon key reading skills. We promote active reading and text marking during guided reading sessions as a strategy to promote independent reading for meaning. Through this, the children are supported to make sense of new, unfamiliar words and identify the key parts of the text. Reading skills are taught through the ‘Reading Detectives’: Deducer, Retriever, Summariser, Link-Maker, Predictor, Comparison Maker, Word Finder and Style-Seeker. Each week, children focus on specific skills and discuss questions that develop these areas of comprehension. In addition, each class enjoys a class book every term, the title of which is displayed on every classroom door. This is read several times a week and provides opportunities for reading for pleasure and for the teacher to model how to read aloud with expression.
Enrichment
During their time at Elmlea, our children benefit from a huge range of opportunities that further enrich their experience of our English curriculum.
- We make continual use of our fantastic, well-stocked onsite libraries and in class book corners
- We often collaborate with Roustabout Theatre to provide in-house performances where the children are immersed in a particular play or performance
- Productions feature highly at Elmlea! EYFS, Year 1 and Year 2 enjoy performing in the Nativity and their class assembly performance once a year linked to their topic area. Each year, in KS2, the children take part in an all-singing-all-dancing musical spectacle, a wonderful opportunity to develop their performance and oracy skills through creative storytelling.
- In Reception our role-play areas provide independent reading opportunities linked to our termly topics that are chosen by the children.
- An annual ‘Book Week’ jam-packed with guest speakers, authors, as well as highly skilled practitioners leading a range of workshops, competitions and World Book Day celebrations
- An annual Book Fair in which the children can discover new authors and purchase new books, allowing the school to subsequently add a vast quantity of new books to its ever-growing onsite libraries.
- Regular teacher book reviews and suggestions.
Impact
Our children have a positive attitude towards reading and can make ambitious and achievable book choices to facilitate reading for pleasure. By the time our children leave Elmea, they have experienced a broad, diverse range of literature, supplementing their appreciation of the world around them and have embedded the comprehension skills to enable a deep engagement in a text. We trust this provides our children with the greatest opportunity to enjoy a life-long love of reading.
