The National Curriculum (2014) forms the basis for all subject teaching ensuring continuity and progression in an age-related curriculum. In addition, teachers make sure the content is relevant and stimulating by delivering through themes and topics; trying to make as many meaningful cross-curricular links as possible.
The English Curriculum at Anthony Bek Primary School has been developed to recognise the importance of English in every aspect of daily life and to develop children’s love of reading, writing, spelling, handwriting and discussion. As a school, we recognise the importance of nurturing a culture where children love to read, take pride in their writing and can clearly and accurately adapt their language and style for a range of contexts. We want to inspire children to be confident in the art of speaking and listening and to be able to use discussion to communicate and further their learning.
Our intent is to enable children to:
• Read easily, fluently and with good understanding throughout their time at school
• Develop and maintain the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information
• Write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences
• Develop a love of writing and to be able to express their thoughts and ideas clearly and creatively through the written word
• Re-read, edit and improve their own writing to make themselves the best writer they can be
• Confidently use the essential skills of grammar, punctuation and spelling
• Acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language
• Use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and clearly explain their understanding and ideas within a group setting
• Become competent in the arts of speaking and listening
We ensure that our English teaching and learning provides many purposeful opportunities for reading, writing and discussion. We use a wide variety of experiences, quality texts and resources to motivate and inspire our children at Anthony Bek. All pupils receive a daily English lesson, daily Guided Reading lesson, daily Spelling lesson and daily Handwriting lesson. We are making them the best version of themselves that they can be! Teachers also ensure that cross curricular links with our Wider Curriculum subjects are interwoven where appropriate.
Our implementation:
• Teachers create a positive reading and writing culture in school, where both are promoted, enjoyed and considered ‘a pleasure’ for all pupils
• Promotion of reading through teachers reading out loud regularly to their class
• Pupils in EYFS and KS1 to have daily phonics sessions, following RWI Phonics
• Year 1-6, to use the RWI Spelling scheme, delivering daily sessions
• Age appropriate spellings sent home weekly for pupils to practise in line with the RWI Spelling Scheme - tested each Monday
• Daily Guided Reading sessions in all classes, focusing on the reading domains and creating high levels of oracy
• Pupils are being adventurous with vocabulary choices, looking for ideas from our Word of the Week display in classrooms
• Pupils to acquire strategies to enable them to become independent learners in English (spelling rules and patterns and how to tackle unfamiliar words when reading)
• Working Walls – all classes aiding pupils and guiding them through the process of Imitation, Innovation and Independent Application (T4W approach)
• Vocabulary promoted through displays in class, all curriculum areas, enhancing and encouraging a wider use of vocabulary
• Vocabulary mats to be used where needed and thesauruses and dictionaries which are easily accessible for pupils to use
• Teaching a range of genres across the school (progressing in difficulty) both in English and other curriculum areas; resulting in pupils being exposed to, and become knowledgeable about, literary styles, authors and genres. They can express preferences and give opinions, supported by evidence, about different texts
• Displays of writing, in class and shared areas, giving a purpose and audience, to encourage pride in work and to show that work is valued
• Reading and writing events (throughout the year) to encourage and promote enjoyment and opportunities to develop lifelong learning
The impact and measure of this is to ensure children not only acquire the appropriate age-related knowledge linked to the National Curriculum, but also skills which equip them to progress from their starting points, and within their everyday lives. At Anthony Bek, this is our key for success.
Long term, the impact will allow pupils to:
• Be confident in the art of speaking and listening and to be able to use discussion to communicate and further their learning
• Be able to read fluently both for pleasure and to further their learning
• Enjoy writing across a range of genres
• Pupils of all abilities will be able to succeed in all English lessons because work will be appropriately scaffolded
• Have a wide vocabulary and be adventurous with vocabulary choices within their writing
• Have a good knowledge of how to adapt their writing based on the context and audience
• Leave primary school being able to effectively apply spelling rules and patterns they have been taught
• Make good and better progress from their starting points to achieve their full potential
Sam Richards (KS2 English Lead)
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Word of the Week
Word of the Week: Children in Years 2 – 6 will be given a new word each week to try and use in their writing and in their conversations. (Year 1 will start this initiative mid year.) The word will be discussed in the classroom and up on display, allowing the children to fully grasp the understanding of the word. Children will also log this in their personal organiser, to promote discussions at home. Children can then earn 'beks' for using this work (correctly) in their writing throughout the week. Please ask your child what their 'Word of the Week' is this week!
At Anthony Bek, we follow a very strict process in how we teach Guided Reading across the school.
Seat the children in pairs but with a text each, stuck in books. The children need to be with someone from a group just above or just below them (not LA with HA). Before teaching, a challenging text should be selected by the teacher and broken down into bitesize, readable passages.
From the passage to be read that day, staff write two words on Working Wall that are challenging vocabulary, one that has been chosen as a powerful word or phrase and one that children will replace with another word (a synonym).
It is the children's responsibility to find that word, replace it and write the definition in their Guided Reading books.
Staff read the first paragraph by encouraging the children to “finger read” or by using a ruler, modelling changes in pace, intonation etc. afterwards, staff choose children to read a chunk at a time out loud. As the sentences/chunks/paragraphs are read, discuss any of the highlighted words that we come across. Staff ask the children questions as they go along, ensuring that children are fully understanding the material that is being read.
Once at the end of a paragraph, use paired talk to discuss what that paragraph is actually about. Get the children to come up with one word on their table to write at the side of the paragraph to describe what it is about (summarising the material). Repeat this for as many paragraphs as you are reading during that day.
Children then have a select number of questions to answer based on that paragraph, following the reading domains of: Retrieval, Summarise, Inference, Prediction, Meaning, Language and Comparison.
This format will be repeated on Tues, Wed, and Thursday. These days also begin with a quick recap/summary together as a class. This will also help any children who were absent the day before.
On Friday the children will have some questions written out for them on paper, based on the whole week's text. These are set out in a similar format to SATs questions, allowing children to become familiar with the layout etc.
At Anthony Bek, we follow the Read Write Inc. Spelling scheme.
This scheme is for children in Years 2 to 6 who have completed Read Write Inc. Phonics and for children who have met the English National Curriculum expectations for reading in Year 2.
The reasoning behind the use of this scheme is as follows:
To enable to allow us meet the spelling expectations of the National Curriculum 2014
To raise standards in spelling
To provide consistency and progression in the teaching of spelling
To help support children to enable them to be more confident at spelling.
Direct teaching underpins the programme. Spelling is taught cumulatively and systematically, with deliberate, focused practice. Constant revision and practice are key to children’s success.
Each unit is introduced with a short video. It helps children to learn spellings with common patterns and uses rules in order to help them recall spellings as well as teaching exceptions to these rules. Individual workbooks allow children to practise their spellings and the teaching naturally follows on from the Spell Review part of the RWInc phonics programme taught. Therefore the children are already proficient at using dots (for individual sounds) and dashes (for digraphs) and prefixes and suffixes can be added to root words to help them to spell with greater accuracy, understanding and confidence.
Children learn the routines and behaviours for each activity, and practise these until they use them automatically. This allows them to focus on what matters most – learning to spell.
The spelling programme: