English

Intent

Our inspiring and exciting English curriculum here at Scott Broadwood will enable 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 want to develop children who write with confidence and accuracy for a variety of purposes and audiences whilst using a rich vocabulary and developing their own individual style. By the end of Year 2, we expect most children to be able to write with grammatical accuracy and be able to apply spelling patterns correctly using a neat, consistent handwriting style. 

Implementation

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. Children are encouraged to develop effective communication skills in readiness for later life. Here at Scott Broadwood School, children are given regular opportunities to speak out in worship, in front of the class when presenting work, drama, debate and group activities. We also have a strong and active Junior Leadership Team, which represents the voices of each class. 

Phonics and early reading

Children begin their reading journey at Scott Broadwood through the rigorous Monster Phonics programme. They receive daily phonics sessions from Reception and are regularly assessed. To support learning to read, we provide children with decodable reading books which are matched to our phonics programme and the grapheme-phoneme correspondences the children are learning. Children gain a cumulative progression in phonics knowledge.

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, 

As a school we are in the early stages of adopting ‘Book Talk’ by Jane Considine. It is a systematic way to teach reading strategies across the whole school. It is underpinned by certain guiding principles: 

• Pupils are organised into reading attainment groups and share a set of the ‘same’ books pitched at their level with appropriate challenge. 
• All pupils in the classroom will be accessing narrative, non-fiction or poetry at the same time. 
• Pupils will receive a weekly 30 minute ‘Book Talk’ session and take turns to intensively work with the class teacher on reading strategies and comprehension skills. 
• Each Book Talk session is layered with open-ended whole class questions to tackle the three layers of the reading rainbow. 
• Book Talk is structured with three reasons to read. The reasons to read are taken from ‘The Reading Rainbow’. One reason is taken from the top layer of the rainbow under FANTASTIC. The second reason is taken from the STYLISTIC layer. The third reason is taken from the ANALYTICS layer. These are introduced to the pupils in chunks and it is through these generic lenses they think and discuss their reading material.
• Informal Book Talk encourages children to share their own reading for pleasure in our wonderful library, class or outdoor reading areas. 

To provide children with a breadth of reading opportunities we use a range of engaging texts from the library in order to further promote reading. These are book banded into coloured levels to provide progression and engage children in a love of reading. Once a week, each class visits the library to choose a book to read for pleasure.  This can be taken home and returned/changed the following week.  Every child is invited to bring a book that they enjoy to share in daily Collective Worship.

Each child takes home a ‘Planner,’ where they are encouraged to read on a daily basis and record comments. Books sent home to read link to the phonics sound being learnt and also to the colour book band level which the children are currently reading at.  

Our lowest 20% of children take part in ‘Literacy for All’, a programme designed to enhance the children’s learning in phonics, sight word knowledge and reading for pleasure.

Writing

Within the Early Years setting, children are encouraged to begin making marks on paper, before learning correct letter formation and using their understanding of phonics to build words and form sentences. 

At Scott Broadwood we are in the early stages of adopting "The Write Stuff" by Jane Considine to bring a whole school approach to the mechanics of writing. We use "Sentence Stacking" to engage children with short, intensive moments of learning that they can then immediately apply to their own writing. Each writing lesson is based on a sentence model, broken into three chunks: 

1. Initiate section – a stimulus to capture the children’s imagination and set up a sentence. 

1. Model section – the teacher models a sentence that outlines clear writing features and techniques. 
2. Enable section – the children write their sentence, following the model. 

Children are challenged to ‘Deepen the Moment’ which requires them to draw upon previously learnt skills and apply them to their writing during that chunk.  

Spelling, punctuation and grammar

In the EYFS and KS1, children are given spellings to practise and/or learn, taken from the Monster Phonics programme.  These are practised regularly in phonics lessons and are expected to be seen correctly in children’s independent writing.  Grammar and punctuation are taught discretely using a range of resources and non-negotiables.  Children are encouraged and expected to use this knowledge in their independent writing.

Impact

Children at Scott Broadwood flourish and 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 with accurate spelling, grammar and punctuation and legible handwriting.