English
Speaking and Listening
Speaking and Listening Progression
Reading and Phonics
Intent
At South Wootton Infant School we believe that all pupils should be able to read fluently and with confidence in any subject by the time they leave primary education. It is our intent to provide opportunities in their early years of education to develop the skills of word reading and comprehension in order to do this. We also have a strong belief that reading should be an enjoyable experience not just a skills exercise, and therefore staff choose texts related to children’s interests and talk about their own reading preferences at different opportunities.
Implementation
· Phonics is taught daily in every class, either as a whole class or is differentiated to groups of children depending on the Phase they are working within.
· Phonics teaching follows the Monster Phonics Scheme.
· In Reception and Year One phonic activities can be seen as part of continuous provision.
· In Year 2 phonics/spelling patterns are visible in class displays.
· Weekly Home Learning tasks across the school include phonics tasks when new sounds are learnt (YR/Y1) and spelling patterns (Y2)
· Reading opportunities happen daily in each class, either through shared reading (as a class), guided reading (as a group) or individual reading (to an adult). Children are able to practise word reading skills (decoding) and comprehension skills (understand what is being read to them, make inferences and predictions, express their views and understand the meaning behind the vocabulary used)
· Children are allocated books appropriate to their phonics level of reading and these can be chosen and taken home daily if they wish.
· Children visit the school library on a weekly basis where they are taught library skills and are able to choose a book to take home for the week.
· Year Groups have a yearly focus on an author. Reception – Nick Sharratt, Year One – Oliver Jeffers, Year Two – Anthony Browne
· Storytimes in class are a mix of fiction, non-fiction books and poetry. Books related to topics are displayed in classes for children to access freely.
· Key vocabulary is decided at the beginning of each topic and subject specific vocabulary is outlined in the SWIS Subject Progression grids.
· Parents are encouraged to read with their children at home regularly and are asked to log their child’s reading in a Reading Record.
Impact
· 85% of children in Reception achieved the EYFS ELG for Reading comprehension
· 73% of children in Reception achieved the EYFS ELG for Word Reading
· 91% of children in Year 1 achieved a pass in the Phonics Screening Check
· 70% of children in Year 2 achieved Expected Level or higher at the end of KS1
· 26% of children in Year 2 achieved Greater Depth at the end of KS1
If you were to walk into a Reading/Phonics lesson at SWIS you would see:
1) A phonics session broken down into separate parts; revisit/review, teach, practise, apply
2) Children actively engaged in their phonics learning whether this is through reading/writing activities and games, individually or as partners/group
3) Adults supporting children’s learning – discussing the meaning of words/phrases, asking them to make predictions and supporting the decoding of words.
4) Children enjoying the texts they are reading, engaging in discussions with adults and their peers.
5) Children making connections between the texts they are seeing in class eg noticing books by the same author/illustrator, talking about the characters and relating them to characters in other stories, noticing different versions of the same story etc.
How equality, diversity and citizenship is embedded in the teaching and learning of Reading/Phonics;
Equality: Through quality texts, children are encouraged to regard people of all faiths, races, cultures and family backgrounds with respect and tolerance and understand that different people may hold different views about what is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’
Diversity: Children experience a range of texts to celebrate diversity in its broadest sense, including cultural, sensory and neurodiversity. It’s important that not every book that features a diverse character is written to highlight difference. We want the texts at our school to demonstrate that, whatever a person’s background, gender or diversity, we share more in common than that which divides us. By reading a range of texts where differences are represented we can help our pupils to be more compassionate, caring citizens.
Citizenship: When reading/listening to stories our children are encouraged to think about ways in which they can become better people and make a difference to their community on a local, national and global scale. Texts are chosen to help children take responsibilities for their own actions, embrace fundamental British values and understand social, moral, spiritual and cultural ideas about the world we live in.
Writing
Intent
At South Wootton Infant school we believe that children should be inspired by writing and become confident and enthusiastic writers themselves. They should appreciate the joy that good creative writing brings to the reader and that information can be shared in an exciting way which inspires the reader to learn more. Through engaging and meaningful writing contexts our aim is:
· For writing to be seen as purposeful and enjoyable
· For each child to see themselves as a confident and successful writer
· For each child to achieve the level of writing of which they are capable
· For writing to be developed across a range of meaningful contexts and for different purposes and audiences, including themselves.
· For there to be a broad curriculum offering the full spectrum of writing genres
· For each child to develop the necessary writing skills to be a competent writer with an understanding of the basics – spelling, grammar, handwriting and punctuation.
· For each child to form letters correctly, leading to a fluent and legible style.
Implementation
We follow the national curriculum programme of study for English. Our long term writing plan is linked to our topic plans, so that writing is purposeful and meaningful. Medium term planning ensures progression of key skills and understanding in transcription and composition.
Opportunities for cross curricular writing are identified and planned for as a way of consolidating and applying writing skills across different text types and subjects. Stimuli and resources for teaching writing are carefully chosen and varied. A hook or stunning start often opens a new topic and engages the children's interest and enthusiasm to write. Talk for
Writing and Storytelling techniques are used throughout the school as a model with which to teach writing. The principle of being able to speak their writing before writing it, is embedded through both fiction and non-fiction writing and involves techniques such as story maps, boxing up ideas into paragraphs as well as literacy games to develop vocabulary. All classes follow the structure of imitation, innovation and independent writing with all units of work to ensure progression.
In the EYFS the children are provided with lots of exciting opportunities through mixed adult led and child- initiated activities and planned purposeful play to practice and develop their writing skills. The setting has a rich environment for writing with opportunities for writing happening everywhere be it inside or outside, role play areas or the writing area. A wide range of writing materials are always available to children in the classroom and a specific role play area which complements the termly topic is used to provide a real purpose for children’s early writing. We recognise both the importance of the teacher acting as scribe on occasions, in order to create stories and the importance of children writing freely as emergent writers. Alongside this, children take part in activities to encourage and develop gross and fine motor skills necessary to become successful writers.
Daily Phonics lessons explore quality texts and give pupils the opportunity to practice writing and reading skills. Teachers model these skills on regular basis across the curriculum.
Classrooms have displays of writing checklists and prompts to support teaching and learning. Working walls are also used in each classroom as prompts and reminders to stimulate children’s writing. As we value children’s writing, displays will include examples of work to celebrate achievements.
Impact
The impact on our children is that they have the knowledge and skills to be able to write successfully for a purpose and audience. An increase in children’s enjoyment, engagement, motivation and confidence in writing by giving them the words and tools to use creatively.
If you were to walk into a Literacy lesson at SWIS you would see:
· children, who are confident writers and have the ability to plan, draft and edit their own work.
· enthusiastic writers writing for a purpose.
· children who love writing
· adults modelling writing through guided writing activities using I do, we do, you do, method
British Values and Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Learning in Writing:
Social: Children have the opportunity to discuss their work with partners and the class. They use role play to test out their ideas, and take on different points of view to plan their writing.
Moral: Children have the opportunity to take on different perspectives and debate issues and use their in their persuasive writing. They can put themselves into the minds of characters they are writing about, and discuss whether their actions are right or wrong.
Spiritual: Children are encouraged to put emotion into their writing and empathise with the issues, characters they write about. In their historical writing they emphasise with how people felt during real life events.
Cultural: A range of texts are shared with the children from around the world. Children are then familiar with cultural diversity and bring this into their writing either by fact finding, empathising with characters or historical figures.
Pupil Voice
“I like writing a mini beast poem about ladybirds. I was proud when I finished.” Year R
“I like writing about monkeys. I don’t like writing when the spelling is tricky.” Year R
“I like making up stories and being creative. I like it when people listen to my writing.” Year 1
“I want to be a story writer and write fairy tales.” Year 1
“I like making up interesting characters” Year 2
“I like writing as I can put my ideas across to people” Year 2