Tudor Church of England Primary School

Intent

At Tudor Church of England Primary School our aim is to ensure children succeed in English through providing an exciting curriculum and developing a love of speaking and listening, reading and writing.

We understand the huge importance of reading as the key to success and we carefully select books from across a wide range of books from our own literary heritage and from other cultures and traditions. Our English lessons explore texts thoroughly and allow children to become immersed in the world of books which link to our wider curriculum. Reading to our children as well as with them, is something we are passionate about.

We encourage our children to be confident speakers and careful listeners in a nurturing environment where they speak for a variety of reasons and situations so that they can express their ideas and feelings and communicate to different audiences for different purposes.

We follow a ‘Take one Book’ approach to our learning and creatively use texts to write in different genres, encouraging children to think about the purpose, audience and type of text they are writing.

Our English curriculum reflects our school values

T – Try Hard

·        Our children will do their best in English

·        Aim high

Our children will do their best in English work, taking responsibility for their own learning. They will challenge themselves when offered differing task levels.

U – Understanding

·        Our children will work together

·        Develop empathy

·        Listen to one another

·        Respect each other

We will ensure our children are collaborative learners, providing opportunities to work in pairs and larger groups and be able to listen respectfully to each other, participate in discussion and take turns.

D – Discover

·        Our children access range of writers including BAME writers

·        Access different genres and text types

·        Learn about the world through newspapers and digital news

We will ensure that children read from a range of writers, styles and cultures. Children will access texts from BAME writers

O - Openness

·        Our children will learn to be open to new ideas

·        Understand that not all sources are reliable

·        Be able to debate with each other respecting different ideas

We will respect the fact that people have different thoughts, ideas and values and ensure that the school is a safe place to share these ideas respectfully and be respected. We will be discerning about where we get our information and understand that sources can be biased.

R – Reach Out

·        Our children will have wider opportunities in English

·        They will have real life opportunities to read and write

·        Make community links

We will use the resources in our local area such as the library and the theatre to visit and perform at. We will have visitors to school from the library and the high schools to ensure children have access to the arts. We will use our writing skills to reach out to our community and have real life opportunities to write.

 

Implementation

We follow the National Curriculum for English.

Reading is integral to our English lessons and we have dedicated lessons for reading as well as writing to specifically teach the skills of reading. Writing includes spelling and punctuation and grammar.

We follow Jolly Phonics in EYFS and in KS1.

We use the ‘Take one Book’ approach and allow our children the time to become immersed in a book and text type.

In EYFS and KS1, children read books that match the phonic phase they are working on in phonically decodable books. In years 2-6 we use Accelerated Reader to ensure children have understood what they have read in their independent reading and to ensure they are reading books that are the right level for them. Additionally, we use Rising Stars assessments.

We use the award winning Reading Gladiators programme in both years 4 and 6 which introduces our more able readers to a wider range of authors and genres and develops debating and presentation skills as well as hand-selected high quality texts from the Just Imagine Centre.

Our school takes part in World Book Day and encourages the children to use the day to expand their vocabulary by having a ‘dress as a word’ theme.

We expect that reading is encouraged and practiced both at home as well as in school.

We encourage and develop our children’s speaking and listening in drama opportunities, including a LKS2 play, performed in a real theatre

 

Impact

The impact of our English Curriculum is evidenced in children’s work both in books and on the classroom and corridor walls and by talking to the children.

 

School staff make constant daily assessments of children through use of whiteboards, verbal feedback and marking of books and other work.

 

In reading, we use the Accelerated Reader scheme in years 2-6 to assess children’s understanding of the books they are reading in the AR quizzes completed at the end of each book.

 

In year 1, phonics checks are made regularly in advance of the Year 1 national phonics check.

 

In years 2-6, formal assessments in reading and SPAG are made termly using Rising Stars test materials. In year 6, SATs reading papers are used throughout the school year to ensure children are making progress on standardised scores.

 

The school uses Target Tracker as an ongoing assessment tool to assess learning objectives throughout the year. Pupil progress meetings are held termly with SLT to discuss the progress of individual children.

 

The English subject lead with SLT takes in books throughout the school year for book scrutiny, often carried out alongside governors. Lesson observations are made by SLT throughout the year as well as learning walks.