Reading
Intent:
In our holy family, we all thrive socially, academically and spiritually to our fullest potential.
Being able to read fluently, with comprehension, to a high standard enables our pupils to access and enjoy learning across the whole curriculum. Reading is also pleasurable, supporting pupils’ well-being. Therefore, we intend to provide the highest quality reading education for all, creating confident, competent and fluent readers so that they can thrive as they continue their development journey.
Implementation:
All children have a reading book which is aligned to their reading age,, which is identified through the Salford reading test. This supports pupils’ vocabulary development. This is alongside teachers scaffolding children by choosing and signposting appropriate books for the age, maturity and interests of the child within each book band. Children also choose a book of interest. Reading Records are sent home with children each night; there is an expectation that families read with their children three times each week.
As children move from Year 1 to Year 2, children develop reading fluency through the Little Wandle fluency scheme. From the end of Autumn term in Y2, children move away from Little Wandle. Each week there are four discrete reading lessons. Texts for these sessions are tied to the wider curriculum to support knowledge development and reduce cognitive load.
Each lesson begins with retrieval phonics, using the Little Wandle ‘Growing the Code’ poster. Repetition of common exception words from previous year groups is key to familiarise and embed a range of sight words. Spellings from HeadStart are also read, increasing children’s exposure to the words.
In Lesson 1 and 2, extracts of a text are provided. Repeated reading, through modelling, choral or echo reading, partner reading and individual reading, provides multiple opportunities to develop prosody. Pre-teaching of unfamiliar words, phrases or concepts supports comprehension. The skills associated with Reciprocal Reading are used on rotation to support pupils in engaging academically with the text.
In Lesson 3, the same pattern is followed with the addition of analysing grammatical features of the text.
In Lesson 4, pupils engage in more formal comprehension style activities.
Formal assessment is completed through the Salford reading test conducted in Autumn 1, Spring 1 and Summer 2. In addition, a termly comprehension test is completed. In Year 2 and Year 6, additional testing to support children to develop test technique and confidence can be completed using previous SATs papers. This also supports teachers to moderate pupil standards against National Expectations.
Writing
Intent
In our holy family, we all thrive socially, academically and spiritually to our fullest potential.
Being able to write to a high standard enables our pupils to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways across the whole curriculum. It promotes learning in all areas of the curriculum and enables pupils to share their understanding with others. Writing also provides a creative outlet to enable our pupils to be able to express themselves. Therefore, we intend to provide the highest quality writing education for all, creating confident, competent and fluent writers so that they can thrive as they continue their development journey.
Implementation
In September 2023, following an extensive review of the current English curriculum, a writing sequence was introduced drawing on a wide range of reading, pupil and teacher voice, internal and external moderation and training.
The expectation is that there are 4 writing lessons each week, varying in length depending on age and lesson focus but are generally between 45 minutes and 1 hour.
The focus of a writing sequence is embedded in an area of the curriculum. Across their time in school, children have the opportunity to write across a broad range of curriculum areas.
The writing sequence is separated into 5 phases.
Phase 1: Content building – using the links with another subject in the curriculum, knowledge and vocabulary is retrieved or taught. When the children know what they are writing about, firmly embedded within the purpose of another area of the curriculum, the quality of writing will improve and the cognitive load on the writer is reduced. Up to 10 spellings that are non-negotiable are identified, 5 content words, 5 from within the spelling curriculum.
Phase 2: WAGOLL – pupils are introduced to a handwritten model text within a related context to the one that they will write. They can physically see what we are expecting and staff are better able to assess the complexities of the task and match their teaching to the needs and expectations of the year group. A physical drawing of the structure of the text is created to help children create a visual understanding of the structure of the text.
Phase 3: Spot, teach, practise, draft – a series of lessons focuses on each section of the visual structure. Explicit teaching of key grammatical or compositional skills are taught, keeping within the linked context. Pupils practise verbally or in written form before they then draft the related section. This builds up a completed draft. This helps to maintain pupil engagement that is often lost when writing at length. By writing for another area of the curriculum, knowledge is continually being revisited and extended and provides a purpose for writing.
Phase 4: Children are taken through the editing process, the teacher using their assessment of pupils’ understanding so far to guide the process. Children edit their own drafts, paying close attention to the key spellings identified in Phase 1 as well as the explicitly taught objectives. Children are evaluating their work in relation to the expectations set and the WAGOLL that has been used.
Phase 5: Pupils publish their draft, following the edit, bringing together their learning from handwriting sessions. Whenever possible these are shared either on display, with a peer, with other classes or a wider audience.
Spelling
From the start of the Little Wandle Program, children are introduced to key words that they are expected to be able to spell. As pupils complete the Little Wandle Program, at the end of Year 1, children continue their spelling program through the use of the HeadStart spelling scheme. Across the year, children will learn a set of spellings linked to a spelling rule and tested on their recall of these spellings weekly. These words also are highlighted during writing sessions, where some words are used for effect within writing and become high profile for editing. In addition, in the daily reading sequence, the spelling words are read and defined. The combination of these methods raises the frequency that the spellings are met which increases pupils’ vocabulary and provides a purpose for learning these spellings. In addition, within the reading sequence in Years 2-6, phonics is revised and a Grow the Code chart is highly visible in all classrooms or in Working Wallets to continue to reinforce the importance phonics as a tool for reading and writing.
Grammar
Understanding the English language through grammar helps children understand what they are reading and is the building blocks of high quality writing. There is a high number of technical terms related to grammar. To support children be able to confidently talk about grammar and improve their work using a range of tools, children practise grammatical concepts. Four times each week, children from Year 1 to Year 6 take part in a low stakes quiz which revises terms from previous year groups as well as new terms from the current year group. Teachers use this to support their future planning. The terms are colour coded to signal to both pupils and teachers where the terms were introduced to raise expectations and subject knowledge for all.
Handwriting
Handwriting is an important skill that helps to develop stamina when writing and the ability to produce work that has a high quality appearance. Pride in our work helps children build their confidence and love of writing. We follow the Martin Harvey Handwriting scheme from Year 1. In EYFS, we use a range of fine motor skills activities including daily Dough Disco. The Little Wandle scheme introduces letter formation which leads into the handwriting font used throughout school.