Subject Vision

At Earl Spencer Primary School, we want our pupils to develop their fluency in reading and provide opportunities for them to develop their vocabularies so that they are more able to access a wider range of texts and expand their horizons to a world outside of school. As a result of this, we make reading a priority in school and immerse our children in a reading rich environment and expose them to a wide and varied reading experience. As a school, we understand the pressures of social deprivation and the impact this can have on resources at home and the scope that families have to effectively support the many aspects of school life. In recognition of this, we strive to ensure that all children have access to a high quality reading experience that will enable them to reach their full potential while at Earl Spencer Primary and prepare them effectively for the next stage in their educational journey. We want children to enjoy reading the wide range of texts that they experience at school. By guiding children to reflect on the texts they have read in terms of their likes and dislikes we feel that children will become more able to select their texts more effectively in the future which will help in fostering an enjoyment of reading. We also want our children to see that reading has a purpose, that it is an important life skill and that an ability to read will serve them well and improve their life chances. As part of this, we want the children to understand that reading is not always from a book.

Intent

At Earl Spencer, we believe that all pupils should be able to confidently communicate their knowledge, ideas and emotions through their writing. We want pupils to acquire a wide vocabulary, a solid understanding of grammar and be able to spell new words by effectively applying the spelling patterns and rules they learn throughout their time in primary school. We want them to write, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences. We believe that all pupils should be encouraged to take pride in the presentation of their writing, in part by developing a good, joined, handwriting style by the time they move to secondary school. We believe that all good writers refine and edit their writing over time, so we want children to develop independence in being able to identify their areas for improvement in all pieces of writing, and editing their work effectively during and after the writing process. We do not put ceilings on what pupils can achieve in writing and we do not hold pre-conceptions about any pupils’ ability to make progress. We understand the importance of parents and carers in supporting their children to develop grammar, spelling and composition skills, and so we want to encourage a home-school partnership which enables parents and carers to understand how to enhance the skills being taught in school.

Implementation

Classroom organisation:

We teach English as whole class lessons so that all children have access to the age-related skills and knowledge contained in the National Curriculum. Within lessons, teachers and teaching assistants target support for slower graspers to enable them to achieve at an age-related level wherever possible. This may involve a greater level of scaffolding and access to additional support materials such as Writers Toolkits, Word Banks or a greater level of modelling. Rapid graspers are given opportunities to extend their writing in a variety of ways, including by showing greater control in their writing, a deeper understanding of the impact that their writing has on the reader and by using a higher level of vocabulary and grammar features.

Spellings: 

Spellings are taught according to the rules and words contained in Appendix 1 of the English National Curriculum. Teachers use the Spelling Shed Scheme to support their teaching and to provide activities that link to the weekly spellings. Children are given spellings to learn each week and are given a spelling test the following week. When marking work, teachers identify up to three words that children have spelt incorrectly from within that child’s known ability and they write these at the end of the work so the child has the opportunity to write the correct spelling three times.

Grammar and Punctuation:

Grammar and punctuation knowledge and skills are taught through English lessons as much as possible. Teachers plan to teach the required skills through the genres of writing that they are teaching, linking it to the genre to make it more connected with the intended writing outcome. Teachers sometimes focus on particular grammar and punctuation skills as standalone lessons, if they feel that the class need additional lessons to embed and develop their understanding or to consolidate skills.

Marking and Feedback:

Feedback and marking should be completed, where possible, within the lesson. All marking and feedback is given in line with our marking and feedback policy.

Summative Assessment

Summative assessments will be entered into Insight regularly. Teachers will use their professional judgement to determine whether a child is working within age-related expectations, above or below. They will base their judgements on the quality of the extended writing that pupils produce at the end of each unit, and determine to what extent pupils have met the agreed success criteria for that genre of writing. Teachers will refer to the Symphony Writing Assessment criteria for their year groups.

Impact

Pupils will 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 supported.

Pupils will have a wide vocabulary that they use within their writing.

Pupils will have a good knowledge of how to adapt their writing based on the context and audience.

Pupils will leave primary school being able to effectively apply spelling rules and patterns they have been taught.

Parents and carers will have a good understanding of how they can support spelling, grammar and composition and home, and contribute regularly to homework.

The % of pupils working at ARE within each year group will be at least in line with national averages.

The will be no significant gaps in the progress of different groups of pupils (e.g. disadvantaged vs non- disadvantaged)

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