Oakington Manor Primary School

Intent

The teaching of English at Oakington is designed to instil in our children a fluency and love of Reading, Writing and Speaking and Listening skills that will last them a lifetime. Providing children with these key skills will equip them to thrive in all other curriculum areas and build a strong foundation for learning throughout their school lives and into their careers in adulthood. We intend to develop children’s reading ability through a love of books, reading widely and often, reading with confidence, fluency and understanding both for pleasure and information.  In EYFS and KS1, we aim to equip our children with the phonics skills to decode words accurately, to blend for reading and to segment to spell. We aim for our children to speak audibly and fluently with an increasing command of Standard English and to listen and respond appropriately to adults and their peers. We intend for our children to be confident writers, using their grammar knowledge to write in a range of genres purposefully and coherently.

Implementation

Writing:

• English is delivered as a discreet subject with lessons planned within a secure teaching sequence, using engaging, quality texts as our starting point to develop children’s speaking and listening, reading and writing (Power of Reading).
• Writing takes place every day. Children are given opportunities for purposeful writing in all areas of children’s learning by modelling and sharing writing together. Teachers model the necessary grammar, vocabulary, purpose and structure for the children. Shared writing allows the teacher to use the children’s ideas to again model a piece of writing.
• Spellings, grammar and punctuation is taught within English lessons. Discreet teaching of some grammar skills are necessary and this is planned for. Children are then given opportunities to apply these new skills to their own writing, with support from teach modelling.
• Key vocabulary is taught in English and across the curriculum and children are encouraged to use this in their writing and speaking.
• Handwriting is taught discreetly 3 times a week in EYFS, KS1 and Year 3 (intervention is provided when needed for the rest of the school) using Start Bee.

Reading:

• Guided reading is introduced in Reception as soon as children have some word recognition skills. Guided reading is daily and includes written comprehension at least once a week.
• Active Read is used in whole class and guided reading sessions to teach discreet comprehension skills whenever children read a text. This means across all curriculum areas.
• Each classroom has a dedicated, welcoming book area which includes recommended reads for children to take books home to read for pleasure.
• Parents are encouraged to read with their children daily and record in the Reading journal. Individual reading books are from a variety of reading schemes to give children a wide choice of books. The children are also able to use the online Bug Club at home as well as school to access a wide variety of reading books at their level.
• Phonics is taught daily using Bug Club Phonics from EYFS to KS1.Children are grouped into their phonic phases within the class and taught how to read and write using their phonic knowledge.
• The children play many phonic games to develop their understanding of how sounds make words. They learn to blend for reading and segment for spelling new words.

Speaking and Listening:

• Pobble365 (online resource) is used daily to facilitate speaking and listening skills. Children are encouraged to speak audibly and to listen carefully to their peers.

• Talk Homework is set fortnightly to encourage talk at home so children can practise using language. It encourages the widening of vocabulary, experiences and knowledge. The better children talk, the better they can write.

• Assemblies – Our children practise speaking to an audience through the many lass, year group and sharing assemblies. They speak to an audience consisting of parents and pupils.

Impact

• Children will achieve age related expectoration across all areas of English.
• Children will speak with clarity, expression and confidence and communicate their thoughts whilst listening to those of others.
• Children will develop a lifelong love of reading for pleasure and be able to read for information.
• Children will read accurately with fluency and expression. They will be able to explain and discuss what they have read by using their inferential and deduction skills.
• Children will have a confident handwriting style and pace, and stamina for writing.
• Children will use a wide range of vocabulary and both in their speech and writing.
• Children will write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts and purposes.