English

Subject Leaders: Mr Cope and Miss Wilson

At Etchells Primary School we aim to develop pupils’ English abilities within an integrated programme of Speaking and Listening, Reading, Writing, Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation. Pupils are given a broad and balanced approach to the teaching of English, with opportunities to consolidate and reinforce skills taught across the curriculum. 

Reading:

Our whole school approach is to have a ‘Reading rich’ curriculum, this includes:

• supporting children to develop a love of books and reading
• supporting children to engage in speaking, listening and responding
• enabling children to share in the reading process with an experienced reader
• supporting children to develop a love of books and reading
• promoting independent reading

Some pupils receive targeted interventions and attend pre reading sessions, where extra support is needed in decoding and comprehension as our ultimate goal is that all pupils:

• learn to read easily and fluently through daily phonics in Key Stage 1 and continuing in Year 3
• read widely through our use of differing class texts and high-quality books in classrooms
• read for pleasure using reading partners, quiet reading time, listening to an adult read and class audio books
• read to find information across the curriculum

How reading is taught at Etchells Primary School:

Across school, reading is taught through whole class reading sessions, focussing on decoding and comprehension. Alongside this, and where appropriate, children across school are heard reading weekly with an adult. Etchells has a diverse community with 47% of children speaking English as an additional language and 12.5% pupil premium, for this reason, our reading structure has been carefully developed and sequenced to support vocabulary acquisition and oracy.

Comprehension:

• Alongside the teaching of decoding, whole class reading is taught using the content domain. The content domains set out the relevant elements from the National Curriculum programme of study (2014) for English at key stage 2 that are assessed in the English reading test. The content domain focuses on the comprehension elements of the National Curriculum.
• In KS2, the children have 5 discrete comprehension lessons a week focussing on learning the skills needed to understand a text (KS1 5 over a two-week period). As a school, we use the Scofield and Sims Comprehension Complete Series. This is an essential companion for teaching reading comprehension which is written by a team of expert authors, it provides everything needed to develop the individual comprehension skills identified in the National Curriculum, alongside the broader vocabulary and background knowledge required for effective reading comprehension.

Writing:

At Etchells we have created a bespoke approach for Writing lessons. It is tailored to meet the needs of our EAL, PP and SEND pupils. Much of our planning comes from Jane Considine Writing Unit Plans, which has a very specific approach to writing lessons, using a mixture of immersion days and sentence stacking- which support the development of vocabulary. These units are mostly booked based focussing on bringing the elements needed to write to life with real life experiences. Following a Jane Considine unit, teachers then plan and deliver a follow up unit which focuses on depending the children’s understanding of grammar features appropriate to each year group. Teachers’ planning includes a wide variety of activities to engage the children, including:

• shared reading
• text interrogation/creating success criteria
• DEAL
• vocabulary generating
• teaching of grammar and punctuation objectives
• modelled and shared writing
• short burst writing 
• planning
• writing
• self and peer editing

Lessons are differentiated using the Etchells learning challenges below. Key vocabulary is highlighted and discussed during the lesson. As well as this, opportunities are given for peer and self-assessment. 

• At Etchells we understand the importance of and place a great emphasis on proofreading and editing as being a crucial element of the writing process, as such, we have developed a consistent approach to proof reading which is used across school. This is accompanied by proof reading ladders which are used to support the children’s independence.

Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPAG)

The National Curriculum makes it clear that learning vocabulary is the key to ‘learning and progress across the curriculum,’ since it allows our children to access a wider range of words when writing and to understand and comprehend texts efficiently. It states that…opportunities for teachers to enhance pupils’ vocabulary arise naturally from their reading and writing. As vocabulary increases, teachers should show pupils how to understand the relationships between words, how to understand nuances in meaning, and how to develop their understanding of, and ability to use, figurative language. They should also teach pupils how to work out and clarify the meanings of unknown words and words with more than 1 meaning. 

At Etchells Primary School the planning, teaching and learning of spelling, punctuation and grammar begins in EYFS and continues in Key Stage 1 and 2 with the National Curriculum document and using Spelling Shed. The Spelling, vocabulary, grammar and punctuation glossary in the National Curriculum statutory appendices - on spelling, vocabulary, grammar and punctuation - gives an overview of the specific features that should be included in teaching the programmes of study. Spelling, grammar and punctuation skills are integrated into writing units and, in some instances, taught in separate lessons as a review. 

How spelling is taught at Etchells: 

• Spelling Shed is used to teach spelling patterns 
• Spelling Shed's approach to spelling involves the relationship between sounds and written symbols as well as using morphology to help spell through meaning.
• The carefully selected word lists and engaging activities provide opportunities to incorporate phonics and meaning to strengthen spelling skills and build vocabulary acquisition.
• phonics lessons are continued for those children who still require it (particularly, but not exclusively those who have not passed the phonics test).