English

Phonics

HEARTS Phonics is the systematic, synthetic phonics programme used at Waterman Primary School. Based on the principles of Early Reading Research, the programme ensures that the teaching of phonics is systematically delivered with fidelity. Robust structures are followed to ensure children revisit, recall, practice and apply skills though the use of repeated reading. Clear benchmarks of progress are ambitious to ensure all children are fluent readers by the spring term of year one. 

In EYFS and Year 1, children are taught to read and spell through three discrete daily phonics sessions of 15 minutes. Children learn to read common exception words through regular practice.

Children learn to understand that individual letters and combinations of letters represent sounds in words (grapheme- phoneme- correspondences or GPCs). In phonics sessions, they practise quick recognition of these GPCs. Children will have maximum opportunities to learn and practise blending and segmenting skills. Children revise previous learning in every session so that it becomes embedded. Within each session, children practise and apply these skills by reading fully decodable texts that are matched to their phonics knowledge.

Any child at risk of falling behind is identified immediately with targeted support given using the HEARTS Intervention Programme of Study which focuses on developing memory and processing skills.

Ongoing assessment in Phonics

Teachers track individual pupils’ progress in mastering phonic knowledge on a detailed assessment grid which identifies the GPCs they can recognise and blend with. This is updated at least each half term. In the moment trackers will be used to highlight any child at risk of falling behind so they keep up not catch up. Teachers also complete phonics checks, assessing knowledge of GPCs the child has learnt so far to check their fluency in blending.

Year 2 children who do not pass the screening check will be given extra phonics intervention sessions. Their phonics skills are assessed each half term and are retested at the end of year 2. 

Embedding phonics

We aim to embed phonics in all English lessons and in other curriculum subjects where appropriate. Children are encouraged to use their developing phonic knowledge to spell words. Similarly, whenever they are reading, they are encouraged to use their sounds to blend. 

Common exception words are displayed around classrooms, throughout the school, to develop independence when spelling. 

When teaching reading or writing, teachers model the use of phonics to help with spelling and decoding. 

Reading

Curriculum Intent

In order to play a full and active role in society and prepare them for their future, we believe that children need strong reading and comprehension skills. Widening and increasing a child’svocabulary, which is a significant barrier to learning in our school community is achieved through reading a wide range of books on varying topics which is encouraged at Waterman Primary and Nursery School. The ability to read, understand and ask questions about what they read develops a child’s ability to explore their own lines of enquiry across all areas of the curriculum.

Reading across a wide range of genres and topics, develops imagination and creativity as well as teaching about the fundamental values of respect, difference and diversity. In fact, our reading curriculum is specifically designed to encourage cultural capital. Increased empathy and improved well-being for life is a result of developing a lifelong love of reading. It is our intention for all our children leave our school as fluent, confident, enthusiastic, critical and independent readers who have a passion for books. 

We believe that children should: 

• Have an interest in words, know their meaning and develop their vocabulary through reading.
• Use phonics as their primary method of reading unfamiliar words, at the early stages of reading
• Use a range of strategies which will help them to read with meaning, fluency, accuracy and expression.
• Use appropriate reading strategies to retrieve, interpret and infer information.
• Reflect on their reading and offer a personal response to a wide range of texts.
• Appreciate the tools of the writer and the techniques used to involve the reader in the text. Build these strategies into their own writing.
• Appreciate the work of individual authors, illustrators and publishers.
• Read regularly with adults both at home and at school.
• Access a wide range of quality reading materials in a variety of genres, which reflect different cultures including classroom materials, and materials in school and public libraries.
• Use ICT based reference materials for information.
• Develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information

Implementation:

To allow pupils to access the full curriculum, the teaching of reading skills is prioritised at Waterman Primary and Nursery School. We teach four reading lessons per week which are planned systematically to include Word discovery and discrete reading skills lessons. As a part of these lessons the children are exposed to a range of high-quality poems, fiction and non-fiction texts and immerse themselves in the text by way of drama, collaboration, analysis and questioning. 

Continuing on from using the phonically decodable books in KS1, we have just started to follow the Accelerated Reader program (for more information click here) in KS2. This program has many benefits including the fact that books are appropriately pitched for each child and that children are encouraged to read independently, at their own level and pace. The program improves vocabulary and comprehension skills and encourages pupils to read regularly, followed by online quizzes which aim to measure a child’s comprehension of the story/text they are reading. The outcome of these quizzes help to inform our teachers, provide targets for support and aid in future reading development of all pupils.

Our ‘Every Child, Every Day’ strategy is fundamental to reading at Briscoe. All pupils read to an adult every day, either at home or in school, and this is rigorously tracked and monitored by all staff. Teachers and parents work together to record developmental comments about the pupil’s reading in our reading record books that are taken home, on a daily basis, and brought back the following day. Children are able to access the library at Stambridge, fully stocked with a range of exciting and engaging books which has taken the interests of the children into account.

Whole class reading is important and we share a whole class text at the end of every school day. These texts are often chosen to ‘pre-teach’ specific knowledge or vocabulary related to upcoming learning in the foundation curriculum, providing additional prior knowledge in advance of particular topics.

Writing Across the Curriculum

Curriculum Intent:

At Waterman we very much think of writing as a cross-curricular skill, and the contexts and purposes for writing are embedded within other curriculum areas. These are planned carefully across a topic/ unit of work and provide opportunities for literacy skills to be further embedded. There is an expectation that writing (including sustained writing) is evident in all pupil books, across the curriculum.

Writing is marked in accordance with the school’s marking policy. It is expected that English books are marked on a daily basis, with most of the feedback taking place during a lesson. We use the strategy of writing across the curriculum to address the barriers that our children face when learning. Our children often have a lack of resilience when writing and poor vocabulary so the importance that we place on writing both within English lessons and across the wider curriculum is vital to tackle this. When leaving our school, it is our intention that children are capable, skilled and fluid writers who are able to write across a variety of subjects and genres.

We believe that: 

• Learning to write well is a crucial life skill.
• Children need to be prepared for the future
• In an ever-growing digital age in which writing at speed is increasing in importance, children need to be skilled to write across different genres with increasing speed and fluency. 
• Writing reinforces learning and understanding, develops critical thinking and strengthens retention of core knowledge.
• Writing requires students to take in information, organise thoughts and process ideas. ·
• Writing across the curriculum provides additional purpose and audience – it allows children an increasing opportunity for social and emotional connection and allows opportunities to enhance language and grammatical structures previously learnt. 
• Writing across the curriculum increases depth of knowledge, including using and applying specialized vocabulary; it is a way of demonstrating deeper learning and understanding. 
• Writing provides further opportunities for children to become independent learners. 
• Writing across the curriculum embeds key concepts, including spelling and vocabulary, from the National Curriculum (including year group specific spelling lists).

Implementation:

High quality core texts are used as a stimulus and model for pupils’ own writing in English lessons. These texts allow children to widen their experience of the world , expand their vocabulary and explore our HEARTS values.

In EYFS we teach writing in 4 main ways: guided, systematic, exploratory and independent. Lessons are planned for whole group teaching and to guide the children through the literacy process. The basic skill of writing is also taught in small groups weekly through the breakthrough systematic approach focusing on basic skills and muscle memory. Children are then given lots of opportunities to apply these taught skills in exploratory focused tasks and also in independent play. Magic Writing also has a positive impact on the children’s writing capabilities.

In KS1, we use the Pie Corbett Talk for Writing model, which uses a clearly modelled text, structured planning of writing and shared and modelled writing to guide the children. The sequence of each writing unit in KS1:

Immersion in text: the reading and exploring of a quality text through role play, drama and discussion on the text. Children will clarify and develop vocabulary, focus on relevant aspects of grammar and explore setting, character and plot. Planning: exploring a model text and creating a plan. In KS1 children will rehearse what they will write verbally using talk for writing. Writing: adult modelling writing, shared writing, supported and independent writing, adults giving feedback during the writing process (live marking) and supporting children to address errors and improve work as they write. Feedback: during writing week, children receive whole class feedback which helps to address misconceptions, celebrate success and target specific areas to work on in their writing. Reviewing: adult modelling review of writing, collaborative and independent review of what they have written and time to correct and improve their work.

In Lower KS2, the sequence of each writing unit follows a similar pattern to KS1:

•  Immersion in text: reading and exploring a quality text including role play, drama and discussion on the text. Children will clarify and develop vocabulary, focus on relevant aspects of grammar, language and structure as well as explore settings, characters and plot.
• Planning: exploring a model text and creating a plan. In Lower KS2 children rehearse what they will write verbally using Talk for Writing.
• Shared and independent writing: Children use the scaffolding and structure taught throughout the week to produce sustained pieces of high-quality writing. 

 In Upper KS2, children are given the opportunities to develop a particular focus through practising specific sections of their writing.
 

• Writing: adult modelling writing, shared writing, supported and independent writing, adults giving feedback during the writing process (live marking) and supporting children to address errors and improve work as they write.
• Feedback: children receive whole class and personalised feedback in line with the school’s marking policy. Teachers continually address children’s misconceptions and application of basic skills throughout the writing process, across the curriculum. 
• Reviewing: adult modelling review of writing, collaborative and independent review of what they have written and time to correct and improve their work.

All pupils experience different styles of writing and are encouraged to write for a variety of readers. High quality modelled texts are shared with the children, demonstrating high expectations, and emphasis is placed upon the process of writing as well as the finished product. Pupils are encouraged and helped to redraft work where necessary and time is also spent in discussing with pupils the best ways in which to present work according to its purpose. This sequence of learning is displayed on English displays and working walls within the classrooms to support the children.

Please visit HEARTS Academy Trust Curriculum  for our English curriculum.