English

Why do we teach English?

English is a vital way of communicating. In studying English pupils develop speaking, listening, reading and writing.

At Chapelfield Primary School, we place great emphasis in the teaching of all elements of English. We strive to develop the skills and knowledge to enable pupils to communicate effectively and creatively through spoken and written language and provide them with the skills to become life-long learners. English is at the heart of all areas of our curriculum and something that promote at every opportunity.

We aim for our pupils to:

Read with confidence and fluency for a range of purposes and across different subject areas.
Read for pleasure and for information demonstrating a secure understanding of what they have read.
Acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language.
Appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage.
Write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences.
Use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas.
Develop competence in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate.

The national curriculum for English aims to ensure that all pupils:

Read easily, fluently and with good understanding
Develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information
Acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language
Appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage
Write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences
Use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas
Are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate.

We aim to help children become excellent communicators. This involves being able to speak, listen, read and write. All classroom activities help towards the development of communication skills even when children are working on Maths, Science and other areas of learning.

How do we approach Speaking and Listening at Chapelfield?

Opportunities to progress in the four stands of spoken language: speaking, listening, group discussion and drama embedded throughout the whole curriculum. Varied and interactive teaching strategies are used to engage all pupils in order to raise reading and writing standards. Children are encouraged to develop effective communication skills in preparation for a life outside school (one of our curriculum aims). We endeavour for children to be able to speak clearly, fluently and coherently; to be able to listen attentively with understanding, pleasure and empathy and contribute to group discussions effectively.

We achieve this by:

Giving our children confidence in themselves as speakers and listeners by showing them that we value their conversations and opinions. We also encourage a respect for the views of others (one of our school values).
Being aware that as adults, we provide a model of speakers and listeners in our day-to-day interactions with them and with other adults in our school.
Helping them to articulate their ideas and provide purposes and audiences for talk within a range of formal and informal situations and in individual, partner, group and class contexts.
By providing opportunities to perform to a larger audience, in assemblies and productions, where children’s efforts and skills are acknowledged by staff, parents, carers, visitors and peers.
By providing a range of experiences where children can work collaboratively and participate in opportunities to reflect on talk and explore real and imagined situations through role play, hot-seating, drama and discussions.
By developing the children’s ability to listen with attention and understanding in all areas of the curriculum and where necessary, asking and responding to questions appropriately.

How do we approach Reading at Chapelfield?

At Chapelfield we endeavour to promote a love of reading. We believe that reading is a core life-skill; it is essential in supporting learning and fundamental to pupils’ development as independent learners. Children will have the opportunity to go on library visits, enjoy texts with their reading buddy, participate in world book day and may even get an invite to the reading tea party. At the heart of our reading curriculum is our recently developed reading spine which outlines the core bank of texts which pupils will be exposed to throughout their time at Chapelfield (for more detailed information, please click on the links below).

We place great emphasis of the importance of reading in all curriculum areas and provide ample opportunities to read regularly:

Read Write Inc. – Our synthetic phonics approach to early reading in EYFS and KS1. See our Phonics Page for more information.
Shared reading – opportunity for teachers to model the reading process as an expert reader. This can be seen in the literacy shed sessions and other curriculum areas.
Guided reading/comprehension – focus reading sessions led by adults in small targeted groups. We adopt a model for comprehension which we refer to as ‘The Reading Crew’. These provide visual models to support pupil in answering specific types of questions.
5-a-day/Fab Five (EYFS/KS1) – exposure to five texts on a daily basis. It is fundamental that pupils have a good foundation in reading and are able to talk about books from memory.
Class novel (KS2) – exposure to longer texts to develop reading stamina and reading for pleasure. It is an opportunity for language acquisition and for children to ask questions.
Home reading – children take home banded books which are matched to their reading age and are monitored weekly. Pupils are rewarded with stickers on their reading chart if they have achieved three signatures in a week and are rewarded with a book of their choice/book voucher on completion of their chart.

Assessment

Assessment for reading in EYFS and KS1 takes place frequently and children are continually assessed on their knowledge of sounds. Regular meetings between all staff involved in Read Write Inc. ensures children are grouped accordingly and anyone who is struggling will have immediate targeted intervention. In KS2 reading is assessed in formatively in guided reading sessions. At the end of each term, children are assessed using the Salford Reading test and the NFER tests which provides summative feedback. We continually track the progress of the lowest 20% in reading and provide a detailed action plan to support them in closing the gap.

How do we approach Writing at Chapelfield?

At Chapelfield, writing is also embedded across the curriculum as is reading. We treat our children as writers from the earliest stage and support them to communicate their ideas through writing. We offer pupils to write for a range of real-life purposes and offer opportunities to write throughout the curriculum. Writing is taught daily at Chapelfield using units from the literacy shed as the backbone for our coverage. In EYFS and KS1, writing is incorporated in Read Write Inc. Children, as writers, are immersed in high quality texts and videos which provide them with a wonderful starting point for writing. They look critically at samples of genres, picking out the key structural and language features; using WAGOLL (What a Good One Looks Like). Children at Chapelfield plan their writing in a range of ways, thinking about purpose and audience. Children demonstrate their highly developed vocabulary in writing that takes place over time with the opportunity for feedback, editing and redrafting built into the writing process. Children use their skills of teamwork during shared writes and show resilience when editing and improving their writing. You can find which units your child will be looking at in the links below and from their class pages. For more information, please see the English Policy.

Assessment

Assessment in KS1 and KS2 includes immediate feedback from the teacher in orange highlighter and, where relevant, children’s subsequence response in a green pen. Teaching Assistants mark in a purple pen. This formative assessment is used to plan subsequent teaching and learning. We aim to ensure every child has at least one piece of writing which has been in depth marked by the teacher using our two star and a wish system which will detail further opportunities for progress.
The use of final independent pieces for each unit are used to support teachers summative judgements made during each term. These pieces are subject to whole school moderation on a termly basis, led by our English lead.
Children assessed as not grasping concepts as quickly as others in the writing lesson are targeted by the class teacher in the following lesson. This may involve one to one or small group intervention or additional shared writing opportunities.

Useful Links:

Below are some links for more detailed information about English at Chapelfield: