English Intent, Implementation and Impact at St. Michael's CE Primary School

Intent:

At St. Michael’s Primary School, we believe that reading, writing and speaking & listening skills are vital to allow all children access to the whole curriculum and equip them for lifelong learning.

• We believe that reading is the key to unlocking all subjects and want our children to not only develop their phonic knowledge and comprehension skills, but also to develop their own positive reading habits and love of reading.
• We recognise the importance of nurturing a culture where children take pride in their writing and explore their ability as an author.
• We want all of our children to develop as confident, articulate and fluent speakers to enable them to use discussion to further their learning.

Implementation:
Reading

Here at St. Michael’s Primary, the children are immersed into a culture of reading when they step through our doors and we endeavour to develop and nourish this love throughout their school life.

As children begin their journey in the Foundation Stage, they are encouraged to develop an interest in all kinds of books and the print around them through displays and carefully structured activities through a story based curriculum. This continues as they make their way through the school, where they are introduced to a wide variety of texts within each year group.

From nursery onwards, we follow the Read Write Inc. (RWI) synthetics phonic programme until we are confident that everyone is able to successfully ‘break the code’ of reading.

Children currently completing RWI lessons will take home their RWI reading book and a ‘book bag book’ (matching the taught sounds) each week and are encouraged to read each night with their family members in order to overlearn the sounds they have been focusing on in lessons.

Once the phonic skills of blending have been embedded, children move on to developing their comprehension skills further in structured reading lessons which continue throughout the school. These are based on a range of high quality texts from a variety of authors offering a choice of genres and vocabulary at the appropriate level.

From Year 3 onwards, children begin to use our Accelerated Reader Scheme which allows them to read ‘real’ books based on their current ability as a reader. They are also able to choose a ‘Reading for Pleasure’ book from their classroom book corner to take home.

Across the school, children are expected to read daily from either their reading scheme book or their ‘Reading for Pleasure’ book within allocated time slots throughout the day. They are then encouraged to read at home with their family as often as possible.

We actively encourage the children to keep a daily log of their reading within a dedicated home/school reading record and have also introduced St. Michael's Reading Champions awards for those children who regularly record their home reading sessions. All award winners have their achievements celebrated via the Weduc newsfeed page.

To develop every child’s love of reading, each day there is a timetabled slot for the teacher to read to the children. Each term the children are presented with a range of genres including fiction, non-fiction and poetry. This is purely for enjoyment and ‘book talk’, allowing the children time to discuss the books they are reading, is encouraged throughout.

 

How to read a story to your child.

If you can find the time beforehand, read the read-aloud book to yourself first, so you can think about how you’re going to read it to your child. On the first reading:

• Make reading aloud feel like a treat. Make it a special quiet time and cuddle up so you can both see the book.

• Show curiosity about what you’re going to read: ‘This book looks interesting. It’s about an angry child. I wonder how angry he gets…’

• Read through the whole story the first time without stopping too much. Let the story weave its own magic.

• Read with enjoyment. If you’re not enjoying it, your child won’t. Read favourite stories over and over again.

On later readings:

• Let your child pause, think about and comment on the pictures.

• If you think your child did not understand something, try to explain: ‘Oh! I think what’s happening here is that…’

• Chat about the story and pictures: ‘I wonder why she did that?’; ‘Oh no, I hope she’s not going to…’; ‘I wouldn’t have done that, would you?’

• Link the stories to your own family experiences: ‘This reminds me of when …’

• Link stories to others that your child knows: ‘Ah! Do you remember the dragon in ….? Do you remember what happened to him?’

• Encourage your child to join in with the bits they know.  

• Avoid asking questions to test what your child remembers.

• Avoid telling children that reading stories is good for them.

Writing: 

As soon as children enter Nursery, they are encouraged to develop their oral and written communication skills through play. Occupational therapy has been introduced to develop children's fine and gross motor skills to enable them to develop their writing skills. Simple mark making is later defined into letters, words and sentences using a wide range of materials. Handwriting is taught initially by applying the Read, Write Inc. formation guide and then a whole-school scheme approach is applied in dedicated, weekly handwriting lessons. Once in KS2 and children are secure in their letter formation and joins, they are rewarded with a 'Pen Licence'. All staff check that handwriting standards are maintained across all curriculum areas.  

Children develop a flair and passion for writing by having their English lessons based on quality whole-texts or films. We support their understanding of audience and purpose as they move through the school which enables them to understand the important message of ‘why we write’. Progression and sequencing is mapped out across the key stages using the Mastery Curriculum overviews listed below. 

Impact: 

Once pupils can decode using phonics, they are able to focus on their wider reading skills and develop a love of reading.

We want all our children to leave St. Michael's confident in their Literacy skills and with a passion for reading and communication, across all areas of the curriculum. Our children leave St Michael's having made significant progress. This is tracked using a combination of termly assessments, internal and external moderation and teacher assessments. By the end of KS2, there are children achieving Greater Depth standard for Writing and higher scaled scores for Reading.

Below you will find links to many more useful documents and websites which we hope you will find useful. Please take time to browse through them and feel free to ask for further information at any time.
 
Mrs H Jennings  (Subject Lead for English) 

Mrs B Lloyd (Read Write Inc Reading Leader)

Mrs Helen Bunce (Parent Governor for English)