English

The subject leader for English is Amy Hall

English is a core subject which sits at the heart of our curriculum. A high-quality education in English will teach pupils to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others, and through their reading and listening, others can communicate with them.

The National Curriculum 2014 is at the core of our English teaching. The National Curriculum provides an outline of the aims and objectives which should be covered at the different stages of the children’s education.

At St John Evangelist we use:

• PM Benchmarking to assess the teaching of reading – using the balanced reader model
• Termly formal reading testing in KS2
• PM modelled and guided reading to teach reading
• PM Writing to plan and teach our English lessons supplemented with Talk 4 writing
• RML Phonics to provide systematic, synthetic phonics

Phonics

We place a strong emphasis on phonics teaching from Nursery to Year 3 because we believe this lays the foundations for successful reading. Teachers follow the Read, Write Inc Phonics scheme to deliver the learning. Children are regularly assessed for progress to ensure all children are continuously taught to their individual needs. Children who did not pass their phonics screening at the end of Year 1 are given additional phonics support.

Guided Reading

We agree that reading must be rigorously and regularly taught. We believe the most effective learning is achieved by providing a balanced literacy programme using a variety of approaches.

The key elements of an effective reading programme are:

• Reading tochildren – Modelled and Shared Reading
• Reading withchildren – Guided Reading
• Reading bychildren – Independent Reading

We use the PM reading scheme for guided reading. This is complemented by a combination of the best reading schemes and real books which have meaning and appeal. They are supportive and predictable and can be matched to the reader’s level. We follow PM reading from Reception through to Year 6. Children should have a new text type each week (longer texts might be used for more than one week). Across a half term, they should have a mixture of narrative, non-fiction and one week of poetry. Children will work on the same text type but at their level according to the PM benchmarking. Children are taught reading skills from the National Curriculum and the reading domains.

Home Reading

All readers up to lime level take home Book Banded (colour-coded) reading books, which are suitable for their reading ability (these books are often from a range of reading schemes). This also applies to children in Years 4-6 who need additional reading support. All children who read above lime level can choose their home reading books from their book corner, or the school library. They will have adult support in choosing an appropriate text and also a variety of text types to choose from. All children will have a daily Reading Record diary. Staff and parents record comments in this reading record as a means to share a child’s reading progress between home and school. The teaching assistant will help in the preparation of home reading diaries on a daily basis in the EY and KS1.

Children in KS1 and those in Reception who reach red level or above in phonics will take home a Read Write Inc ditty book every Thursday that they have been working on that week. See below about Poetry home reading.

Poetry

We teach weekly poems from Nursery to Year 4. The development and acquisition of early literacy skills has conclusively shown that rhythm and rhyme play a hugely important role. This is because as pupils respond to the sound patterns, intriguing words, and inspiring ideas they find in poems, songs, and rhymes. The poems are related to the topic for the term, special events or special interests of the pupils in the class. Each child has their own poetry book which has a photocopy of the week’s poem. This goes home on Fridays as homework and is returned on Monday. Children are encouraged to personalise their poetry books.

At St John Evangelist we use:

• PM Benchmarking to assess the teaching of reading – using the balanced reader model
• Termly formal reading testing in KS2
• PM modelled and guided reading to teach reading
• Literacy Shed+ to plan and teach our English lessons
• RML Phonics to provide systematic, synthetic phonics

Writing

At St. John Evangelist, pupils are gradually introduced to independent writing as they develop the writing skills necessary for successful writing over a wider range of text types. The school uses the Literacy Shed+ writing scheme:

Literacy Shed+ is a complete learning, teaching and assessment package that:

• Places an emphasis on the development of the writing process.
• Provides explicit and systematic instruction in writing.
• Incorporates shared, guided and independent writing and reading.

The programme supports pupils as they develop the written skills needed for effective communication and extends pupils’ knowledge of text types. Pupils are gradually introduced to, and scaffolded through, a variety of different narrative and non-fiction text types. Most of the narrative units are book based: a few are film based.

Handwriting

Handwriting is taught with a sequential and progressive approach with teachers and teaching assistants modelling the handwriting style. We believe that children’s self-esteem and pride in their work can be raised by good quality presentation. Handwriting sessions are taught discretely in Reception and KS1 and regularly incorporated into the English lessons in KS2. Children start by learning how to form their letters in the early years. Then pupils are introduced to cursive style writing from the end of year 2 onwards.

We follow the Morrells scheme of handwriting and adults model from these books using a visualiser. Where pupils are off-track, extra handwriting practice opportunities will be given. Resources such as handwriting slopes and pencil grips are provided when needed.

Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar

Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar strategies are taught explicitly during the English lesson as well as during discrete grammar lessons. Pupils are taught key rules and strategies with opportunities to analyse how other writers have applied these skills to model texts and extracts for pupils to apply these skills independently and effectively to their own writing. Pupils are taught to recognise which strategies they can use to improve their own spelling. They are encouraged to apply learnt strategies to their independent writing. We follow Spelling Shed’s scheme for spelling, using this resource in lessons and for the pupil’s homework. In KS1, children learn spelling largely through their daily phonic sessions hut have one discrete spelling session a week and one discrete grammar session a week. In KS2, children have two discrete grammar and two spelling sessions a week.