Gardners Lane Primary School

Through speaking and listening, reading and writing children learn to express themselves creatively and imaginatively and communicate with others effectively.

The study of English helps children understand how language works by looking at its patterns, structures and origins. Using this knowledge, children can choose and adapt what they say and write in different situations.

We believe that the study of English should enable children to: 

• appreciate how speaking and listening, reading and writing are integrated.                                                       
• develop their ability to communicate orally for a range of purposes and audiences.                               
• become confident, thoughtful and enthusiastic readers who read for pleasure.                                          
• use a wide variety of writing styles and genres, so communicating effectively in written forms.                                                   
• practise their handwriting and other presentational skills.

Reading

Early Years Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1                                                          

Through reading, pupils are introduced to new vocabulary that can then be used in their own writing and speech. We foster our love of reading through providing a rich environment which stimulates and encourages children’s reading. We believe in engaging all pupils and have a variety of resources to develop different interests of the children. From the Foundation Stage and into Key Stage 1 pupils will enjoy a range of texts allowing them to build up knowledge of rhythm, rhyme and pattern in language.

Children read individually, in small groups and as a whole class. A variety of different genres are chosen at an appropriate level of ability for each group of children. As well as being able to read the text, children are encouraged to discuss the content of the book and their opinions about people, places and events are sought.

Key Stage 2                                                                                         

Reading in Key Stage 2 develops and extends the skills acquired in Key Stage 1. Children explore a wide variety of genre, both fiction and non-fiction which allows them to access, input ideas and understand what they are reading. They are given opportunities to speculate on the tone and purpose of texts they explore as well as consider both the texts’ themes and audience.

Phonics

The teaching of Phonics is an integral part of the curriculum in both the Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 classrooms. Children first learn their letter sounds and names, then apply these to word building. We use both Letters and Sounds and Jolly Phonics actions as the basis for our teaching of Phonics. These are synthetic phonic schemes. Through Letters and Sounds, the children are taught the 44 phonemes that make up all the sounds required for reading, writing and spelling. These phonemes include those made by just one letter and those that are made by two or more. As the children grow in confidence and experience, they are introduced to alternative ways of representing the same sound. Having a secure knowledge of Phonics helps the children to decode for reading and encode for spelling. We ensure that our teaching of Phonics is rigorous, structured and enjoyable. Children have discrete, daily phonics sessions where they are introduced to new phonemes, can practise and revise previous learning and have plenty of opportunities to apply the knowledge.

We use a range of multi-sensory strategies to enthuse and engage the children, including the use of interactive whiteboards, magnetic letters, speaking and listening, songs, rhymes and practical games and activities.

Children are encouraged to apply their phonetic knowledge across the curriculum. Additionally, the children also learn a variety of key words by sight.

Writing

All teaching of Writing is now being taught using the Talk for Writing approach. Talk for Writing is an approach to teaching writing developed by Pie Corbett. It helps to create successful writers by enabling children to imitate the language within a topic-based text orally before reading and analysing it and then writing their own version.

Before beginning any ‘Talk for Writing’ the children will be engaged through the use of a “Wow” activity. They will then do a “cold write” where they write in a particular genre prior to having any input from the teacher.

The three stages in Talk for Writing are:                                  

• Imitation                                                                                                                                                                                It is during this stage that the children will learn the topic-based text (fiction or non-fiction) through story making. The children will say the text whilst completing actions to help them to remember the key vocabulary. Following this they will then complete a range of activities to help them to understand what makes the text a successful piece of writing. This will include activities to understand the text as both a reader and a writer. Next, the children will create a class toolkit which identifies the key features they will need to use when they create their own piece of writing in this style. 
• Innovation                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

  In this stage of the Talk for writing process children will plan how they can change the original exemplar text to make it their own. This could include creating a story map of their changes, or rehearsing their new version verbally. A key element of this stage is to complete shared writing as a class, helping the children to write their own by ‘doing one together’. The teacher would explain and show the child how to use what they know about the particular text to plan and write their adapted version, selecting and using language that is relevant and really works for its purpose. During this process, with the help of the teacher and teaching assistant, the children will also be encouraged to read through their work and make improvements.

  An important part of the innovation and imitation stages is to clearly display any information that will help the children to write their own text, equipping them with the tools they will need to be successful in the final invention stage of Talk for Writing.       

• Invention                                                                                                                                                                                                   In the final stage of Talk for Writing, children move onto invention. They write their own text independently using what they have learned in the previous stages as well as through other areas of the curriculum. The children first get the opportunity to plan this text before they write it, giving them time to add and improve on their original ideas before completing a ‘Hot Write’.

Throughout the process of Talk for Writing children will work on understanding and improving their vocabulary, developing sentence structure and improving their spellings.

To view what your child is studying access the 'Our Curriculum' part of the website under the 'School Information' section.