English – Speaking and Listening
Intent
Central to good English teaching is meaningful dialogue. Although closed questions can generate a superficial sense of pace in a classroom, it is much more important to provide time for children to think. They need to learn to interact with the text, develop their understanding and their critical thinking skills, and express opinions. Asking the children to discuss an open question in pairs or groups before feeding back to the class gives many more of them the opportunity to speak and think.
Our intention is for children to:
- Express their opinions, articulate feelings and listen to and respond appropriately in a range of situations;
- Participate with different groups of children to present ideas with confidence, valuing the views of others;
- Speak audibly and confidently before an audience (for example when leading in group, class and whole school situations, including taking part in the annual concert.)
Implementation
Approaches to teaching and learning encourage pupils to voice their ideas in small group and class discussions, as we recognise that sharing and explaining concepts with peers enhances learning. Staff model the use of higher level vocabulary within their speech and expanding children’s vocabulary is a key focus from EYFS. Subject specific vocabulary is embedded across the curriculum, through teacher modelling, in context. Contextual learning helps children to understand new words and supports them in including them in their work.
Reading sessions encourage pupils to explore unfamiliar vocabulary and expand their knowledge of words. Staff model correct grammar in speech and encourage children to reflect this in their use of spoken and written language. Children are given the chance to orally rehearse ideas for writing.
Drama is used across the curriculum to explore and engage children in their learning. This gives children the chance to embed vocabulary in shared activities.
Children in Reception, Years 1 and 2 also perform a Christmas production; Years 3,4 or 5 perform a production at Easter; Year 6 perform in the Summer. The whole school celebrates each year organising Infant and Junior concerts in a local theatre. There are additional celebrations of events such as World Book Day and festivals such as Diwali.
Impact
In a safe and encouraging environment, children develop into confident communicators who listen and speak, treating others with kindness and empathy and explaining with clarity and confidence. Children recognise that speaking and listening can lie at the heart of conveying character, and that through speaking and listening effectively, misunderstandings can be addressed and relationships enhanced.
English – Writing
Intent
Writing is a crucial part of our curriculum. By the end of Year Six we intend our children to have developed a love of writing and to be able to express their thoughts and ideas clearly and creatively through the written word. We also intend to create writers who can re-read, edit and improve their own writing, and enable pupils to be able to confidently use the essential skills of grammar, punctuation and spelling. We set high expectations for all our children to take pride in their work and have a fluent, cursive handwriting style alongside allowing their imaginations to flourish.
Implementation
In order to help us to develop confident, enthusiastic writers who can express themselves in a variety of different styles and across a variety of contexts, our teaching of writing is often cross circular and linked to our class topics. This provides our children with regular opportunities to write for a range of purposes and audiences. Writing tasks are specific and meaningful, and often have the purpose to engage children and to illustrate how their writing skills can be applied to real life contexts.
We use The Write Stuff as our core teaching method. Each unit begins with a series of lessons combining experience days and sentence stacking – building vocabulary and different sentence structures.
Each child has a book devoted to writing development – this book contains one piece of independent work each half term and uses the approach advocated by Jane Considine.
Impact
Pupils will make good progress from their own personal starting points. By the end of Year Six they will be able to write clearly and accurately and adapt their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences. Our pupils will acquire a wide vocabulary and have a strong command of the written word. Most importantly, they will develop a love of writing and be well equipped for the rest of their education.
Year 4 book area
| SPECIAL DISPLAY of children's writing in a wide range of styles. |
|
| *HERE are four sets of work from Year 1* |
| *Library Displays* |
| *Newspaper articles written by 4T about Sutton Hoo* |
| *And finally some work from the Reception class* |
