Our Curriculum Vision:
Our vision is to provide inspirational teaching that creates a genuine enthusiasm and love of learning. This is all underpinned by the school’s Christian Values to ensure we meet the needs of each individual pupil academically and emotionally. As a result they thrive and grow into independent, confident young people with high aspirations.
At Peterhouse, our aim is that all learners reach or exceed age-related expectations, supported by our clear and consistent approach to teaching and learning. Our English course links reading, writing and skills development to provide opportunities for pupils to develop their knowledge and understanding of spoken and written English within a broad and balanced curriculum.
We aim for pupils at Peterhouse CE VA Primary Academy will leave Year 6:
· reading and writing with confidence, fluency and understanding, using a range of independent strategies to self-monitor and correct;
· with a love of reading and a desire to read for enjoyment;
· with an interest in words and their meanings; developing a growing vocabulary in spoken and written forms;
· understanding a range of text types, media types and genres;
· able to write in a variety of styles and forms appropriate to the situation;
· using their developing imagination, inventiveness and critical awareness; and
· having a suitable technical vocabulary to articulate their responses.
2. STATUTORY REQUIREMENTS
Statutory requirements for the teaching and learning of English are laid out in the English programmes of study: key stages 1 and 2 National curriculum in England (September 2013) and in the Communication and Language and Literacy sections of the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (2014).
In the Early Years Foundation Stage English is embedded in the curriculum areas of Communication and Language (Prime Ares) and Literacy (Specific Area). Children are encouraged to:
· speak and listen in a range of situations and demonstrate understanding through questions and answers;
· Develop their confidence and skill in expressing themselves;
· Develop the early literacy skills of reading and writing through begin immersed in an environment rich in print where reading and writing is modelled.
At Key Stage One (Years 1 and 2) children learn to speak confidently and listen to what others have to say. They learn to read and write independently and with enthusiasm. They learn to use language to explore their own experiences and imaginary worlds.
At Key Stage Two (Years 3-6) children learn to change the way they speak and write to suit different situations, purposes and audiences. They read a range of texts and respond to different layers of meaning in them. They explore the use of language in literary and non-literary texts and learn how the structure of language works.
The Governing Body, in particular the Literacy Governor, receives regular reports on the progress of English provision.
3. SUBJECT ORGANISATION
In Reception children have daily phonics lessons, using the Read Write Inc. programme. Children have opportunities to develop their communication, language and literacy skills on a daily basis in both adult led and child initiated activities.
Key Stage 1
In Key Stage 1 English lessons follow the Read Write Inc. programme, with daily phonics, reading and writing sessions. Students are assessed, both formatively and summatively (at least half-termly), to ensure that they are working at the appropriate level to stretch their skills. Children that complete the Read Write Inc. programme advance to class-based literacy lessons, focusing on the academy’s English curriculum and aiming to help students achieve the end of year attainment targets.
Children take part in individual reading sessions and have regular story times to develop a love of reading.
Literacy skills are developed and implemented across the curriculum. Each class takes part in a skills session every day to build pupils’ foundational knowledge. These sessions focus on spelling, punctuation or grammar. This foundational knowledge is then practised and consolidated during writing sessions, both within English lessons and through cross-curricular activities. Provision is made for children who require extra support through intervention programmes and differentiated class teaching.
Key Stage 2
In Key Stage 2 children continue to develop their foundational knowledge within a daily skills lesson. Again, sessions focus on spelling, punctuation or grammar. Pupils are given the opportunity to apply these knowledge and skills, both within English lessons and through cross-curricular links. Provision is made for children who require extra support through intervention programmes and differentiated class teaching.
4. APPROACHES TO SPEAKING AND LISTENING
The Four Strands of Speaking and Listening: Speaking; Listening; Group Discussion and Interaction, and Drama run through the whole curriculum. 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 readiness for later life.
Opportunities to develop these skills include: talking partners, debates, drama and a Christmas and end of year show. Children who require extra support in speaking and listening work with a Speech and Language specialist.
5. APPROACHES TO READING
Teachers model reading strategies during shared reading sessions, whilst children have the opportunity to develop reading strategies and to discuss texts in detail during independent reading. Independent reading provides time for both assessment and 1-1 teaching. Daily Read Write Inc lessons in Early Years and KS1 enable children to decode and comprehend efficiently.
All children, from Early Years Foundation Stage to KS2, take home an ability-levelled book from a reading scheme, for example, ‘The Oxford Reading Tree’. In addition to this, children have the opportunity to choose a book to enjoy from the library. Each child has a reading record that teachers and parents can use to share information about a child’s reading. Parents are encouraged to read with their child daily. Information is given on how to support their child in reading at ‘Help your child to read and write!’ sessions, reading cafes, phase meetings, on the website and also in curriculum letters.
We also have a selection of high quality books in each class’ book corner for children to choose from. The classroom book corners are engaging, inviting and updated regularly.
We encourage all readers to share a book at home with their grown-ups. We believe that this not only helps to develop inferential skills and help with language acquisition, but also supports a lifelong love of reading. We recognise the value of adults (both in school and at home) reading aloud to children, in order to improve their grasp of story language, enthuse them with a love of books and inspire them as writers. Parents and other community members are encouraged to come in to school to read with pupils whenever possible.
6. APPROACHES TO WRITING
We aim to develop the children’s ability to produce well structured, detailed writing in which the meaning is made clear and which engages the interest of the reader. Attention is paid throughout the school to the formal structures of English, grammatical detail, punctuation and spelling. Teachers model writing strategies, the use of phonics and spelling strategies in shared writing sessions. Guided writing sessions are used to target specific needs of both groups and individuals, whilst children have opportunities to write at length in extended independent writing sessions at the end of each week. Some pieces of writing are developed over a period of time, with opportunities to draft and edit before finalising a piece of work. Children in EYFS are encouraged to give meaning to their marks as they write, draw and paint. They are provided with a range of opportunities to write for different purposes about things that interest them.
At Peterhouse, pupils learn to form letters using the Read Write Inc system, as shown in Appendix A. They learn to form individual letters appropriately and accurately, first, and are later taught to join their handwriting, using the Letter-Join system. Handwriting skills are practised regularly and systematically, throughout all year groups.
For further details, please see our handwriting policy.
8. CROSS-CURRICULAR LITERACY OPPORTUNITIES
Teachers seek every opportunity to make writing cross-curricular. Teachers plan for pupils to practise and apply the skills, knowledge and understanding acquired through literacy lessons to other areas of the curriculum. Topic work will have a writing focus, wherever possible.
In EYFS, children are encouraged to write across all the areas of learning. The classroom has a role-play area that encourages children to write for a real purpose, for example, in the home corner, children can write shopping lists.
9. ASSESSMENT AND TARGET SETTING
Children’s writing abilities are continually monitored and assessed against the National Curriculum and tracked on Pupil Asset and using interim assessment frameworks.
We aim to provide for all children so that they achieve as highly as they can in English according to their individual abilities. We will identify which pupils or groups of pupils are under-achieving and take steps to improve their attainment. Gifted children are identified and suitable learning challenges planned for and provided.
11. EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES
Peterhouse has universal ambitions for every child, whatever their background or circumstances. Children learn and thrive when they are healthy, safe and engaged.
In order to engage all children, cultural diversity, home languages, gender and religious beliefs are all celebrated. Our curriculum includes a wide range of texts and other resources which represent the diversity and backgrounds of all our children.
We believe in ‘valuing what the child brings to school’ and recognise the importance of supporting a child’s first language, not only to foster self-esteem, but to assist in the learning of English.
12. ROLE OF SUBJECT LEADER
The Subject Leader is responsible for improving the standards of teaching and learning in Literacy through:
· monitoring and evaluating English, including Read Write Inc.:-
- pupil progress;
- provision of English;
- the quality of the Learning Environment;
· taking the lead in policy development;
· auditing and supporting colleagues in their CPD;
· purchasing and organising resources;
· leading the English curriculum team;
· ensuring succession planning is in place; and
· keeping up to date with recent Literacy developments;
13. PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT
We aim to involve parents directly in the life of the school, and thus in the development of children’s skills, knowledge and understanding in English. Parents are involved in hearing children read, and are encouraged to discuss books with them.
Pupils invite their parents to Termly Learning Conferences three times a year. Children share achievements with their parents and talk with them about their targets. Curriculum information is available on the website. Parents are encouraged to read both with and to their children at home in order to promote reading. Parents are welcomed into school to support reading in the classroom.
In the EYFS, parents are given the opportunity to attend a ‘Help Your Child to Read and Write’ session. They also are invited to come to Family Café sessions where they listen to a story with their child and engage in created activities linked to the story.
SATs results are published in accordance with Government legislation.
(Updated January 2017)