English
At Hertford Primary School we believe that English is a fundamental life skill. English develops children’s ability to listen, speak, read and write for a wide range of purposes. Children learn to express themselves creatively and imaginatively as they become enthusiastic and critical readers of stories, poetry and drama, as well as of non-fiction and media texts. Children gain an understanding of how language works by looking at its patterns, structures and origins. Children use their knowledge, skills and understanding in speaking and writing across a range of different situations.
Speaking and listening is at the heart of all we do across the curriculum.
Spoken Language
- Children are encouraged to develop their communication skills, pose questions and respond to questions and articulate their feelings and opinions clearly and sensitively.
Phonics
Phonics is taught daily in all classes using the Little Wandle scheme. The sessions are based on the Government’s systematic ‘Letters and Sounds’ document. This is supported by the Little Wandle scheme which you can find out more about at https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/ Phonics can be a little bit daunting for some parents and carers, please speak to your teacher if you want advice on how to best support your child.
Writing
We support the children to become enthusiastic writers.
- Children are encouraged to write for a real purpose and for a range of audiences: stories, letters, poems, information, instructions etc.
- Children learn to critique their writing, learning how to edit and improve.
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We want to show children that writing for a range of purposes can be informative and wildly imaginative enough to take them beyond their own lives and experiences and travel the world to enjoy its diversity. We do this by providing a variety of language-rich high-quality hooks that prepare ALL learners, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds, to achieve their full potential in writing.
The Power of Reading' to teach writing
We are teaching our writing through the Power of Reading. This is a book- based approach devised by the CLPE and rooted in evidence. Each year group studies a high quality text which is the hook that inspires the children to write for different purposes as they read the book together.
Diversity
Diversity and inclusive texts used to facilitate writing can be an invaluable aid in helping children learn about different cultures and experiences. Children need to learn about all aspects of diversity and feel empowered to discuss what makes us all unique, valued and respected. More so than ever it is crucial to share with children books and texts which represent diverse and varied experiences and cultures. We are currently working on ensuring that writing stimuli is drawn from books that help to build understanding, empathy and tolerance of our different backgrounds. We want to share texts and writing stimuli with our children within which they can all see themselves, and which reflect our world community in all of its diversity. We deliberately select our Power of Reading texts to provide a mirror and window on the world.
How we support those children who are not meeting age related expectations or those with SEND
Children who are not making expected progress are rapidly identified. We have a variety of ways to support these children. We believe that equality isn’t treating everyone the same, it is ensuring all of our children have what they need to succeed. We use bespoke interventions and in class support tailored to children’s needs that are designed to improve a range of skills.
All children must have the opportunity and the encouragement to reach their full potential.
Children will be supported in a range of ways appropriate to their bespoke needs:
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Pre teaching
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Catch up support
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Bespoke interventions
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The use of Communicate in Print as a scaffold to writing with visual stimuli
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Overlays where needed and appropriate
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Talking tins for verbal rehearsal and memory support
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Visual stimuli
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Aspirational learning partners
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The use of technology such as Clicker and word processing (In KS2)
Writing progression
We carefully ensure there is progression of knowledge and skills when teaching writing. See our progression documents below.
Composition writing progression.pdf
Vocabulary, Grammar and Punctuation writing progression.pdf
Reading
We are passionate about reading because being able to read well matters. Reading is a high priority. It significantly impacts on success in school and beyond. We believe that equipping children with reading skills leads to success in all areas of their education, inspires creativity, boosts self-confidence and offers greater potential to lead to rewarding and enriching lives. Reading can take children into imagined worlds far beyond their own experience, and make possible endless opportunities to explore new areas of learning, thinking and ideas. The power of reading is immense, and we want children to be able to take full advantage of the benefits, pleasure and enjoyment that it has to offer.
We immerse children in a language rich environment in order to maximise their communication skills. This supports the use of high quality vocabulary. It underpins progress and attainment in reading and writing so that children learn to read as a writer and write as a reader. We aim to instil in our children a love of reading and of books.
In KS1
- Children read a wide range of non-fiction and fiction books in a variety of genres.
- Children are taught to read in small groups.
- Children practice reading with adults throughout the week in different areas of the curriculum and on occasions, on a one to one basis.
- Children can also choose a books to take home.
In KS2
- Children have 'Whole guided reading sessions three times a week beginning part way through Year 3.
- Every child in the class will be reading the same text.
- We use high-quality engaging texts covering a wide range of genres, a mix of extracts, short texts, whole books, poetry, song lyrics and non-fiction.
- There will be numerous opportunities for children to read during these sessions including whole class reading aloud (including choral reading and echo reading), paired reading (including ping pong reading) and reading independently.
- We follow Reading VIPERS. VIPERS is an acronym to aid the recall of the 6 reading domains as part of the UK’s reading curriculum (Vocabulary, Inference, Predict, Explain, Retrieve, Summarise) and links directly to the National Curriculum.
- All children remain in the whole class guided reading sessions to enable them to experience and discuss rich, imaginative texts.
- We have a variety of ways to support children in staying motivated and engaged: they may have a ‘Reading Buddy’, someone who is sat beside them role modelling and reading aloud to them; the teacher or TA might read with a specific group of children taking turns; a group of children might pre-read ahead of the rest of the class.
Supporting children who are not reading at age related expectations
Children who are not making expected progress are rapidly identified. We have a variety of ways to support these children. We believe that equality isn’t treating everyone the same, it is ensuring all of our children have what they need to succeed. We use bespoke interventions tailored to children’s needs that are designed to improve a range of skills. For example, if a child is struggling with their decoding of words and the mechanics of reading they might take part in a rigorous phonics programme. If a child needed to develop their fluency they might take part in a paired reading programme.
Diversity and inclusion
Diversity and inclusion are topics where books can be an invaluable aid in helping children learn about different cultures and experiences. Children need to learn about all aspects of diversity and feel empowered to discuss what makes us all unique, valued and respected. More so than ever it is crucial to share with children books and texts which represent diverse and varied experiences and cultures. We are currently working on creating diverse bookshelves that are full of books to help build understanding, empathy and tolerance of our different backgrounds. We want to share books with our children within which they can all see themselves, and which reflect our world community in all of its diversity.
We have a 'Read around the world' display in the main corridor which showcases books from a diverse range of cultures that children can borrow to read both in school and at home.
