The policy is written with consideration to our school commitment to the Rights of the Child and our achievement of being a Rights Respecting School. It complies with Article 28 of the UNCRC ‘Every child has the right to an education’ as well as Article 29 ‘Education must develop every child’s personality, talents and abilities to the full.’ Although direct reference to this is not continuously made, the policy has been written with full awareness of our responsibility and commitment to children’s rights.
The aim of English teaching at Lady Margaret Primary School, is to enable children to develop a love of language and literature and to equip them with the skills to become confident and eloquent speakers and fluent readers and writers.
Teaching should enable children to decode and comprehend a wide range of text types and ensure that children can discuss their reading confidently. English teaching must enable pupils to engage fully in reading a wide range of genres and be able to extend their learning throughout the curriculum through research. Oracy skills are crucial for children to be able to express themselves with confidence and these are taught throughout every lesson.
Understanding and being able to use a wide range of vocabulary is important within school and in the wider world. This is taught consistently across the school.
Learning to write effectively is taught at LMPS by studying model texts in a range of genres and analysing the features of each genre. All writing should have a clear purpose and audience which the children are aware of and shared writing, drafting, peer and teacher editing and verbal and written feedback are all crucial to the development of the child as a writer.
At Lady Margaret Primary School, each unit of work is linked to the four key themes across the school: legacy, morality, power and sustainability. In reading, by linking learning to the four key themes, the children are posed questions about how characters and situations demonstrate these theme and discussion is encouraged around these concepts.
Pupils learn to read easily and fluently through daily phonics in reception and year 1, following the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised scheme. They read regularly to adults through reading practice sessions, whole class reading or one to one reading.
Pupils develop skills in reading through the understanding of core texts. Our curriculum coverage maps are tailored to meet the needs of our pupils and have been designed in collaboration with the CLPE. Children often study books which are more challenging than those which they might not be able to read independently. They use the core text and link texts as the basis for reading, writing, speaking and listening tasks and links to foundation subjects.
Pupils are encouraged to read widely, through our use of differing class texts, library visits, high-quality texts, Recommended Reads and home reads. Our classrooms and school reflect a literature and vocabulary rich environment. Pupils are encouraged to read for pleasure using reading partners, quiet reading time and enjoying story time.
At Lady Margaret Primary School, we believe that all our children can become fluent readers and writers. This is why we teach reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme. We start teaching phonics in Nursery/Reception and follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised progression, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school.
As a result, all our children are able to tackle any unfamiliar words as they read. At Lady Margaret Primary School, we also model the application of the alphabetic code through phonics in shared reading and writing, both inside and outside of the phonics lesson and across the curriculum. We have a strong focus on language development for our children because we know that speaking and listening are crucial skills for reading and writing in all subjects.
At LMPS it is expected that children are taught the explicit reading skills and strategies through whole class reading, reading practice sessions and English lessons. Reading is taught across all areas of the curriculum with all lessons having an element of reading aloud and developing pupils’ pleasure of reading. We use the reading domains across KS1 and KS2 to teach the key reading skills. The school’s aim is for all children to have a secure understanding of the different reading skills and know how to apply the reading strategies confidently.
We start teaching phonics in Reception and follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised progression, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school. We also model the application of the alphabetic code through phonics in shared reading and writing, both inside and outside of the phonics lesson and across the curriculum. We have a strong focus on language development for our children because we know that speaking and listening are crucial skills for reading and writing in all subjects.
The National Curriculum at Key Stage 1 focuses on developing children’s word reading skills and comprehension. We promote high standards of language and literacy by allowing pupils with the opportunities to develop both spoken and written language, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment.
By the end of KS1, children should be able to read decodable books fluently and accurately, whilst being able to retell and discuss familiar stories. In writing, pupils should be able to orally compose their sentences before writing them and spell many of the KS1 high frequency words correctly.
The National Curriculum for English states that the overarching aim for English in the national curriculum is to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written language, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment.
The national curriculum for English aims to ensure that all pupils:
We aim to provide for all children so that they achieve as highly as they can and excel in their learning. By means of thorough, on-going assessment, we are able to identify which individuals or groups are under achieving and in which specific area of reading. Support to target these individual needs is put in place and pupil progress is measured accordingly. Children who are identified as greater depth throughout all areas of the curriculum are also provided with suitable challenge through the daily teaching of English.
Assessment for Learning is an integral part of every English lesson. Each term, the children complete a reading test. Years 2 and 6 are assessed half termly and data is recorded on Fisher Family Trust. Gap analyses are completed following each test and the results discussed in teams and through Pupil Progress meetings in order to provide further support to pupils and to plan effectively.
Reading stages/levels and provision in place are updated on the Tracking of Reading spreadsheet every half-term. Independent writing is assessed half termly and regular moderation takes place within year groups.
Daily assessment take place through 1:1 reading, reading practice sessions and whole class reading lessons, English lessons and through phonics assessments.
The reading priority list is updated regularly and reading booster lists are also updated following pupil progress meetings.
At LMPS, we expect pupils to own their learning and be fully involved in evaluating their successes as well as identifying areas for development. Pupils should be encouraged to see themselves at their first editors, markers and audience for their learning and peer feedback and assessment must be an integral part of every lesson where writing is taught.
Pupils should peer mark reading questions and writing using purple pen. This must be reviewed by the class teacher and further feedback given if appropriate.
Staff assess English through verbal feedback and correcting pupils’ work using green pen.
Spellings should be corrected clearly by an adult and practised three times neatly in purple pen by the pupil. Verbal feedback given by a teacher should be responded to by the pupil using purple pen when possible and progress from this feedback should be seen within future work.
In writing, pupils should be offered two comments on the strengths of the work and an area for development by the teacher. This should be available for the pupil to apply their feedback at the beginning of the next lesson.
At the end of a final draft of an extended writing piece, children should complete a reflection:
– Challenge – one thing they have found challenging
– Improved – one thing they have improved
– Proud – one thing they are proud of.
Group and class feedback should be given to address common misconceptions and mini-plenaries used within lessons to address common errors. Success criteria and end of year objectives are used for the pupils to self-assess their writing and for the teachers to identify areas for development. The end of year objectives is used for to assess the half termly assessed pieces.
The English leaders lead the maintenance and development of the subject. They are responsible for assuring quality and standards in the subject by:
Last reviewed:
July 2022