‘English has a pre-eminent place in education and in society. A high-quality education in English will teach pupils to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others and through their reading and listening, others can communicate with them. Through reading in particular, pupils have a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. Literature, especially, plays a key role in such development. Reading also enables pupils both to acquire knowledge and to build on what they already know. All the skills of language are essential to participating fully as a member of society; pupils, therefore, who do not learn to speak, read and write fluently and confidently are effectively disenfranchised’.
National Curriculum 2014
Reading
At Heptonstall children begin their reading journey through the teaching of the validated systematic synthetic phonics programme, Essential Letters and Sounds (ELS). We follow the ELS progression and sequence, allowing our children to build and practise their existing phonic knowledge whilst developing their understanding of the ‘code’ of our language GPCs (Grapheme Phoneme Correspondence). Children experience the joy of books and language whilst rapidly acquiring the skills they need to become fluent independent readers and writers. ELS teaches relevant, useful and ambitious vocabulary to support each child’s journey to becoming fluent and independent readers. Children accessing our phonics programme are assessed once per half term to make sure that any necessary interventions are put in place to ensure children are given every opportunity to ‘keep up, not catch up’.
ELS is published by Oxford University Press and supported by their comprehensive set of fully decodable books. Oxford University Press’ Wordsparks, Project X, Hero Academy and Little Blending Books.
ELS Information for Schools Website
Further up school children are given daily opportunities to continue to develop their reading ability and skills. Opportunities include one:one reading, group reading, paired reading, whole class reading, taught comprehension sessions as well as weekly visits to our school library.
We use the Oxford Reading Tree scheme for our KS2 children, also supplementing this with other reading scheme books such as Super Phonics and Project X. Children are also encouraged to read wider by accessing free choice books from the school library, helping to promote a love of reading.
Children are teacher assessed every half term and are assessed formally at the end of each half term. At the end of Year 2 and Year 6 the children complete formal SATs assessments. Progress and attainment are reported to parents annually in school reports.
Writing
As stated in the National Curriculum 2014, our teaching sequence of writing follows the plan, draft, edit and evaluation process of writing, this is planned carefully to make sure the development of writing skills are sequential and progress effectively throughout school.
‘Purpose for writing’ is at the forefront of our writing curriculum. We value the importance of using a variety of age-appropriate quality texts (fiction, non-fiction and poetry) to capture the imaginations of our pupils, submerge them in rich vocabulary, model successful grammatical features and give them purpose and meaning behind their writing. We ensure that throughout our school, opportunities are planned for cross curricular writing which links to topic work, when appropriate.
Writing aspects such as Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPaG) are taught through a mixture of discrete SPaG sessions, as well as through text type discussions during English lessons. From Year One, children are provided with weekly spellings. Those still using our phonics programme, ELS, have spellings set in line with phonemes and spelling rules aligned with what they are learning currently. Further up school Spelling Shed is used as a scheme and tool to support children with their spellings.
Our SSP programme, Essential Letters and Sounds, provides us with pictures and mnemonics to help children form their letters correctly from the start of their reading and writing journey. When children are ready, cursive handwriting is taught from Year 2 and encouraged to be used when doing any kind of writing across the curriculum.
On-going work is assessed by teachers half termly, using our internal tracking and assessment system and children’s next steps in learning are planned for. Children also complete a minimum of 2 formal pieces of writing per term. Progress and attainment are reported to parents annually in school reports.
• Writing (Purpose for Writing) Progression Map
• Writing (Writing Skills) Progression Map
• Speaking and Listening Progression Map
• SPaG LTP
• Coming soon – Text Type/Purpose for Writing LTP