English at Hamsey School
“The more that you read, the more things you will know.
The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
- Dr. Seuss
Intent:
When pupils leave our school, we intend for them to be fluent, avid readers, who find pleasure in books and who can express preference and opinions about the texts they read.
We intend for our pupils to write clearly and coherently, adapting their language and style for a variety of contexts and purposes. Our intent is that all pupils reach their full potential through a broad, balanced, and rich English curriculum.
We aim to ensure all pupils:
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Read fluently with good understanding.
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Develop good reading habits, reading widely for pleasure and for information.
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Acquire a wide vocabulary and a sound understanding of grammar.
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Express their ideas and opinions through accurate writing.
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Articulate ideas, develop understanding and engage with others through spoken language.
Implementation:
Writing
High-quality, engaging texts are at the heart of our English curriculum and are used as the basis for pupils’ writing. The texts are carefully chosen and planned to ensure they build upon previous grammatical knowledge and skills, allow opportunities to write for different purposes and to explore different genres. We aim to provide ample opportunities for speaking and listening, linked to our oracy framework, where we ask the pupils, 'What did you hear?'.
Our carefully chosen texts are delivered using the CLPEs ‘Power of Reading’ scheme and Jane Considine’s ‘The Write Stuff.’ This hybrid model scaffolds children’s writing and allows them to exercise autonomy. Within each academic year, it is expected that staff will use at least three Power of Reading texts in the classroom. The ‘Power of Reading’ scheme uses high-quality text recommendations chosen to support engagement and progression within and across Key Stages.
It is expected that, for a portion of each term, teachers will use the approach popularised by Jane Considine to deliver their English lessons. Jane Considine’s grammar, writing, and genres progression is used to ensure coverage and skills progression across each year group. Modelling and/or shared writing ensures pupils are constantly seeing the writing process and are supported on their journey to becoming independent writers.
Reading - Phonics
We use the Rocket Phonics SSP programme.
Rocket Phonics is a systematic synthetic phonics programme that has been written by phonics experts. It includes a combination of digital and printed resources and fully matched decodable reading books. The reading books we use have been carefully designed to appeal to the tastes and interests of children who are starting out on their reading journey. They include a variety of fiction and non-fiction and have been carefully devised to provide practice and application of phonics knowledge and skills in full alignment with the classroom lessons.
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Phonics is taught for a minimum of 30 minutes daily.
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All staff are supported with regular phonics professional development training.
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A clear pathway is followed through the alphabetic code.
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Children are not asked to read texts by themselves that they can’t yet read.
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The Teaching & Learning Cycle (revisit and review, teach, practise, apply) is followed.
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Phonics is taught at letter-sound, word, sentence, and text levels.
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Teachers focus on details, such as accurate modeling and pencil hold grip.
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In KS2 intervention sessions happen to support any pupils with phonics gaps.
Whole-Class Guided Reading
Throughout the school, pupils take part in shared reading and are encouraged to enjoy texts and apply their phonics knowledge to read fluently. Pupils are encouraged to use a range of strategies to comprehend texts.
We understand the importance of pupils being active readers and expect them to not only read fluently but also to have a comprehensive understanding of what they read. We encourage them to engage in dialogue and answer questions about a wide range of texts, sharing their opinions, views and understanding of what they are reading, developing their oracy skills.
In Reception, we:
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Focus primarily on 1:1 reading and then small group reading with a focus on blending.
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Develop children’s background knowledge by building our curriculum around experiences and linked key texts.
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Share carefully selected ‘Core Texts’ and ‘Core Rhymes’ which are read multiple times allowing children to thrive on repetition.
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Expose children to VIPERS (Vocabulary/Infer/Predict/Explain/Retrieve/Sequence) in reading sessions.
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Introduce children explicitly to VIPERS comprehension skills in the summer term.
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Use quality stories and non-fiction to support our unique Reception curriculum.
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Embed stories throughout the day, all day, every day.
In KS1, we:
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Use a combination of whole class shared reading, 1:1 and small group guided reading sessions daily, for 20-30 minutes.
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Introduce the VIPERS comprehension skills through reading sessions.
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Use a VIPERS workbook for each pupil from Year 2 on.
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Ensure a range of text types are covered in each term.
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Ensure that texts are regularly appraised and changed where necessary, ensuring that they are: appropriate for the needs of the year group, progressive throughout the year and engaging for the children.
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Additional 1:1 and small group reading sessions are delivered for any non-fluent or struggling readers, with a particular focus on the bottom 20% of readers across the school.
In KS2, in addition to the KS1 programme we:
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Use whole class reading daily with VIPERS* comprehension skills.
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Use a VIPERS workbook for each pupil.
* Vocabulary/Infer/Predict/Explain/Retrieve/Summarise
Impact:
The impact on our pupils is:
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Measurable progress
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Sustained learning
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Transferrable skills
Our pupils are taught the knowledge and skills required to be fluent readers and writers. We aim that by the end of KS2 all our pupils leave the school taking with them the skills, creativity and passion for English they have learnt whilst at our school.