ALL SAINTS C. E. PRIMARY SCHOOL

Bishops Avenue Fulham London SW6 6ED

Tel 020 7736 2803 Fax 020 7736 2350

Head TeacherCarol Gray

Chair of GovernorsMatthew Bruce

Policy for English

Area:Curriculum

Approved by: Curriculum Committee

Date:Spring 2018

Ratified by:The Governing Body

Date:Spring 2018

Review Date: Spring 2021

All Saints CE Primary School English Policy

General Statement

Pupils should develop skills in speaking and listening, reading and writing. Our teaching of English unites these skills and enables our pupils to express themselves creatively and imaginatively and to communicate with others effectively. We aim to provide each child with a wide exposure to an English based environment and to develop a love of literature, a desire to write and to respond critically to a variety of texts, performances and audiences.

Pupils should learn through a variety of texts: media, non-fiction, stories, poetry and drama. Literacy helps pupils understand how language works by looking at its patterns, structures and origins. Language is generated through the interaction of listening, talking, reading, writing and experience. It is a major vehicle of communication, through which ideas and feelings can be developed and expressed. It is fundamental to thinking and learning in every area of life. We want our children to become confident, independent learners, who can apply their literacy skills in the real world.

The Department for Education's (DfE's) framework document for the 2014 National Curriculum explains:

“Teachers should develop pupils' spoken language, reading, writing and vocabulary as integral aspects of the teaching of every subject…

Fluency in the English language is an essential foundation for success in all subjects.”

(DFE – The National Curriculum in England– framework document – July 2014)

Aims of this policy

We aim to:

Provide a workable programme that all staff have confidence in and feel able to deliver

Raise standards of literacy throughout the school

Ensure continuity and progression

Provide an integrated approach to reading and writing, speaking and listening

Develop language skills in ALL curriculum subjects

This will enable the pupils at All Saints to

Develop the skills to use language confidently, appropriately and accurately to the best of their ability

To understand how language is used in the world beyond school and to foster pleasure and enthusiasm for the written and spoken word

Speak clearly and fluently

Listen with attentiveness and understanding of language

Communicate independent views and opinions, respond imaginatively and express feelings through spoken and written language

Use language in relevant, ‘real life’ contexts

Read a range of materials fluently with understanding, for enjoyment and information

Enable pupils to make critical responses about the language which they read and hear in a variety of media

Write effectively for a range of audiences and purposes, using spelling, punctuation and syntax accurately and confidently

Craft language for particular effects, through an understanding of how texts are created in relation to genre, purpose and audience

Teaching and Learning

The new English programme of study (2014) is based on:

Spoken language

Reading

Writing

Vocabulary development

Spoken Language

“Pupils should be taught to speak clearly and convey ideas confidently using Standard English. They should learn to justify ideas with reasons; ask questions to check understanding; develop vocabulary and build knowledge; negotiate; evaluate and build on the ideas of others; and select the appropriate register for effective communication. They should be taught to give well-structured descriptions and explanations and develop their understanding through speculating, hypothesising and exploring ideas. This will enable them to clarify their thinking as well as organise their ideas for writing.”

(DFE – The National Curriculum in England– framework document – July 2014)

At All Saints we recognise that in order to make sense of the world, children receive and develop ideas and explore their understanding initially through the spoken word. We encourage children to interact with each other and the teacher in order for them to gain confidence in their own ability as speakers.

We aim to enable the pupils at All Saints to:

Create and develop a love, enjoyment and interest in talk

Recognise the power of speech

Speak confidently, clearly and audibly in a wide range of contexts

Understand how to adapt their use of language, varying use and register in relation to purpose and audience and recognise the effect this can have on the listener

Listen with concentration to a wide range of spoken language in real contexts, such as: live talks, radio, television, film, play, productions

Participate in group discussions, debates and individual presentations

Have opportunities to reflect on their own and each other’s use of language

Be provided with interactive opportunities for developing spoken language through drama and role-play

In order to achieve these aims children need to be introduced to experiences where they can develop their knowledge and skills in Spoken Language.

All classes plan spoken language into their weekly lesson plans and it is integral to all subjects and in addition to this some classes have other planned times for Spoken Language. Examples include:

Role play areas and small world table top activities that provide the children with structured play opportunities to develop their speaking and listening skills

School visits and visitors (providing talk activities that are directed and purposeful)

Appropriate media programmes.

Class and whole school assemblies and end of term productions

Collaborative play, show and tell and circle time activities

Children having access to listen to a range of CDs/music clips Opportunities for this are at the discretion of the teacher

 Think- Pair- Share (chatter-boxing) and drama activities such as hot seating.

Classroom Organisation

Classrooms must provide areas which children can talk in a variety of groupings. In most talk, peers are the audience and children must have an understanding of the role of the listener as well as the speaker. When teachers designate groupings it is important that they are varied according to the aim of the activity in order to develop the confidence, competence and the attitudes of the children.

Listening is a vital skill and children benefit from hearing their own and the speech of others recorded and played back. This helps them to develop clarity and an understanding of the purpose of tone and style. All classrooms have access to I-pads where children can record themselves and/or listen to pre-recorded stories, poems and music.

Reading

“The Rose Report made clear that there are two distinct but related processes involved in teaching children to read: learning to recognise words and developing language comprehension. Both are essential for learning to read and are contained in the Simple view of reading,” (The Primary Framework for Literacy and Mathematics).

It is essential that teaching focuses on developing pupils’ competence in both dimensions and different kinds of teaching are needed for each.

At All Saints we aim to give all children full access to the Reading Curriculum. We continually assess our practice and refine or extend it as necessary.

We aim to enable the pupils at All Saints to:

Create and develop a love, enjoyment and interest in books and read for pleasure and study

Develop an appreciation of books that are produced by a variety of different authors, illustrators and publishers and to develop opinions about these books

Encourage pupils to read widely, for different purposes, including Media and interactive texts and texts from a variety of cultures and traditions and different languages

Encourage children to build up their own collection of books

Use the school library and Juniorlibrarian.net system

Be discriminating readers and be able to understand layers of meaning and make a critical response to what they read

Explore meanings of text using drama strategies

Enable pupils to read accurately for meaning and pleasure; using methods and strategies such as Shared and Guided Reading and systematic phonics teaching

Read for information and other purposes through cross-curricular work.

In KS1 and KS2 Guided Reading is taught outside of the English lesson.

Guided Reading is a teacher led, 20-30 minute session, for each group, or a teacher led whole class sessioncomprehension lesson each week.

Records of titles read and written comments on the children’s progress are kept on the designated record sheets.

During this time slot children who are not partaking in the guided reading session will be working on independent activities.

Children’s progress and a note of the books they have read are recorded in READ IT books in KS1 and in KS2 (from Reception to Year 6).

In addition to the group readers the children also take home real books each week from the library. In the Early Years Nursery and Reception take home library books each week and in Reception the children begin to take home guided reading books also.

Reading books chosen by the class teacher are also sent home each week from the Guided Reading packs in the library.

All classes have an opportunity to pair up with another class to do paired reading. Each child has a partner from their ‘pair’ class with whom they can share the enjoyment of reading at least twice every half term.

Y6 – Y2

Y5 -Y1

Y4 – Reception

Y3 - Nursery

Classroom Organisation

Every classroom in All Saints has a book area which enables children to read in a stimulating and attractive environment. In order for a book area to be effective it needs to have a range of quality reading materials. This area should promote and encourage literacy in a positive way and the displays within this area should reflect this. All book areas should be clearly labelled and structured so that children can maintain and use them independently.

Provision in the book area should include the following:

A range of quality fiction books

Non – fiction books including topic books

Big books

Multi-cultural books

Bilingual texts reflecting the languages in the classroom

Books written by children

Comics, magazines and newspapers (First News Newspaper etc)

Story props (KS1)

Two labelled core book boxes

Displays could include book reviews, questions about authors, illustrators, characters etc posters, displays of books around a theme, favourite book of the week/month or recommended reads. In Key Stage 2 these could be categorised into the following headings:

Easy/quick reads

Longer stories

Novels/more challenging texts

Plays

Poetry

Non-fiction

Library

Both non-fiction and fiction books are stored in the library. Pupils and teachers are encouraged to select books suitable for their year group and that complement the curriculum map to use within their classroom. Pupils with the teacher should change the books in their book corner every term. Pupils should be encouraged to handle the books carefully and any damaged copies are withdrawn immediately for repair or replacement.

Any out of date or damaged books are taken off the shelves. All the books have been catalogued and filed under the Junior Librarian.net System so that the fiction books are labelled on the spine by the authors surname and the non-fiction books are labelled by a number. The infant fiction is stored separately from the junior fiction. The children and all staff each have their own unique library number to log books out and the children are taught from Year 1 to do this independently and to file the books back onto the shelves correctly.

The library is widely used by reading volunteers, small groups and has the space to accommodate whole classes working at tables. The library is open daily for use by children at lunch times.

Key Stage 2 guided reading books and big books are also stored in the library at the far end. The Key Stage 2 guided reading books are labelled separately from the central library books with a green sticker and the Key Stage 1 guided reading books are labelled with an orange sticker and stored both at the far end and in a book shelf opposite the year 2 classroom.

A member of support staff is trained as a librarian and works half an hour a day in the library.

The library is constantly being updated with new and current reading material to suit all age groups.

Additional resources to support the curriculum:

Core books are in every classroom throughout the school. These are books specifically chosen for each year group and split into two boxes: a learning to read box and a core literacy collection box. Each box is clearly labelled and has a selection of books inside for the children to read themselves in class.

Core book lists (produced by the CLPE Centre for Literacy in Primary Education) are available to the parents on the website with recommended books both fiction and non-fiction for their children to read.

Group readers for Key Stage 1 are kept in the library and are banded according to the KS1 Book bands. The books are from a combination of different reading schemes and there are also ‘real’ group reading books that are books not from a reading scheme and are stored in the KS1 corridor.

All classes have a bank of games suitable for use in the teaching of literacy. These can also be shared among classes.

Read Aloud Policy

A read aloud policy is in place at All Saints where each class teacher should make sure they read aloud to their class for at least 10 minutes every day.

Reading Volunteers

As well as parent volunteers that come and read with individual children from classes we have six reading volunteers some of which are from Beanstalk (formerly Volunteer Reading Help). They are fully trained and both read with 3 children twice a week for 30minutes each child. The children are chosen from Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 and are those that have not made the progress they were expected to, need to gain confidence in their ability by practising their reading aloud skills or came into the school at a relatively low level.

The Reading Curriculum in Practice

A structured approach to the teaching of reading makes use of texts that have a strong story with powerful, imaginative age appropriate content, which draws the reader into the story by arousing curiosity and anticipating suspense. This can be achieved if teachers:

Use easily recognised and repeated language patterns or refrains

Surprise the reader occasionally by introducing variations in expected language patterns

Use humour, suspense and irony to engage the reader

Use interesting illustrations that complement the text

Encourage the reader to re-read with subsequent development of understanding

Promote positive images of people relating to children’s linguistic, cultural and ethnic background.

Texts will also include those that have been written and published by children.

Read stories repeatedly so that children acquire knowledge about a bank of books

Encourage joining in and retelling of stories

Point out and use environmental print

Refer to the relationship between text and print

Develop knowledge of phonics

Recognise and extend the skills children use to read print

Discuss the books that children choose to read

Sharing of texts through big book sessions, group reading and paired reading

Discussion of text before and during reading to encourage prediction

Discussion of text after reading to encourage reflection

Relate text to children’s personal experiences

Encourage acting out of stories

Read non-fiction aloud and set tasks that develop reference skills

Involve all adults in sharing stories and in hearing children read aloud

Provide opportunities to hear stories in more than one language

Read and see plays performed

Provide opportunities for children to make connections between what they read in fiction and non-fiction

Book Week

Biannually, in the Spring Term, the whole school takes part in Book Week organised by the Literacy Coordinator. Additional activities to those that take place in individual classrooms include author visits, illustrator visits, poet visits, performances from actors and actresses, parent/grandparents coming into read, trips to the cartoon museum, a dress up as a book character day for the whole school including staff and visits from the local librarians.

Book Fair

Twice a year (once to coincide with World Book Day) the school runs an after school book fair where we sell books to the children and parents to encourage reading for pleasure and enjoyment. The monies raised from the sales helps to buy new reading books.