Notre Dame High School

English

Department

Handbook

2013-14

“I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full” (John 10:10)

Contents

Page Number
The Team / 3
Planning / 4
Summative Assessment / 5
Assessment, Recording and Target Setting / 6
Homework / 7
Marking / 8
Skills Lessons & Reading / 9
Written Work / 10
Classroom Expectations & Learning Environment / 11
Rewards and Sanctions / 12-13
Department Gifted &Talented Policy / 14
Department Prayer / 15

Welcome to the English Team

Here is your Department Handbook. It should provide you with all the information you require about the English Team and the English Department at Notre Dame High School.

The English team are:

Ms C Bromley – Head of English

Mrs G Cooper – Second in English and KS4 Co-ordinator (currently on maternity leave until Jan 2014)

Miss Sarann Dye – Teacher of English and Temporary KS4 Co-ordinator

Mrs Kelly Aldred – KS3 Co-ordinator

Mrs Rosemarie Gilbert – Teacher of English

Mrs Anna Hall - Teacher of English

Mr Stephen Bishop - Teacher of English & Renaissance

Mrs Angela Brook – Teacher of English

Mrs Harriet Griffiths – Teacher of English

Ms Sam Orciel – NQT

Mr Gerry Archer - NQT

In addition, the following staff (who are not English specialists) also teach within the department: -

Mrs Sue Paton – Drama

Mrs Hillary Bedder – SENCO

Mr Tom Pritchard – History & EAL

Mr Paul Short - Line Manager

Planning

Long Term Plan

KS3 and KS4 Long Term Programmes of study can be found in the English area and specify AF for KS3 and CA and exams for KS4. There are also KS3 Teaching Schedules as texts are on a rota.

Medium Term Plan (Schemes of Work)

There are electronic SOW for each KS3 unit. Each one contains a full set of electronic resources that are filed in weekly folders.

Short Term Planning (Weekly lesson plans)

The short term plans for KS3are stored electronically in the English Area and consist of weekly plans. Each week consists of 3, 4-part lesson plans with homework suggestions. Most schemes are 6 weeks long. You may of course wish to adapt them to suit the needs of different classes and individuals. All teachers are encouraged to add their own resources to existing schemes and are expected to differentiate the schemes according to the ability of their class. Each of the objectives identified in the Medium Term Plan (first page of SOW) must be explicitly taught during the scheme. Lessons are planned using the four part structure: starter; whole class main teaching of objective; development; and plenary. Your planning should allow for this, however there will be some occasions when you will not want to follow this structure, for example in a follow-on lesson and particularly when developing extended writing. In these cases make this explicit in your own lesson plans. The half termly assessments are written into the schemes and pupil friendly assessment sheets as well as differentiated level ladders can be found there too.

KS4 schemes are being developed in line with the new GCSE spec – WJEC. There are some weekly plans but mainly teaching suggestions and resources. These are all saved in the English Area. Please file any resources you make in the relevant folder and give each resource an explicit title.

Summative Assessment

Students’ Key Stage 3 Folder of Best Work

Throughout Key Stage 3 the students collect evidence in their folders, which corresponds with the assessment requirements in the Medium Term Plans. This should be their best work after redrafting and provides evidence of students’ achievement as they progress through Years 7 to 9, as well as giving us opportunities for moderation.

First drafts can be marked by the pupil or a partner and the APP level ladders or APPbookmarks can be used for this purpose. They are kept in the best work folders.

The assessment levels for each half-termly unit of work must be recorded on the front sheets for each pupil: (one front sheet per assessment) with space for a summative TA level and space for pupils to reflect on their literacy and overall achievement. These marks must then be stored in your own planner and/or the formal department electronic tracker which can be found in the English area.The marks for each student will be accumulated to give a profile of the student’s progress and forwarded at the end of each year as prior data for the next teacher.

This year, Year 9 pupils will complete SATS style reading and writing exams in June in order to provide a summative, end of KS3 grade.

KS4

There are separate top sheets for each Controlled Assessment and all marked Controlled Assessments are kept in a folder and must not go home.
Assessment, Recording and Target-Setting

Assessment

Do familiarise yourself thoroughly with the National Curriculum Levels, if you have not already done so. However, please do not agonise over them. When awarding a level, you are looking for the ‘best fit’ category for the students. Do use 0.0, 0.4 or 0.7 to show finer level distinctions.

As mentioned above, the level assessments for each half-term’s unit of work are recorded using the department’s electronic trackerand form avital part of the department’s data about the progress of each one of our students. It is therefore vital that assessments are carried out in accord with the scheme of work and recorded promptly. Some assessments are marked for up to 3 AFs. These must all be recorded separately.

Target Sheets and Target Setting for Students’ Formative Assessments

All pupils should be aware of their end of year target grade. It is recommended that pupils write this on the inside cover of their exercise books alongside the literacy marking guide.

Students should be provided with an opportunity to reflect on and improve their final assessments. Correcting SPG errors and/or re-writing a paragraph is considered good practice. Pupils should all be aware of their levels of achievement and what they have to do to reach the next level.They should also be aware of areas of weakness in their literacy that need to be addressed in future assessments.

Personal Recording and Assessment

In addition to the half-termly assessments you will no doubt wish to keep a record of additional assessments and homework on a week-to-week basis in your preferred format.This is not recorded formally in the department. Many teachers prefer to keep their assessments in their planners but you may wish to record them electronically – the choice is yours.

Please keep a record of pupils who forget equipment on CMIS. If they forget it three times they need to be entered for a department detention on the following Tuesday lunchtime. Use the electronic detention booking system to do this. If it persists a referral needs to be emailed to HOD. This also applies to lateness to lessons.

Homework

Homework

  • In Key ‘Stage 3 students have one homework slot of 30-60 minutes every fortnight. This must be recorded in their planners and must provide challenge, not just to finish off work from the lesson.
  • In KS4 there are 2 slots per fortnight (each 1 hour long).
  • At KS5, students are expected to complete a piece of homework for each of their teachers (2 pieces per week) and this should stretch them and encourage independent learning.
  • All homework should be marked by the teacher (within a week) and should include positive comments for effort/attainment and a formative comment to help them improve. Make homework tasks explicit by writing h/w in margin.

Setting homework: Wherever possible, set homework at the beginning or near the end of the lesson. Ask the students to leave their planners open on the desk in front of them for you to check during the course of the lesson or ask students to show you the recorded homework before they are allowed to leave the room. Make a note of all homework on CMIS.

Remember that some students will need extra help and/or time to record homework accurately. You may have to write it in for the more vulnerable or unreliable pupils.

Failure to complete any homework

This results in a department detention. Stamp the pupil’s planner and enter their details on the Excel Detention Booking spreadsheet.

Tasks: It is important to balance all the demands on your time. Try to set a variety of tasks, which do not demand that you go through each book in detail once a week (unless you want to). Tasks may include regular reading homeworks, learning homeworks, e.g. poems, spelling tests, research tasks and recounting the lesson to someone at home.

Feedback: This should be as near to the homework as possible, preferably the next lesson. Homework can be ‘marked’ in a variety of ways; for example students should be encouraged to learn to assess themselves and one another and can be guided to mark their own homework after going through an example on the interactive whiteboard with the class.

Marking

According to the English Department policy, students’ exercise books/files (at KS3, 4 and 5) should be peer or self-assessed at least twice a half term.

For KS3 & 4, targets should be set on the green sheets in the back of their exercise books.Any comments in their books should be formative and relate to relevant NC or skills based criteria or praise.First drafts at KS3 should also be peer-assessed. Each half term there needs to be evidence of formative and summative assessment for each student. For pupils at KS3 this means that the student’s APP assessments require a level and at KS4, Controlled Assessment tasks or preparatory work needs a GCSE grade.

At KS5 there should be evidence of work levelled in line with the relevant AS or A2 criteria or at least aspects on a particular AO. All KS5 teachers are expected to set and mark 2 formal assessments per half term.

All work needs to be marked for accuracy and the department use the same marking guidelines which are stuck into the front of every exercise book. These symbols are to be put in the margin and the relevant underlining/circling put where the mistake is. If a pupil has made a lot of mistakes aim to highlight 5 per page.

GCSE

The dates for these assessments are in the calendar and teachers should ensure that CA tasks are completed as near to on time as possible. This is of course entirely dependent on all pupils attending all lessons so there is a degree of leniency. Single English and Nurture groups will also work at a slower pace. CAs must be completed in class and pupils may not take home anything they have written during this time. It is the class teacher’s responsibility to look after all CA tasks. Moderation will be completed at suitable intervals that may be in or outside dept. meetings. All staff are expected to attend.

Reading and Skills Lessons

Lessons in the LRC

At KS3, all pupils are timetabled for a 1x fortnight library lesson. The main purpose of these lessons is to reinforce their knowledge and experience of spelling, punctuation and grammar.

The timing of the session should be 50:50, with skills as the first part of the lesson and reading as the second.

Staff responsible for the delivery of these sessions (if they are different to the ordinary class teacher) will have liaised with the KS3 Coordinator and staff they share the groups with. Only classes that have a specific LRC teacher will have a separate LRC exercise book. It is suggested that LRC work is completed in the back of exercise books but you may wish to keep it in the front with the regular classwork.

Skills

All S.O.W. are stored in the English folder under KS3 – S.O.W update 2011 – Y7 / Y8 / Y9 – unit for that half term – skills and these will consist of paragraphing, sentence structure, punctuation or spelling. Pupils who have a S.O.W. that covers spelling rules etc. should have regular testing either as a starter or as a set homework to learn.

Reading

At Notre Dame we aim to encourage a love of reading and it is the responsibility of the staff taking the lesson, the LRC staff, main teachers and parents to support this ethos. With this in mind, the reading part of the lesson should be a mixture of staff and pupil recommendation, new reads, recommended lists for KS3 (provided by librarians), as well as guest authors and opportunities to take out both fiction and non-fiction, particularly if a research task or homework needs to be done.

At home, parents/carers should ensure that books are discussed and recommended to their children and that appropriate reading material is brought into school, as we are keen to monitor suitability of age and ability.

Independent Private Reading

It is English Department policy to encourage all students to read independently for pleasure. There are a variety of book boxes in the English rooms to encourage this, as well as the library.

Pupils should be encouraged to read a wide variety of genres. There are lists of recommended reads at the back of some classrooms for pupils to browse and it is advisable that pupils recommend texts to each other.

The librarian also offers a range of activities to suit the particular needs of the students and the library can be booked for reading lessons. Please liaise with the librarian as much as possible.

Written Work

Students work in their exercise books and should be encouraged to work with a black pen, which enables them to present their work neatly. Fountain pens and handwriting pens usually give the best results. Some students may be able to work better, when drafting written work, using a pencil so that they can correct more easily. This can be negotiated with the student.

Staff may choose to use the coloured pens (to signify peer, self and teacher assessment) but this is not mandatory. It is, however, recommended that a different coloured pen or pencil is used for re-drafting and self/ peer assessment.

At KS3 pupils have A4 orange exercise books and at KS4 they use the A4 yellow books. They have best work/coursework folders of corresponding colours.

You should ensure that the marking guidelines is explained to the pupils and stuck into every exercise book they receive. (It is part of the key vocab sheet and Key Stage colour co-ordinated) Pupils should be encouraged to use this for peer and self assessment and for understanding how you have assessed their work.

Classroom Expectations

A set of Classroom Expectations can be found below and can be moderated and then explained to pupils (and copied into their books if you choose) at the beginning of the year. Please discuss these with all your students so that expectations are clearly consistent across the department.

The department operates a boy/girl seating policy wherever possible and it is good practice to re-sit the class each term.

English Expectations

  1. Line up quietly outside the classroom until you are invited in.
  2. Come in, get out your books and your equipment and stand quietly behind your chair.
  3. Sit down when you are invited to.
  4. Listen politely while others are speaking.
  5. Put your hand up if you want to contribute.
  6. Stay seated unless asked to move.
  7. Follow instructions without arguing.
  8. Speak politely to everyone.
  9. Do your best in every activity.
  10. Pack up sensibly and stand behind your chairs to be dismissed.

You may wish to amend these to suit your teaching style.

Learning Environment

Displays

Classroom displays should reflect on the students’ achievement, whether this is attainment or effort. It should also be a learning tool for pupils and offer them exemplar material at different levels/grades. Marked work is preferable.

Displays should be changed each year in preparation for Open Evening.

Rewards and Sanctions

Department Rewards

CMIS Credits are awarded for good/excellent work and for effort. Sometimes this might be for improvement in a particular area, effort or spelling for example. It is also recommended that a note is put into planners for any improvement shown or for good work.

Department Sanctions

A lunchtime detention should be set for the following offences: -

  • Failure to complete a homework
  • Forgotten equipment on 3 occasions or 3 pieces of equipment missing
  • 3 instances of lateness to your lesson

Pupils entered for detention must be registered on the Excel spreadsheet in the English Area called Detention Booking 2011-12 and a note must be made on CMIS. There is a rota for staff and each week, a member of the dept. will be responsible for supervising the detention. During the detention pupils must copy out the expectations (all in English Area in Detentions folder) in silence onto lined paper and sign the contract which is then collected in and kept.

If a pupil fails to attend a lunch detention, the HOY is contacted and the pupil receives an ASD.