English

Implementation

We use a range of reading strategies to support children on their journey to becoming fluent and confident readers. The Read, Write Inc Phonics programme of study ensures that pupils receive books that match their phonics progression, appropriately enabling children to be successful and develop competency in reading.  Adults and reading mentors will listen to children read on a regular basis and reading books will be changed once per week in FS2 and KS1, and as requested in KS2.

In FS2, Year 1 and Year 2, our pupils have a daily phonics Read Write Inc session within which early reading is explicitly taught.  Pupils who have completed the Phonics programme have daily reading lessons – where the key, essential components to developing effective reading are taught, using high quality children’s literature at the core of teaching, helping to develop a passion for reading amongst our pupils.

Daily reading for pleasure sessions are delivered by the class teacher, where children can simply enjoy listening to the adults reading to them, allowing their imaginations to transport them to an inner kingdom of unicorns, talking spiders and mechanimals.

In addition, we also encourage the children to choose books from our library as well as read books from home and have a Reading Ambassador scheme running throughout school. All children are expected to read a minimum of four times per week as reading homework and partake in the Castle Academy Reading Challenge.

Each week, we hold a Reading Morning where families are invited in to school to partake in a range of reading activities and games with their child/children.

We also take part in live author events throughout the year and enjoy celebrating World Book Day.

 

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Intent

At Castle Academy, we are committed to the vision that by the end of their time with us, children will be able to write enthusiastically and confidently for a clear purpose and audience. They will be encouraged to make links with their reading and real life experiences whilst developing their own individual flair. We believe that it is essential to create a culture where children are passionate about writing; every child will have the tools they need to be able to take ownership, and be proud, of their written outcomes.

The children at Castle Academy will be able to apply knowledge and understanding of grammatical features to write with accuracy and apply spelling patterns correctly using a neat handwriting style. We aim to expose our children to a wide range of vocabulary so that they are able to decipher new words and then use them when speaking both informally and formally.

Implementation

We use a range of strategies to support children to become enthusiastic and passionate writers. At Castle Academy, we use The Literary Curriculum to plan, organise and deliver English lessons to pupils from FS2 to Year Six.  Our curriculum supports a teaching through text pedagogical approach with high quality children’s literature at its core. The whole book (from beginning to end) informs the audience and purpose of each piece of writing.  We believe the exposure of children’s literature within Castle is vital to create a rich context for learning. We aim to use books that offer opportunities for empathy and can aid philosophical enquiry, where children see their cultures, families and relationships reflected and as a means of developing the spoken language requirements through debate, drama and discussion using the issues raised through, and within, the text.

Lessons are planned to create a cohesive sequence so that learning makes sense and is rooted in a strong context. Depth is engendered as children revisit key objectives and skills within different contexts building their understanding over time with frequent opportunities to apply their learning. Books are grouped within themes to ensure that links and connections are made within and across the curriculum.

Lessons include ‘a hook’ to generate interest, engagement and activate inferences. They include explicit grammar objectives so that the grammar skills for writing are seen in context and can be applied within writing. These can be taught ‘discretely’ yet creatively, and still embedded firmly within the context of the book.

Opportunities for both shorter and longer pieces of writing that are purposeful and pertinent to particular points of text are planned for within a sequence. Children are encouraged to write in role, with bias and for a distinct audience, rather than writing in one fixed genre for the whole planning sequence.

In addition to planned English lessons, children are exposed to Tier two vocabulary during explicit, direct instruction sessions (Word of the Day). Taught vocabulary is taken from the Astrea Tier 2 mapped lists. Within Word of the Day lessons, children develop an understanding of pronunciation and syllables, definitions, synonyms and antonyms, word class and modifications. They are given time to use the word in their own writing and opportunities are provided to edit and improve.

The clear focus on audience and purpose at the heart of the Literary Curriculum translates to cross-curricular writing as pupils use a ‘Write to…’ mindset to apply grammar, language and structural features appropriately for the clear audience and purpose.

Writing opportunities are woven through the Primary Knowledge Curriculum (used to plan, organise and deliver foundation subjects), with the aim of essays forming a core part of assessment of pupil understanding at the end of a unit. Essays are an opportunity for pupils to demonstrate both their substantive and disciplinary knowledge in a coherently crafted summary of core concepts, whilst applying the skills they have been taught within the English curriculum.

Discrete spelling lessons are delivered in addition to English lessons. Children are taught new spelling patterns and exposed to words which include taught patterns. Within spelling lessons, words with focus spelling patterns are taught and defined and opportunities to explore syllables, phonemes and etymology are planned for. Words with taught patterns are then applied at sentence level. During independent writing, children are encouraged to use a range of strategies when spelling unfamiliar words; such as silent syllables; applying phonic knowledge and write and review. Children are taught how to use dictionaries effectively, have access to and are encouraged to use the resources when completing independent writing.

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Please click here to see a copy of standard letter formation at Castle Academy.

Handwriting poster

Oracy

Intent

At Castle Academy, Oracy is a fundamental to our curriculum.  Our aim in oracy is to develop children’s speaking and listening skills, to make sure that they develop a rich and varied vocabulary, learn to listen attentively and speak clearly and confidently. We intend for oracy to be part of the school’s pedagogy, not a discrete lesson, but a thread running through daily school life. We know language development is an area of key importance for our children, which has an impact on all wider subjects.

We believe that spoken language is central to learning, and that there are numerous types of ‘talk for teaching’ and ‘talk for learning’ which enhances authentic classroom conversations positively when planned for and applied in the right contexts.

We understand that dialogue needs to be purposeful, with teachers guiding and supporting the conversation to ensure it is challenging and builds on prior subject knowledge. Critical thinking questions and authentic discussion prompts are found throughout the English Planning at all key stages, and ‘Going Deeper’ questioning forms a core part of the Reading Lesson to enable the facilitation of such dialogue.

Implementation

Within English, the national curriculum states that: ‘the curriculum reflects the importance of spoken language in pupils’ development across the whole curriculum – cognitively, socially and linguistically. Spoken language underpins the development of reading and writing.’

At Castle Academy, children are exposed to talk-rich environments. Oracy is threaded through all planning and teachers take oracy opportunities in every lesson, by using strategies such as ‘Think, Pair, Share’, ‘Timed Pair Share’, ‘Planned Talk Tasks’, ‘Sentence stems’, Dramatic conventions amongst other strategies. Oracy continues to develop through many of the foundation subjects, including Religious Education, Geography, History and Science.

Children are immersed in a talk-rich environment and are encouraged to ‘Track the Person who is speaking’ at all times. Tracking the speakers means looking at the person who is talking at all times. Ensuring hands are free from any equipment (unless note taking is essential) And finally, sitting up straight with the correct posture.  By maintaining a correct seated position and posture, we are encouraging children to stay on task and engaged in their learning and above all to show interest to the person speaking. By tracking the speaker, we are showing children that what they have to say is important and that their ideas matter. As part of our Oracy curriculum, we promote appreciation of our peers’ suggestions/ contributions through acknowledgement such as, nodding, smiling and appropriate response.

During Quality First Teaching, when modelling, teachers verbalise and explain their thinking and approach to a task to help pupils develop their metacognitive and cognitive skills without placing too many demands on their mental resources.