Focus: Writing, Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling
Intent:
The national curriculum states that, ‘English has a pre-eminent place in education and society,’ and we at Christ Church Junior School recognise this and that the skills of language are essential to participating fully as members of society.
We use just one book for all subjects except Maths. Our intention is to develop writing as a transferrable skill across all subjects taught in the curriculum. We therefore immerse children in a termly History/Geography themed topic and encourage cross-curricular links.
Our aim is to provide engaging writing hooks that are linked to each termly topic to give children an audience and purpose for writing. Children are expected to transfer their key topic knowledge and vocabulary into their writing and vice versa to transfer their spelling, grammar and punctuation knowledge into their topic work. We expect the high standards for writing in English lessons to be evident within the work in all subjects.
We believe that all good writers refine and edit their writing over time, so we want children to develop independence in being able to identify their own areas for improvement in all pieces of writing, editing their work effectively during and after the writing process.
Implementation:
At Christ Church CE Junior School, children receive a one hour English lesson daily. Writing and reading are closely linked and we ensure that children are reading daily in order to build on their knowledge of different genres of writing and to develop their vocabulary
In this time children look at a genre of writing, identifying what makes it a particular type of writing. Reviewing and revisiting where they may have seen this writing before.
By looking at a good example, our children are encouraged to deconstruct texts and identify key features for specific genres of writing. Teachers model the practising of these skills, often using a WAGOLL (What A Good One Looks Like) and children then help to come up with success criteria for the type of writing.
Throughout the unit of work children will be participating in activities to develop the skills and knowledge required for the genre (hot seating, drama, questioning, working on grammatical features etc) as gaining these smaller steps, then practising and applying them help long term memory.
Often the children will then complete an independent piece of writing for the genre studied before checking their own work against the genre success criteria and editing before the cycle starts again on a new genre.
Verbal and written feedback is given to the children to ensure a positive impact on outcomes.
The children’s work is published and celebrated throughout the school on display boards and is also shared with our wider school community through our website and the school newsletter.
Children often then have the chance to apply and consolidate their learning by using these writing skills in other curriculum areas.
We teach grammar and punctuation within our English lessons. Linking it to the genre to make it contextual with the intended writing outcome. Again we then aim to embed this learning throughout other subjects, such as historical recounts, geographical comparison pieces, science experiment write-ups and other cross-curricular writing opportunities.
SEND
Children with SEND are supported with writing in the following ways:
- They start with a simplified writing process of planning, drafting and publishing. Publishing is undertaken by an adult helper on the child’s behalf if requested.
- They are encouraged to plan using storytelling, drawing, talk and picture book making.
- Over time, they are moved towards conventional planning, dabbling, revising and basic editing.
- They regularly write alongside an adult who is also writing.
- They publish their work in using technology to aid them where appropriate eg dictation program on an iPad. It is celebrated in the same way.
Spelling
An important aspect of learning to write well is learning how to use grammar, punctuation and spelling correctly. We use the ‘Spelling Shed’ website to teach children to spell; they also have access to this at home. The Spelling shed is a whole school spelling scheme giving 100% coverage of the national curriculum. It is fully controlled by the class teacher and enables each child to have custom spelling lists created for their ability. The scheme is accessible at home on a tablet or phone so that children can practice their spellings as part of their homework in a fun and engaging platform with games to play.
Teachers set weekly spellings, to be tested in school and these are set via the app. The spelling shed has three levels of difficulty to support pupils of all abilities through appropriate challenge.
Impact:
Our engaging cross-curricular lessons help pupils to foster a love of literacy and language and an enjoyment of learning. We challenge children of all abilities and ensure they make good progress in all areas of the English curriculum. They are encouraged to have a growth mind-set and to develop perseverance and resilience.
We celebrate pupil’s hard work, their success and most especially, grit. They are encouraged to revisit their work, make changes and develop their ideas further to ensure they achieve their very best. As a result, pupils demonstrate great pride in their work.
We measure the effectiveness and impact of our English Writing, Grammar and Spelling curriculum in a variety of different ways. We use National and summative testing to assess pupils’ outcomes for Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling as part of the Statutory Assessment Tests (SATs for Year 6 pupils). Additionally, pupils complete writing assessments on a half termly basis, where written work is assessed to inform teachers of pupils’ next steps and successes. The impact of the curriculum is seen through pupils’ national assessment results.
Through lesson and pupils’ book monitoring, it is evident that pupils are being well supported to acquire the necessary skills and subject knowledge in order to become established and confident writers and work monitored in books demonstrates that the curriculum is taught at an age-appropriate standard across each year group, with additional opportunities planned for pupils to demonstrate their ability to work at a higher standard.
Lesson observations demonstrate that learning is being broken down into smaller steps and modelling supports pupils in the writing process – ensuring that the subject as a whole is regularly being reviewed to ensure learning is being embedded into pupils’ long term memory.
The impact of our writing, grammar, spelling and punctuation curriculum can also be measured through pupil voice and talking to the children about their own learning. Pupil voice indicates that the children are enjoying their learning and can talk about the subject and curriculum opportunities.
When children leave Christ Church CE Junior School they will have their own established writing process incorporating strategies and routines for producing successful, meaningful and accurate writing.
Focus: Reading
Intent:
Christ Church is a Reading for Pleasure school.
At our school, teachers read aloud to their classes every single day. We value reading aloud and recognise that sharing a text is a special time which must be guarded despite the time pressures of the curriculum.
We have developed a curriculum that will instil in all children a love of reading that we hope will stay with them for life. We understand that children who are confident adept readers will be empowered to succeed in all other areas. We understand that parents and carers play a vital role in the development of early reading and in nurturing positive habits and attitudes towards reading. We welcome this and their contribution.
We believe that all pupils should have the opportunity to be fluent, confident readers, who are able to successfully comprehend and understand a wide range of texts. At Christ Church Junior School we promote a love for reading by ensuring that all of the children are exposed to high quality texts that are incorporated and brought to life throughout our learning journey.
As reading is at the heart of our curriculum, we have selected challenging class texts which we believe will enthuse our children and expose them to new vocabulary.
Implementation:
At Christ Church we use a whole class teaching approach with reading that ensures progression in both word reading skills and comprehension. The weekly activities are structured to ensure that children have opportunities to dissect their class texts and have access to other reading material in order for them to build reading stamina and strengthen their high-order reading skills such as; evaluating author’s intent, and using quotes for their justifications and opinions.
We believe the most effective approach to develop comprehension skills is through pupils’ experience of high-quality discussion with the teacher, as well as from reading and discussing a range of stories, poems and non-fiction. With the new National Curriculum split into three key areas: Reading for Pleasure, Vocabulary Development and Oral Comprehension, a whole class approach to reading will enable children to develop their skills within each of these.
All pupils will be given the opportunity to read aloud, listen to a text read by a teacher or peer and develop their ability to be able to discuss what they have heard in a constructive way. Unfamiliar vocabulary will be explored and explained within a familiar context (class text), ensuring a breadth and depth to their reading as well as enhancing their enjoyment.
Where children are still developing their reading skills in Year 3, daily Phonics sessions are taught. These may continue for some children as they move through the school and learn to read at different rates. We know that phonic understanding is only part of the process of developing reading and that once children can recognise and pronounce words with growing confidence, that there are additional skills that need to be learnt and practised. These include: summarising stories, clarifying understanding, predicting, skimming & scanning as well as inferring & deducing.
Our school is always looking to help the children in new ways and we have invested in innovative new ‘eye tracking technology’. Our headmaster Mr Tucker helps to identify children who may need support with reading. He is trained to use the special software from ‘Lexplore’ that uses Artificial Intelligence to track the children’s eye movements when reading and can then direct the class teachers to appropriate interventions to help these children with either fluency or decoding issues.
A key priority for our pupils at Christ Church is vocabulary development. Teachers use all available opportunities to clarify and extend pupils’ understanding of new words. Reading for pleasure sessions are a prime opportunity to do this but new subject vocabulary is also introduced in all subject lessons. We also stretch the children with a new word each day from ‘Vocabulary Ninja’.
We recognise the need to increase pupils’ reading stamina and their autonomy. Pupils are given opportunities to read silently in class during D.E.A.R time each day (Drop. Everything. And. Read). We also recognise the need for them to feel comfortable and cosy while they are reading and each year group has a dedicated reading area with comfy seating and cushions.
The school library is an amazing resource used by all classes, we are so lucky to have a talented and passionate librarian, Mrs Britnell, who helps children to find books whatever their interests. Our pupils are also involved in running the library: Junior Librarians are nominated and trained to help with restocking, cataloguing and running the library.
At Christ Church, we use the Accelerated Reader program. Each child in the school has their own AR account so we may collate and monitor their reading progress throughout their time with us.
With this AR data we can quickly identify pupils who have fallen or who are at risk of falling behind in their reading and interventions are put in place. These may be one to one with a TA or small groups with class teachers. We acknowledge that reading enjoyment and reading achievement are interdependent, so stringent monitoring is key to ensuring all our pupils can participate fully in the reading curriculum.
Reading records are taken home by the children with their books. These records have guides and questions to help parents in their book chats with the children. Children record the books they have read in there and AR quiz successes are celebrated in these books too.
Each week, time is allocated for classes to visit the library and read in a ‘cosy corner’ or in other shared spaces for example the outdoor herb garden or the prayer space. Our pupils love reading together and they are often seen reading a big book with a friend.
All staff at Christ Church model that we are readers by sharing with pupils what we are currently reading. Teachers and other adults talk enthusiastically about reading and weave their love of reading into assemblies and presentations. Authors and poets are invited into school and work with year groups. Poetry is valued here and often features in our displays.
Throughout the year all classes learn poems off by heart – either linked to a school value, a topic or a seasonal event. Children have the chance to perform these poems in assemblies, on stage, or in our local church during termly productions.
We recognise the need to raise the status of reading within our school community and have invited famous authors to come and visit us. Recently Nizrana Farook and Gareth P Jones came to our school to work with the children. Our pupils also write letters and receive replies from published authors through the Penpal scheme run by our librarian.
Every year children from Christ Church also take part in national book review competitions. The children have submitted reviews for the CILIP Carnegie, Kate Greenaway award and the Laugh Out Loud Awards.
We encourage membership of the local library and good reading habits outside school time. To this end, we plan school visits to our library and local book shops.
Impact:
We hope that the children will leave our school with a lifelong love of reading and have at their disposal a range of techniques to use when decoding so that they have the fluency skills needed to succeed at Secondary school and beyond.
Children leaving us will have a broad knowledge of a range of authors from different backgrounds, cultures and communities.
What can parents do at home?
To gain more from your child’s reading, here are 5 useful top tips:
- Explore it – read a section from a book together and think and ask questions about the following:
- Think about how it is written. What parts of this really stick in your mind? Which words and phrases do you like the best? What do you like about them? Do they look or sound interesting? Do they help you make a picture in your mind?
- What is happening in the extract? Who are the central characters? Can you summarise what you’ve read in a couple of sentences?
- Illustrate it – Create an illustration to represent the passage that has been read. If it is a picture book, what section of the text has the illustrator focused on? Is there another section that can be illustrated?
- Talk about it – Use questioning about the characters, setting and key events to secure your child’s understanding of the text. For example,…
- How has the character been described? Would you use the same words to describe them or would you use different words? Why would you change them?
- How has the setting been described? How does this help you to imagine the scene facing the characters?
- If you were going to describe a character or setting from your life, would you magpie some of these ideas? Why might you choose them or others?
- Imagine it – Ask questions that will deepen your child’s responses to the text, encouraging them to think beyond the words on the page and link it to their own knowledge.
- When do you think your book is set in time? How do you know this?
- Where do you think your book is set? How do you know?
- What might happen next? Can you make a prediction?
- Create it – Take an aspect that you know about the book, for example the location, and use this for creative activities. For example,
- If the book is in a certain place, can your child create a visitor’s guide?
- Choosing a word or phrase from the book, from this can your child write a different story with this as their starting point?
- Can your child recreate the scene in the book using junk modelling materials?
For more exciting activities to promote a love of reading at home, try these fantastic suggestions on the following link: