English
'At Hovingham reading and writing are not just subjects in a curriculum; they are the dynamic duo that transforms our children into lifelong learners, effective communicators and a voice to positively influence their future.'
At Hovingham Primary School, we believe that a high-quality education in English will teach pupils to speak, read and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others effectively so that they can be heard and understood by others.
English is both a subject in its own right and the medium for teaching across all subjects; for pupils, understanding the language provides access to the whole curriculum.
At Hovingham, everything we teach sits on a sea of talk, we teach our children to talk and through talk. We aim to ensure these skills are being encouraged in every area of our curriculum as good oracy skills can enhance every type of learning, but have included our intent, implementation and impact within the English curriculum.
| Reading Intent |
At the heart of our strategy is our drive to remove as many barriers to enable children develop the skill of reading by becoming fluent readers using increasing accuracy and understanding irrespective of their first language, literacy skills, disability or culture.
This can enable all pupils to learn across the wider curriculum and lay the foundations for success in future lines of study and employment.
We believe in fostering a life-long habit of being read to and reading for both pleasure and information will enrich their learning. We aim to do this through imaginative stories and thought provoking texts.
Our reading curriculum supplements cultural capital to provide all pupils with the opportunity to experience the delight and power of books and the written word.
We recognise the importance of having a consistent approach to the teaching of phonics and reading, in order to close any gaps and to give our children the best possible start.
Oracy is prioritised in our reading curriculum in order to build vocabulary, decipher meaning and increase understanding. Opportunities for paired and group exploratory talk, allows pupils to agree, build on and challenge each other’s responses are in daily sessions to develop understanding and develop articulacy.
Our intentions in reading are for pupils to:
- read easily and fluently with understanding
- develop the habit of reading and being read to for pleasure
- acquire and use a wide vocabulary
- identify themselves and their families in stories and literature
- read as a writer and write as a reader
| Reading Implementacion |
Where pupils start in Term 1 of Reception, phonics is taught systematically and prioritised highly throughout the Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 following the synthetic phonics programme, Letters and Sounds Revised Little Wandle and has fidelity to this scheme.
Where pupils have a different starting point, All children in Reception, KS1 and, where necessary, KS2 have daily phonics sessions where they participate in speaking, listening, spelling and reading activities that are matched to their current needs.
The teachers draw upon observations and continuous assessment to ensure children are stretched and challenged and to identify children who may need additional support. Timely intervention is planned for those children who are working below expected levels as soon as their needs are identified.
We recognise that systematic, high quality phonics teaching is essential, but additional skills and opportunities are needed for children to achieve the goal of being a well-rounded reader, namely comprehension. When children have completed the Little Wandle phonics programme, reading is developed during whole class reading, using high quality texts and focused skill teaching.
All children read aloud daily during phonics or whole class reading; in addition to this they read at least once more a week with teachers, teaching assistants and reading volunteers.
In whole class reading sessions, we use Hovingham’s 5A’s pedagogical model for children develop their key reading skills of decoding, Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation, Retrieval and Sequencing/Summarising (VIPERS).
We also use whole class picture books and elements of planning taken from ‘Take One Book’ that are most suitable to our learners needs in reaching their end points for that term.
All classes are exposed to a daily class reader in storytime, for pleasure, to excite and engage, and to expose them to new and varied contexts and vocabulary. All books shared with children are age appropriate and matched to the level of the class/individual.
Reading at home is encouraged and promoted through class incentives and parental engagement sessions.
• Children working on the Little Wandle programme take home or access a text online matched directly to their current phonics level; they are also encouraged to choose an additional book to share with their family at home.
• Following this, children work through our school reading scheme, Collins Big Cat– these are levelled books which match the child’s current reading ability.
| Reading Impact |
Through the teaching of systematic phonics, our aim is for children to become fluent and confident word readers by the end of KS1. As a Year 6 reader, transitioning into secondary school, we aspire that children are fluent, confident and able readers, who can access a range of texts for pleasure and enjoyment, as well as use their reading skills to unlock learning and all areas of the curriculum. We firmly believe that reading is the key to all learning and so the impact of our reading curriculum goes beyond the results of the statutory assessments.
| Writing Intent |
At Hovingham, we believe writing is a key skill for life that is essential for preparing our pupils for future lines of study and employment. This is why we make explicit links across all the subjects taught across our school. Our aim is to provide children with key transferable writing skills to build year on year that can be used throughout each phase of their current and future education.
We intend for pupils to be able to plan, revise and evaluate their writing. To be able to do this effectively, pupils will focus on developing effective transcription and effective composition.
Our curriculum ensures our pupils to write for a range of purposes, a variety of reasons and differing audience. This not only engages our pupils but allows our learners to apply their skills to a range of different contexts and across all subjects developing an increasingly wide knowledge of vocabulary and grammar. We also intend for pupils to leave school being able to use fluent, legible and speedy handwriting.
With regards to spelling, teachers will show pupils how to understand the relationships between words, how to understand nuances in meaning, and how to develop their understanding of, and ability to use, figurative language. They will also teach pupils how to work out and clarify the meanings of unknown words and words with more than one meaning.
Oracy is prioritised in our writing curriculum in order to build the necessary skills to listen attentively and respond appropriately. Linking in with reading, vocabulary teaching is a crucial building block for all our learners to communicate understanding and have the tools to write effectively and coherently. Pupils will be taught to control their speaking and writing consciously and to use Standard English.
Discussion, questioning and learning texts with actions all increase understanding and prepare our children with the tools they need in order to be successful in their writing. Our aim is for all learners to achieve their full potential in writing and we are committed to providing the scaffolds needed in order for our children to achieve this.
Our intentions in writing are for pupils to:
- spell quickly and accurately through a knowledge and understanding of phonics, word structure, spelling patterns and word recognition
- write for a clear purpose and audience
- write fluently and coherently across a range of genres, mapped within our curriculum overview
- read as a writer; write as a reader
- develop the stamina and skills to write at length, with accurate spelling and punctuation using legible, correctly formed and handwriting
- adapt their language and style for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences
- use grammar correctly, building on what they have been taught to expand the range of their writing and the variety of the grammar they use
- understand the building blocks need to organise and plan, revise and evaluate their writing.
| Writing Implementation |
We aim to develop children’s ability to produce well-structured, detailed writing in which the meaning is made clear and which engages the interest of the audience / reader. Particular attention is paid throughout the school to the formal structures of English: grammatical detail, punctuation and spelling.
We use Hovingham’s 5A’s pedagogical model for the writing process over two or three weeks depending on what the pupils know and remember for their previous learning.
- Text level – organisational features – use of a graphic organiser
- Sentence level – language features and Grammar and Punctuation
- Word level – CONTENT related vocabulary - noting whether it has been selected to achieve the purpose
Teachers prioritise which features of the text pupils need to learn on a word, sentence, and text level basis and support them in practicing these skills through a modelled, guided and independent writing process.
- plan and draft
- write and publish
- review, revise and correct (pupils will assess if they have achieved the aim of their writing through their choice of vocabulary, grammar, punctuation and organisational features)
- edit and redraft (once they are satisfied they have made changes to achieve the aim they can publish their work and present it by reading it aloud
- re-read/ proof read and present
| Writing Impact |
The main intended impact of our delivery of Writing is that all pupils enjoy writing across a range of genres, can write for a range of purposes and audiences, and become confident and effective communicators. They will amass a varied vocabulary that they can use across the curriculum and can apply spelling rules and grammatical concepts in their work. We also aim to ensure that our pupils are proud of their writing, their presentation and have opportunities to see it on display and shared with others in the school and with their families. Looking forward, we intend that by the end of Year 6 most pupils are meeting ARE and are ready for the secondary curriculum.
We will measure pupils’ progress and the efficacy of our curriculum using: Audit – prioritise – implement – monitor – review
| Vocabulary |
The cultural capital obtained through becoming an articulate user of a wide and rich range of vocabulary is one of the key drivers underpinning our wider curriculum. Interwoven through all areas of the curriculum is a determination to support pupils develop confidence and fluency in using a range of vocabulary in a wide range of contexts, including vocabulary as ‘multi-contextual’ (tier 2) and subject specific vocabulary such as accurate mathematical and scientific (tier 3). This will expand the vocabulary choices that are available to pupils when they write, and enable them to understand the meanings of words they meet in their reading across all subjects and develop an interest and enjoyment in language.
