English at southfield- readinG AND WRITING

Writing Intent

At Southfield Junior school, we recognise the importance of English and how it under-pins the whole curriculum and the wider world. We aim to provide children with key writing skills that are built upon year after year and that can be transferred across the curriculum.

Our aim is to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping children with a strong command of the spoken and written word. We encourage all children to become independent learners and be confident in all aspects of learning.

We believe that every child should leave our school as confident readers and writers, possessed with all the language skills essential to participate fully as a member of society.

Our aim is to equip children with the right skills to enable them to:
• confidently communicate their knowledge, ideas and emotions through writing
• demonstrate a solid understanding of grammar – which is evident through written work across the curriculum
• apply their spelling and grammar learning independently to their work
• adapt their language and writing styles to suit a range of contexts, audience and purposes
• develop a cursive handwriting style
• access a wide range of resources independently to improve and edit their writing

By providing a range of opportunities to write and apply skills across the curriculum we create confident writers with individual flair.

Writing Implementation

At Southfield Junior School, we are flexible with our timetabling. This means that teachers have ownership of the amount of time that is spent in each lesson. When planning, we follow a writing sequence that equips children with the skills that they need to write for a range of purposes and audiences. Teachers carefully plan their lessons and make informed decisions about the time that needs to be spent on them in order for children to be successful and to make progress.

Our writing outcomes are closely linked to our topics and are progressive across the school.

Children at Southfield Junior School complete two main writing outcomes per half term. These are mapped out across the school to ensure that children have the opportunity to write a range of genres and to apply a range of skills.

Our writing sequence is made up of the following core components:
• Reading
• Topic/book immersion
• Text type immersion
• Skills sessions (grammar focus)
• Shared/slow/modelled writing
• Independent writing

Throughout the sequence, children have frequent opportunities to engage in short-burst writing where they can consolidate and apply previously learnt skills. In addition to this, they learn new skills that are specific to the sustained writing that they will complete at the end of the unit.

To develop our children as writers we:
• provide the opportunity to respond to high-quality texts through a series of writing tasks
• follow a sequence of lessons that enables them to develop skills to create a piece of writing that matches their genre focus
• use high-quality literature to help them develop a strong vocabulary bank: they can elect to use topic-specific and high-level vocabulary within their writing
• value the importance of oral rehearsal
• provide differentiated activities to ensure successful outcomes for all children
• use guided and shared writing to model writing skills and teach how to compose, amend and edit writing
• teach them to review and check their work makes sense and includes the features required by the task; becoming critical readers of their own and others’ writing
• teach grammar and punctuation in the context of their writing, as well as through discrete sessions
• teach them to develop their ability to organise and present imaginative and/or factual writing and poetry in different ways
• teach strategies for spelling to enable them to become competent and confident spellers
• encourage them to find evidence for their targets (found in the front of books) in order to develop their understanding of the skills used in writing and understand how they can improve and progress their writing.

Writing Impact

Reading Intent

At Southfield Junior school, we recognise the importance of English and how it under-pins the whole curriculum and the wider world.

Our aim is to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping children with a strong command of the spoken and written word so that every child at Southfield Junior School develops their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment. We encourage all children to become independent learners and be confident in all aspects of learning. We believe that every child should leave our school as confident readers and writers; possessed with all the language skills essential to participate fully as a member of society.

Designed with high-quality literature at the heart, our programme of study captures children’s imaginations and promotes a love of English. Our environment promotes reading: we use engaging displays; creative reading gardens; carefully presented book corners; our outdoor story throne and practical working walls to inspire and motivate the children. Our staff passionately promote a love of reading and actively engage in reading daily with the children to share this passion. We aim for the children to leave KS2 with a personalised bank of favourite books, texts and authors that they have created during their time in Southfield. It is our intention to ensure all children leave Southfield with confidence to read a wide variety of books in preparation for secondary school.

Reading Implementation

At Southfield Junior school, Reading is an integral part of the taught curriculum. Reading features in all areas of teaching and our children are provided with a range of texts to read and explore. We use a range of topic-related, high-quality texts to compliment our teaching of all subjects.

When teaching reading comprehension skills specifically, we teach six sessions which are skills focussed and two sessions where the children have a new text to read and apply the skills that they have been practising. Teachers follow the reading skill outline (see below) to inform their planning for skills and use topic-related, high-quality texts where possible. Resources such as Literacy Shed+, Comprehension Ninja and Testbase can also be utitlised to provide extracts and questions.

Reading is a high priority in our school and we take pleasure from reading each day. This may be seen in the form of independent reading, sharing a book with a teacher / friend or small group reading sessions. We also run ‘Daily Read Sessions’ which are incorporated into the school day. These sessions include small group work with the class teacher and involve the children focussing on a specific reading comprehension skill using a picture book and questions generated by the teacher. The children answer questions and share their thoughts verbally, all of which is recorded using technology. Alongside this, the LSA for the class/year group takes a small group and reads to them from a pre-selected, high-quality text. The aim of these sessions is to develop children’s vocabulary and provide opportunities for them to discuss the book and concepts within in a small group instead of as a whole class.

Reading is embedded in the curriculum with opportunities for reading in all areas of learning. We believe that reading widely and frequently increases children’s vocabulary; encountering words they would rarely hear or use in everyday speech. We believe reading feeds children’s imaginations and opens up a treasure-house of wonder and joy for their curious, young minds.

Throughout the English curriculum children are provided with opportunities to:

undertake guided and independent comprehension tasks (Using the ‘Vipers’ model to teach the 7 comprehension skills of: Vocabulary, Inference, Predict, Explain, Retrieve and Summarise)
take part in shared and independent reading sessions
read a diverse range of reading books, including books, magazines and newspapers from the school library, class book corners and book-banded reading scheme books
engage with a selection of reading materials from different genres and subject matters
engage with technical and subject specific texts
read aloud to their peers in a safe supportive environment.

Home reading is encouraged through the school’s home-school agreement and is recognised by the school as an integral and essential part of a child’s development. The children have access to a wide variety of books in the classroom and library. Children are issued with a reading record where teachers and parents can comment about how a child is progressing with their reading.

Reading challenges are offered within the school and pupils are encouraged to participate in external challenges and competitions such as the annual Summer Reading Challenge at the library. World Book Day celebrations are held to further promote reading.