English

English at Warton St. Paul's

At Warton St. Paul's we are passionate about reading and writing. We aim to develop a love of reading and our children are given lots of opportunities to read and write across the curriculum. 

Our English Subject Leader is Mrs Fisher and she is responsible for ensuring our English Curriculum and resources suit our needs and are updated regularly to support our learning. 

Mr Taylor is our link Governor for English and he is regularly updated on our successes in the subject and areas that we are looking to develop further. 

English

Intent

Pupils at Warton St. Paul’s Primary Academy will leave Year 6:  

• being able to speak clearly and audibly in ways which take account of their listeners;
• being able to listen with concentration in order to be able to identify the main points of what they have heard; 
• adapting their speech to a wide range of circumstances and demands;
• communicating, explaining and describing using technical vocabulary appropriate to the subject; 
• being able to reflect on their own and others’ contributions and the language used;
• evaluating their own and others’ contributions through a range of drama activities;
• being confident, independent readers through an appropriate focus on word, sentence and text-level knowledge;
• enthusiastic and reflective readers through contact with challenging and lengthy texts;
• enjoying writing and recognising its value;
• writing with accuracy and meaning in narrative and non-fiction;
• using planning, drafting and editing to improve their work.
• being able to explore literature, including verse and prose, through drama and play script.

Implementation

This will be achieved through daily systematic synthetic phonics sessions in Foundation Stage and Year One where the children will learn to read and write using the Red Rose Letters and Sounds Phonics Scheme. This scheme is supported by our reading book scheme which is organised to match the sequence of learning in our phonics scheme. The books are from a range of reading book schemes including; Songbirds, Bug Club and Oxford Reading Tree. Children take home a book that matches their phonic ability each night and are encouraged to read at home with an adult. When they reach the end of Phase Five, they move on to our free-readers scheme where they can choose a book they would like to take home and read. 

This will be continued in Year Two - Six with daily spelling sessions using the No-Nonsense Spelling Scheme. This scheme teaches the spelling rules and words for each year group in school. Spelling tests are completed by each class weekly and a spelling assessment is completed at the end of each half term. 

Children are taught English everyday where they learn about genre features, grammar and punctuation and reading comprehension skills. These are taught using speaking and listening activities, drama, reading, planning and writing. This is focussed on a key text or video. Lancashire Medium Term Plans and Write Stuff Planning are used to support teaching in English. 

Children have daily guided reading sessions where they complete reading activities in a carousel. Every week they read at least once with the class teacher and complete a follow up activity from this session. During these sessions the children learn and practise reading comprehension skills, such as retrieving, inferring, predicting summarising, analysing and comparing by responding to what they have read. 

Children have daily handwriting sessions where they first learn to print letters and then move on to joining when they are ready. In Reception, children have daily dough disco sessions to develop hand strength to aid fine motor skills. They are encouraged to hold a pencil and other writing tools with the correct grip when they are developmentally ready.  

Impact 
We aspire for the children of Warton St. Paul’s to leave us being fluent, confident and enthusiastic readers. They are able to recommend books to their peers, access a range of texts for pleasure and for learning. 
Our children will be able to write for a range of purposes and audiences. They will see the value of writing and take pride in their work. They will be able to use a range of features in their writing and talk about the differences of each genre.