English
English
Intent
We aim to deliver a high quality English curriculum that gives children the best possible opportunities to become confident, literate, successful members of society with a deep love and understanding of the English language and literature. We believe the development of literacy skills is central to improving a child's life chances. Teachers have high expectations for all children to achieve and enjoy English and to be able to use the skills they have acquired in a range of contexts. We strive to ensure all children can communicate clearly in spoken and written form and become masters of language.
Implementation
We use high quality texts from a range of types including texts with archaic language, Non-Linear Time Sequences, Complex Narratives, Symbolic/figurative language and resistant texts. Teachers choose a text from a list of novels and they are studied for a term in KS2 and half a term in KS1. All elements of the English curriculum are linked to the chosen text. This ensures children have a deepened understanding of the text and skills are contextualised ready for writing.
How can I support my child with English?
Promote a love of reading by sharing books together
Seize opportunities to read for a purpose eg in the supermarket, road signs, window posters etc.
Provide opportunities for your child to practise their phonics/spelling homework. Be creative eg making words in the environment; making word pyramids or spelling stairs; rainbow writing; use fancy letters of different fonts; saying your words in a silly voice; cheer leading chants.
Find opportunities for your child to write for different purposes eg a letter or email to grandparents; shopping lists, recipes, little notes; making little books and stories; keep a diary.
Celebrate your child’s work and achievements at every possible chance. Promote taking pride in their work eg good handwriting to make it easy for the reader.
Questions to ask children while reading.pdf
Reading
Our main aim at Lower Farm is to promote a love of reading and to create a reading culture.
Reading Comprehension
Our reading comprehension is taught four times a week. 2 of our lessons are focused on our class text. One of these lessons is purely vocabulary based, after reading a section of the story. The second lesson, children are asked a variety of questions from our ‘Reading Dogs’. These are characters that focus on a key reading skill including retrieval, inference, sequencing, prediction and summarising.
For the next two sessions of the week, we use classroom secrets. Teachers chose a text and questions are given for children to respond to. These questions are again from a range of different reading domains.
Our reading sessions are taught whole class and teacher and TA support is provided where needed. Teachers and TA’s work with a different group a lesson and children showcase reading skills for the teacher to assess.
Once questions are answered children mark with the teacher and discuss ways to tackle questions.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary is a key part of our comprehension so we take a lot of time finding and understanding new vocabulary in the text. We also have a word of the week which is taken from an academic word list, attached below.
In addition to this, we also have a Greek or Latin root word to learn each week that supports children’s problem solving when faced with a word they may not have come across before. If they know the root word, they can figure out the meaning of the unknown word. The list of these words is attached below.
Reading at Home
Reading at home is a key element to children reading successfully. We have ‘hard copy’ books for children to take home from our reading scheme ‘Bug Club’ and we also have online reading through ‘activlearn’. Children in Reception and Year 1 also have phonics books to take home and they can read these online on Oxford Owl. Children at Lower Farm have a school planner to note reading at home in and they are encouraged to read a little every day. Teachers also read weekly with children in class.
Each class chooses a ‘Reader of the Week’ and this is presented in our ‘Friday Celebration Assembly’. This celebrates children who read the most at home or children that have made lots of progress with their reading.
Story Time
We ensure a story is read to children before home time. In KS2 we promote reading a chapter text, by an author they may not have heard before in order to broaden their understanding of different authors and classic texts. In KS1 and EYFS we read shorter stories but still from a wealth of authors.
Pyjamarama Day
In order to continually raise the profile of reading across the school, we take part annually in ‘Pyjamarama Day’ in school. We all come dressed in our pyjamas and celebrate reading all day long!
World Book Day
At Lower Farm we LOVE celebrating ‘World Book Day’. Every year we are astonished by the broad range of costumes we see when our children come dressed as their favourite characters. We celebrate authors and books all day then too!
Writing
At Lower Farm we see writing as a process. We plan opportunities to write a range of genres and the week/weeks leads up to a ‘final piece’. We aim to produce a piece of writing every week or two depending on the length of the piece. At the start of the year, scaffold and support is in place to help children write but as the year progresses, independence grows and children are able to write at length independently.
Handwriting
Children work hard on their presentation and all staff have a high expectation of handwriting. Children from Year 3 work to achieve a handwriting pen. This is given to children who are joining letters and writing legibly even when writing with speed. It is a real achievement to be awarded your handwriting pen.
Writer of the Week
Mrs Laugharne chooses a writer of the week from across the whole school, every week and presents them with a certificate in our celebration assembly. The children are nominated by their teachers if they have made a particular effort in their writing or they have produced something extraordinary. This work is also put on display for the week so all children can see it as they wall through the corridors.
Writing assessments.
Through the years, we have had some amazing stimulus for writing during our assessment week. Something ‘strange’ happens during the week and children go to visit the ‘scene’ and write about it! Here are a few different stimulus we have had.
A UFO crashed into our forest area
Dragon eggs were found on our field
A mystery door appeared in our woods
Examples of Work
Please click on the buttons below to read some of our writing. We hope you love it!
Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar
Spelling, punctuation and Grammar (SPAG) is a key component for successful writing and it is taught in context at Lower Farm.
Children in EYFS and Year 1 learn spellings based on their phonics sounds and from Year 2 onwards, children learn the spellings from Twinkl that are based on the national curriculum spelling rules.
Punctuation and Grammar is taught in English lessons and reinforced in contextualised starters every day.
We follow our own long term and medium term plans and they can be found below.
We assess children in SPaG termly to monitor progress and provide intervention and extra support where needed. These assessments also inform our planning for the next term.
Year 3 Spelling Lists
Year 3 Term 1B Overview
Year 3 Term 2A Overview
Year 3 Term 2B Overview
Year 3 Term 3A Overview
Year 3 Term 3B Overview
Year 5 Spelling Lists
Year 5 Term 1B Overview
Year 5 Term 2A Overview
Year 5 Term 2B Overview
Year 5 Term 3A Overview
Year 5 Term 3B Overview