English
Learning: For a better future
“Indulge your imagination in every possible flight”
JANE AUSTEN
English Rationale
Good literacy skills provide us with the building blocks not just for academic success, but for fulfilling careers and rewarding lives.
A study by the Education Endowment Fund makes 7 recommendations, which we at Roskear have considered when planning our English curriculum:
- Develop pupils’ language capability to support their reading and writing.
- Support pupils to develop fluent reading capabilities.
- Teach reading comprehension strategies through modelling and supported practice.
- Teach writing composition strategies through modelling and supported practice.
- Develop pupils’ transcription and sentence construction through extensive practice.
- Target teaching and support by accurately assessing pupils needs.
- Use high- quality structured interventions to help pupils who are struggling with their literacy.
Phonics
At Roskear Primary and Nursery School we use the Read Write Inc (RWI) programme to get children off to a flying start with their literacy. RWI is a method of learning centred round letter sounds and phonics, and we use it to aid children in their reading and writing.
Learning to read is the most important thing your child will learn at our school. Everything else depends on it, so we put as much energy as we possibly can into making sure that every single child learns to read as quickly as possible.
We want your child to love reading – and to want to read for themselves. This is why we put our efforts into making sure they develop a love of books as well as simply learning to read.
Using RWI, the children learn to read effortlessly so that they can put all their energy into comprehending what they read. It also allows them to spell effortlessly so that they can put all their energy into composing what they write.
When using RWI to read the children will:
- learn that sounds are represented by written letters
- learn 44 sounds and the corresponding letter/letter groups using simple picture prompts
- learn how to blend sounds
- learn to read words using ‘Fred Talk’
- read lively stories featuring words they have learned to sound out
- show that they comprehend the stories by answering questions.
When using RWI to write the children will:
- learn to write the letters/letter groups which represent 44 sounds.
- learn to write words by saying the sounds in Fred Talk
- write simple sentences
Reading
Reading for pleasure is the single biggest factor in success later in life, outside of education. Study after study has shown that those children who read for pleasure are the ones most likely to fulfil their ambitions.
Reading:
1) Improves the functioning of the brain.
2) Increases Vocabulary
3) Improves theory of mind:
4) Increases Knowledge:
5) Sharpens Memory:
6) Strengthens Writing Skills.
7) Fosters Concentration.
Speaking and Listening
Acquiring language acquisition is vital and is therefore developed through all areas of the curriculum. Every unit of learning has specific tier 2 and tier 3 vocabulary which pupils are expected to practice both orally through paired and class discussion and in their written outcomes. Pupils are required to speak in full sentences using appropriate the subject specific language.
Writing: Fiction
Writing is taught through the Talk for Writing model; it has 3 stages: Imitation, Innovation and Independent Application. Children begin by internalising the structure, language and pattern of the text through, recitation (with actions) , drama and role play and dual coding with text maps. Once the text has been internalised, they ‘imitate’ the text, which means makes substitutions and embellishments to parts of the text such as : a change of character, seating or events, within the story. The final stage is where pupils invent their own story. Using the story structure, pattern and language, as a framework, they create a story of their own .
Throughout their time ast Roskear, pupils will also develop and revisit a range of story types: defeating the monster, rags to riches, finding tale, wishing tale, journey , quest and warning tale. Each story type has a writing focus such as setting, characterisation and dialogue.
Writing: Non-Fiction
Non- Fiction writing links closely to the topic, this reduces cognitive overload and ensures pupils are provided with the vocabulary and understanding with which to write fluently. It also embeds and deepens their topic learning and develops transferable knowledge and skills.
Throughout their time at Roskear, pupils will learn the features for the following non-fiction genres: reports, recounts, persuasive, discursive, instructions and explanation.