Killingholme Primary School

The National Curriculum for English aims to ensure that all pupils:

• Read easily, fluently and with good understanding
• Develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information
• Acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language
• Appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage
• Write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences
• Use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas
• Are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate

Reading

Our Intent:

At Killingholme Primary, we promote a positive attitude to learning (based on our school vision of Partnerships + Potential + Performance = Success), encouraging our students to aspire to achieve their full potential by providing rich, motivational, purposeful and inspiring learning.

We believe that all pupils should have the opportunity to be fluent, confident readers who are able to successfully comprehend and understand a wide range of texts. We want pupils to develop a love of reading, a good knowledge of a range of authors and be able to understand more about the world in which they live, through the knowledge they gain from texts. By the end of their time at primary school, all children should be able to read fluently, and with confidence, in any subject in their forthcoming secondary education. We do not put ceilings on what pupils can achieve in reading and we do not hold pre-conceptions about any pupil’s ability to make progress. We understand the importance of parents and carers in supporting their children to develop both word reading and comprehension skills, and so we want to encourage a home-school partnership, which enables parents and carers to understand how to enhance the skills being taught in school through good quality texts.

Our Implementation:

Phonics is taught throughout the school, starting in Reception using the Little Wandle, Letters and Sounds Revised scheme. This programme ensure there are no children left behind  with reading and offers full catch up guidance and intervention if a child is having difficulties.

By the end of Year 1, we expect that our students will be able to access phonics to the end of phase 5. Throughout the phonics learning process in KS1, children will be provided with fully decodable books alongside their phonics lessons which can be accessed from an e library at home.

Year 2, through to Year 6, students will continue to revise sounds and spelling patterns in daily activities and this will form part of their English lessons.

Students will take part in reading practice sessions throughout the week and this allows teachers opportunity to model reading. This includes session based around expression, a discussion of word vocabulary, comprehension skills and general discussion around the text. Students are given the opportunity to develop their reading fluency and comprehension skills and all students are given an equal opportunity to succeed against age related expectations. Teachers and teaching assistants provide support through targeted conversations and modelling during these sessions in order to challenge all learners. Reading practise can be seen from Reception through to Year 6, using a structured, consitent approach throughout Y2 - 6.

We have also ensured we have allowed time in our time table for students to have one to one reading time with their class teacher and this runs alongside the Accelerated Reader programme, where children are able to read a book suited to their ZPD level and then take a comprehension quiz based on the book. This book can also be taken home and shared and  enjoyed with parents and carers.

The Impact:

Implementing the above will ensure:

• Pupils will enjoy reading across a range of genres

• Pupils of all abilities will be able to succeed in all reading lessons
• Pupils will use a range of strategies for decoding words, not solely relying on phonics
• Pupils will have a good knowledge of a range of authors
• Pupils will be ready to read in any subject in their forthcoming secondary education
• Parents and carers will have a good understanding of how they can support and encourage reading at home, and contribute regularly to homework
• The percentage of pupils working at EXS within each year group will be at least in line with national averages
• The percentage of pupils working at GDS within each year group will be at least in line with national averages
• There will be no significant gaps in the progress of different groups of pupils

Please visit the link below for parent support with Little Wandle:

https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/

Writing

Intent:

At Killingholme Primary, we believe that all pupils should be able to confidently communicate their knowledge, ideas and emotions through their writing. We want pupils to acquire a wide vocabulary, a solid understanding of grammar and be able to spell new words by effectively applying the spelling patterns and rules they learn throughout their time in primary school. We want them to write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences. We believe that all pupils should be encouraged to take pride in the presentation of their writing, in part by developing a good, joined, handwriting style, particularly as they move through Key Stage 2. We believe that all good writers refine and edit their writing over time, so we want children to develop independence in being able to identify their own areas for improvement in all pieces of writing, editing their work effectively during and after the writing process. We do not put ceilings on what pupils can achieve in writing and we do not hold preconceptions about any pupil’s ability to make progress. We understand the importance of parents and carers in supporting their children to develop grammar, spelling and composition skills, and so we want to encourage a home-school partnership which enables parents and carers to understand how to enhance the skills being taught in school.

Implementation:

In both KS1 and KS2, writing is taught within the Literacy Hour. Each part of this hour contributes to the success of children and their writing. Within lessons, teachers and teaching assistants target support where necessary to ensure all children achieve at an age-related level wherever possible. This may involve a greater level of scaffolding and access to additional support materials such as writer toolkits, word banks or a greater level of modelling. Children working at a level above age-related expectations are given opportunities to extend their writing in a variety of ways, including through showing greater control in their writing, a deeper understanding of the impact that their writing has on the reader and by using a higher level of vocabulary and grammatical features and structures. Writing rotates on a two-week cycle of fiction and non-fiction. Teachers plan so that non-fiction genres are linked with the current curriculum they are teaching and ensure they are covering the different text types , giving the students a fully immersive experience when writing.

Spellings are taught within the literacy hour also and focus on sound families, whilst also linking to the common exception words of each year group. A spelling test will follow each week, linking to the spellings which have been learnt during lessons.

Grammar lessons take place weekly in all classes to allow children to experiment with sentence structures that match audience and purpose. Teachers focus on particular grammar and punctuation skill, linked with the text type they are exploring allowing the students to develop and embed, or consolidate, their understanding of the curriculum grammar elements.

Impact:

Implementing the above will ensure:

• Pupils will enjoy writing across a range of genres
• Pupils of all abilities will be able to succeed in all English lessons because work will have appropriate scaffolding
• Pupils will have a wide vocabulary that they use within their writing
• Pupils will have a good knowledge of how to adapt their writing based on the context and audience
• Pupils will leave primary school being able to effectively apply spelling rules and patterns they have been taught
• Parents and carers will have a good understanding of how they can support spelling at home
• The percentage of pupils working at EXS within each year group will be at least in line with national averages
• The percentage of pupils working at GDS within each year group will be at least in line with national averages
• There will be no significant gaps in the progress of different groups of pupils