English at Lawley Primary School
Our school vision
| The whole school community at Lawley have high expectations for our children, and strive to ensure they leave school as confident, polite and independent young people, with the appropriate skills, values and learning to become successful in whatever their future will be. We aspire to instil in all our children a desire to never stop learning and to have the courage to succeed in whatever they do, across all areas of school life and beyond. At Lawley we are ‘Planting the seeds, growing the future.’ |
Led by Clair Pollitt and Samantha Hill
Intent
At Lawley Primary school, we recognise the importance of English and believe that literacy and communication are key life skills; we are 'planting the seeds, growing the future'. We intend for all our pupils to be confident, independent learners with high aspirations for their future.
We intend our children to develop a love of writing as well as the skills and knowledge that enable them to communicate effectively and creatively through spoken language and equip them with the skills to become lifelong learners; to become independent young people, with the appropriate skills, values and learning to become successful in whatever their future will be. Literacy is at the heart of all pupils’ learning and is central to pupils’ intellectual, emotional and social development. It has an essential role across the curriculum that helps pupils’ learning to be coherent and progressive.
We use a range of resources to excite pupils by planning engaging and inspiring lessons to address the knowledge, skills and concepts of the National Curriculum, which are at the core of our teaching in English.
The wider curriculum is often taught hand in hand with an additional Literacy focus ensuring that children are able to read, access and enjoy their learning in a cohesive manner, making links and converting learning into their long-term memory.
Implementation
The National Curriculum forms the basis on which our English curriculum has been built. We have robust knowledge and skills progression maps in Grammar and Punctuation, Reading Comprehension and Genre progression which inform our yearly overview, medium term plans and consequently our weekly planning. We have developed a weekly structure of lessons for years 1-6, with reading comprehension being taught on day one, followed by two skills and knowledge lessons on the second and third day. These lessons often include a speaking and listening focus where practical peer work offers pupils the opportunity to rehearse and embed new skills in an engaging, exciting and interactive manner to inspire and enthuse pupils. Through these activities, our pupils develop their confidence in order to be able to independently apply these skills in their writing. A longer independent writing opportunity on the final day of our week allows our pupils to demonstrate their learning and includes writing for audience and purpose in different genres. In general, each unit will last half a term.
English units are planned around appropriately levelled, high-quality texts of varying genre and context with cross curricular links where appropriate. This enables us to develop confident, enthusiastic writers who can express themselves in a variety of different styles and across a variety of contexts. Teachers plan closely with year group partners to ensure consistency of opportunity for all children. Medium term planning supports teachers to plan a sequence of progressive lessons, linked to their specific year group progression maps, giving the children chance to develop and increase their knowledge, building on prior experiences and making connections in their learning. Teachers respond in detail to children’s work and ensure common misconceptions are addressed to ensure progress. Pupils have a daily allocated time to respond to their teacher’s feedback and edit their writing accordingly. Common misconceptions are woven into future planning through starter activities to revisit and consolidate learning.
At Lawley Primary School, we believe that writing is strengthened by instilling a love for reading within our pupils. (Please see our reading section on the school website).
Specific subject knowledge and vocabulary are fundamental; therefore, children are provided with and are taught technical and adventurous vocabulary throughout their learning using the high-quality texts as a basis. New ambitious vocabulary is pre-taught at the start of each new week allowing children explore word meaning before it is met in context within the text. Our 1:1 iPads provide a perfect platform for resharing vocabulary, allowing children to access activities to rehearse and embed new vocabulary.
Impact
In English pupils demonstrate their learning in every lesson. To monitor pupil’s attainment and progress, teachers assess the independent writing produced on the final day of the week and record a weekly judgement of where the pupil is working at in relation to the learning objectives and success criteria. Extended pieces of independent writing are completed and assessed at the end of each unit. These judgements are used to support internal school data which is collected 3 times a year. Pupil voice is carried out alongside book monitoring to examine the day-to-day view of English in the classroom and review children’s learning and progress.
Formative assessment happens regularly and is achieved through targeted questioning during lessons, observations of pupils, review of work and discussions. Lesson starters are used to continually revisit key skills and knowledge taught previously which ensures that children know more, remember more and can do more. It also offers the opportunity for teachers to assess pupils’ attainment and progress regularly.
Writing is moderated in school termly to ensure the relevant progress linked to the progression maps can be seen across all year groups. Teachers work in teams to moderate work and feedback to colleagues.
Subject leaders regularly review resources and samples of pupil work through Showbie providing informal opportunities for feedback to teachers as well as sharing ideas and practice.
The implementation of this curriculum ensures that, by the time children leave Lawley Primary School, they are:
- Confident learners that have a love of reading and writing.
- Resilient, independent learners that recognise how English is relevant to their future and ensuring they have high aspirations moving forwards.
- Secure and fluent in their application of skills and knowledge so that they can read and write with regard to audience and purpose.