La Salette Catholic Primary School

Vision

 

At La Salette Catholic Primary School, we understand that English is both a subject in its own right and a medium for teaching the wider curriculum.  ‘Fluency in the English language is an essential foundation for success in all subjects’ (National Curriculum). With this in mind, we strive to advance pupils’ language development and communication, their ability to listen with understanding and for all pupils to progress in the skills of reading and writing.

 

Aims and Objectives

 

Our English Curriculum develops pupils’ ability to listen, speak, read and write for a wide range of purposes and across a wide range of experiences and text types. Pupils are enabled to express themselves creatively and imaginatively as they become enthusiastic and critical readers of stories, poetry and drama, as well as of non-fiction and media texts. Pupils use their knowledge, skills and understanding of the Spoken Language across a range of situations.

 

Our objectives in the teaching of English are:

 

• to provide a well-planned and resourced curriculum

• to ensure that objectives set for pupils are clear, realistic and obtainable; and in line with the New Curriculum of 

(https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-english-programmes-of-study)

• to provide purposeful and real experiences to develop English skills;

• to encourage the use of discussion, debate and drama, to explore ideas;

• to enable pupils to speak clearly and audibly, and to take account of their listeners;

• to encourage pupils to listen with concentration, in order to identify the main points of what they have heard;

• to be role-models for pupils on how to adapt their speech to a wide range of circumstances and demands, taking into account the correct use of Standard English;

• to develop pupils love of reading, encouraging pupils to read for enjoyment

• to help pupils to become confident, independent readers, through an appropriate focus on word-, sentence- and text-level knowledge;

• to develop enthusiastic and reflective readers, through contact with challenging and substantial texts;

• to teach pupils to adapt their writing depending upon, context, purpose and audience

• to encourage accurate and meaningful writing, be it narrative or nonfiction;

• to improve the planning, drafting and editing of their written work;

• to enable pupils to apply their knowledge and understanding across the curriculum.

 

Teaching and Learning in subject

 

At La Salette Catholic Primary School, we use a variety of teaching and learning styles in our English lessons. Our principal aim is to develop all pupils’ knowledge, skills, and understanding of the English Curriculum.  We do this through daily lessons, focusing on speaking and listening skills, sentence structure skills, grammar skills and reading comprehension skills. From this, a whole-class reading or writing focus will take place; followed by a guided group or independent activity and a whole-class review of progress and learning. Opportunities for talk and collaboration are planned for, in order for pupils to embed and enhance their learning. Teachers model good practice in the classroom.  

All children are challenged with differentiated work and the school has invested in a wide range of exciting texts to support and stimulate learning. Pupils are encouraged to apply the skills of English across all areas of the curriculum.

 

In EYFS and Key Stage 1 phonics is given a dedicated daily time in addition to the literacy lesson and is delivered through the new ‘Monster phonics’ program. In Key Stage 2, spelling strategies are also taught and assessed each week. Additional sessions are given to pupils, who are identified as needing further support, through various targeted lessons. 

 

Guided Reading is taught as a separate session outside of the English lesson.  In Guided Reading, the skills of reading are developed and pupils are challenged upon their understanding of whole texts at word, sentence and whole text level. Guided reading takes place at least three times a week so that over the course of a fortnight the teacher is able to hear every child read.

 

In all classes, children have a wide range of abilities, and we seek to provide suitable learning opportunities for all pupils by matching the challenge of the task to the ability of the child. We achieve this through a range of strategies. In some lessons, we do it through differentiated group work, while in others, we ask children to work from the same starting point before moving on to develop their own ideas. We use classroom assistants to support pupils’ learning, and to enable work to be matched to the needs of individuals.

 

As a school we participate in the Havering library summer reading challenge and visit our local library. The various school trips that are planned for the children throughout the school year provide many writing opportunities in class, from recount writing and fact files to non-chronological reports.

 

The whole school from Reception up to Year 6 is following the Nelson handwriting scheme to teach specific handwriting lessons two times a week.

 

 

Curriculum Planning

 

English is a core subject in the National Curriculum. We use the English National Curriculum as the basis for implementing the statutory requirements of the program of study for English. We carry out the curriculum planning in English in three phases (long-term, medium-term and short-term). Our yearly teaching program identifies the key objectives in English that we teach to each year.

 

Our long term planning ensures that all areas of the curriculum are covered throughout the year. Our Medium term plans, contain specific skills being taught as well as links to model texts (Grammasaurus).  Teachers meet with the English Leader to discuss which key texts will be used and what opportunities for writing will take place.  Through these meetings, the English Leader monitors that the range of text types are sufficiently being taught and that key-skills are pitched accurately.

 

Class teachers complete a weekly (short-term) plan for the teaching of English.  This plan contains the focus for writing in a variety of genres, grammar skills and Comprehension. At EYFS and Key Stage 1, the teaching of phonics is planned for by ‘Monster phonics’. This lists the specific learning objectives and expected outcomes for each lesson, and gives details of how the lessons are to be taught. It also includes details of what each group of children will be learning. These are monitored by the Senior Leadership Team.

 

The English Planning builds upon the pupils’ prior learning. All children of all abilities are given the opportunity to develop their skills, knowledge and understanding, and there is an increasing challenge for the children as they move up through the school.