MAHPs English Vision and Aims
MAHPs English Intent
We believe at MAHPS that the English curriculum should stimulate a child’s curiosity and excite children about language. We recognize children’s prior knowledge and understanding and build on this over time.
We aim for all of our pupils to communicate their ideas confidently using a wide vocabulary and to listen carefully. We have high expectations of all our pupils and support our children to make excellent progress in speaking and listening, reading and writing skills so that they achieve well and are ready for high school and their life beyond school. We aim to help all our children to progress in the basic building blocks: to read for pleasure with deep understanding, to write with clarity of expression and creativity for different purposes. They take pride in their work and edit extensively. From early years we put a strong emphasis on ‘Communication & Language’ as we recognise this is a vital building block to reading and writing.
Our diverse school community is a challenge and our children bring different experiences to their learning. We focus on developing communication skills, building vocabulary and developing a love of language. Our children make a good start to early reading using their phonics skills and then further develop fluency and comprehension over time.
Our children love stories and so this is the basis for a large part of our English curriculum to stimulate curiosity. We put reading at the heart of our curriculum and our aim is to ignite a love of reading from the very start. Story time is a favourite part of every day. There is also a focus on developing core/basic skills and using their English skills through other areas of the curriculum and in real life.
The English curriculum is carefully planned to ensure progression and growing knowledge. It contains a wide range of diverse and challenging texts and activities to reflect the diversity of the school and life experiences of our pupils and to build cultural capital.
MAHPs English Implementation
Planning and Preparing the English Curriculum
We plan carefully to allow children to develop their knowledge and skills. We have a medium-term plan for each year group to show which reading, writing and GPS learning objectives must be covered and we monitor this carefully, giving teachers feedback. This sequence of learning builds on the child’s previous experience and gives children opportunity to practice skills. Developing vocabulary is a key aspect of our whole curriculum. In particular we use talk through stories in Y1 and include vocabulary in our reading lessons and through the wider curriculum. Opportunities are planned for children to work with partners to discuss and debate.
Phonics
Phonics is taught through Read write inc in a consistent, thorough and rigorous way daily through Reception and Y1 and part of Y2 to give the children a good grounding in early reading. Children are given books that match their phonics knowledge and they are also given access to library books.
Reading comprehension
Reading comprehension skills are taught throughout school and texts are chosen to challenge and interest the children. From Y2-6 whole class reading lessons and English lessons are used to cover the comprehension skills using the reading dogs, content domains and vocabulary. Children also have an individual reading book from a selection within their class to develop their fluency and comprehension.
Writing
In writing, from Y2 onwards we use a Talk 4Writing approach eg model texts, boxing up. We build up the skills necessary for our half termly final product. We teach specific sentence structures related to the writing genre. We teach the children to edit for themselves. The texts have a clear audience and purpose. We use a carefully chosen class text to excite the children.
Drama and speaking and listening activities are important to enhance the children’s understanding and enjoyment. We have a class story time every day. This builds enjoyment and at the same time the teacher can model how they use the comprehension skills. A well thought out range of quality texts have been chosen to reflect the diversity of our school, tackle issues and to reflect and extend the experiences of our children.
Homework
Our homework is all based around reading. Children are expected to read at least 3x a week at home. This is checked by teachers and support offered to families who may need it. Families can also use Bug club- an online reading tool.
Reading Fluency
We are determined that all our children will have access to good books and a supportive adult to read with. We offer free breakfast club places for PP children and hear the children read regularly. We also offer a free book swap system. The school library has a wide range of books by popular and classical authors as well as non-fiction texts for children to choose. We also use the local authority library service to enhance the collection of texts we can offer children, both fiction and non-fiction. We have a series of planned events during the school year to promote literacy and enjoyment eg world book day, author visit, spooky story night, bedtime story, poetry day, reward assemblies, reading assembly, sponsored reads.
Staff Professional Development
The English team is passionate about driving improvement in English and we plan termly CPD for staff to improve our teaching and subject knowledge as well as constant monitoring and feedback of planning, teaching and books.
MAHPs English Impact
How do we know our children are doing well in English?
We see our children develop confidence in speaking and listening, reading and writing over time. They are able to express their opinions with a growing range of vocabulary eg in debate and write for different purposes. They read for pleasure and can talk about their favourite authors. By Year 6 our pupils are ready for high school. They can use their literacy skills effectively throughout the whole curriculum and in real life situations. Our pupils apply their English skills to write well in all subjects.
Teacher assessments
Children are assessed continuously through lessons and misconceptions addressed and then there is a summative assessment every term. A Teacher Assessment and Scaled Score are recorded termly. Children make good progress from different starting points. In writing we can see children using their newly acquired skills over the half term building to the final product.
Pupil voice
During informal pupil interviews, our children show that they are enthusiastic about the class reader and particularly inspired to write when there is a clear audience and purpose eg writing to an MP about a current issue. They can talk about the progress they have made.
