English

The teaching of English underpins everything we do at Benhall St Mary's Primary School.

Literacy lessons take place daily in every class in the school and opportunities are frequently provided for children to develop their oracy, reading and writing across the scope of the curriculum. Our goal is for children to develop into confident speakers, thoughtful and reflective listeners, enthusiastic readers and engaging writers.

Reading

Our approach to teaching reading at Benhall is based on developing the full range of skills involved in this complex process. Children are encouraged to develop a love of books and are given many opportunities to listen to stories, to share books with each other and to choose fiction and non-fiction. On starting school they are encouraged to take books home to read and talk about with their parents and a dialogue is started between school and home in the form of their reading record. This includes both decodable texts and books chosen for shared enjoyment. We use a teaching approach based on systematic synthetic phonics as set out in the Little Wandle Government approved scheme It is structured and tailored to the needs of each individual right up until the end of Key Stage 1.

Phonics sessions are structured to build on previous learning and introduce new phonics skills and subject knowledge. Sessions often follow the model of revisit/review, teach, practise and apply. Sessions are planned to include opportunities for development of speaking and listening skills, reading and writing. Each June, all children in Year 1 undertake a National Phonics Screening Check. This check consists of 40 words (20 real words and pseudo words) which children will be asked to read. The focus of this check is to see if pupils can decode a range of words which they have not seen before.

There are lots of resources to support learning at home in this area and if you are interested please explore the websites linked above. More detailed information on the teaching of early reading is presented as part of our induction process for new parents and is available on request.

Not sure what to read next? Try the Bookfinder from BookTrust...

https://www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/bookfinder/

We believe that all children should have the opportunity to see themselves represented in literature and learn about the lives of others through books.

What does our curriculum intent look like for reading?

Writing

Benhall pupils are actively encouraged to develop as confident, engaging and creative writers. We believe it is important that children see their work as having purpose and that they regard themselves as authors. Opportunities are provided for pupils to develop the skills required for writing for a wide range of different purposes and audiences such as for example using both modern technologies including green screen and social media as well as creative approaches such as crafting their own books.

What does our curriculum intent look like for writing?

Key Purpose

Why is this subject important?

Writing is an integral part of our curriculum; success in this subject enables further success across a range of subjects.
Writing is an essential form of communication and a meaning-making process. Developing skills in writing should enable pupils to know the power of the written word for enjoyment, communication and information.
Through writing, children hone their understanding of language and literacy for a range of purposes and audiences; thus equipping them with essential life skills.

Key Principles

What are the distinctive ways of knowing, working and learning in this subject?

Pupils at Benhall are actively encouraged and engaged in a community of writers to enable them to develop as confident writers for a range of purposes. We believe it is important that children see themselves as writers and the act of writing as an inclusive, not exclusive, practice across the school. It is necessary for children to see their written work as purposeful and that they have an active role to play as authors of their own work.
Children at Benhall Primary School receive daily opportunities to write for a variety of purposes. From note-taking to creating beautiful, hand-crafted books, children must know that writing has many different purposes and audiences.
Whilst some aspects of spelling, punctuation and grammar are taught discretely, it is always with the aim of enhancing children’s overall skills in writing. Our teaching and learning of spelling, punctuation and grammar is heavily embedded in all areas of our literacy learning as teachers make explicit links in children’s learning e.g contextualising grammar within a guided reading session.
A child’s writing development is nurtured from their arrival in Early Years where all efforts to write and mark-make (using a variety of implements) are praised and valued. Children are encouraged to feel excited about writing and to view themselves as writers.
Benhall Primary School has high expectations for handwriting and presentation; encouraging pupils to be proud of producing high quality work across the range of curriculum subjects.
Teachers often model writing for children; allowing them to gain insight into the thought processes involved in writing. Teachers often write alongside the pupils in their class and use ‘writing workshops’ to openly explore the processes and challenges involved in writing. Children receive personalised feedback about their writing to move them forward in their learning.
The journey to a written outcome often starts with reading high quality texts of a variety of genres. We continually review our library stock with writing outcomes in mind. We also make use of the Power of Reading scheme by CLPE to create engaging sequences of lessons. Teachers also use experiences, films, drama, objects or topics from other subjects as inspiration for written outcomes.
Teachers encourage children to enjoy words and work hard to provide a language rich environment to stimulate children’s writing interests. Children are allowed space to develop their own response to a stimulus in order to develop individual style and voice. They are encouraged to write freely and regularly so that they are comfortable with ‘the blank page’. Children are allowed dedicated quiet time and space to write. They regularly share their work aloud and thrive in a supportive environment where they are encouraged to take risks and be individual.

Expectations

What does success look like in this subject?

Children being able to write, and to find pleasure and purpose in doing so. Pupils should also develop the ability to persevere with their writing and to spend time finessing their work by editing and revising.
Success in pupils achieving at national age-related expectations and showing progress in their writing – no matter what their starting point.
Pupils are able to embed their knowledge of writing to enable high standards of literacy across the curriculum.
Pupils are able to critique their own and others’ writing, using appropriate terminology and giving reasons for their suggestions.

Pupils know how to improve and refine their writing and are supported in doing this.