English

Our vision:

At The Bluecoat School, we believe that a quality English curriculum should develop children’s confidence in, and love of, reading, writing and discussion through exciting, interesting lessons and opportunities.

English is at the centre of our teaching and learning. We engage our children in their learning though the use of high-quality texts, including fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Our teachers select texts to engage and inspire our children whilst ensuring they complement the topics being taught in other subject areas or they explore classic fiction. There is a high emphasis on talk and vocabulary development within our English teaching, through discussions and personal responses to questions posed by teachers and peers.

To enrich the English curriculum, we include real-world tasks such as: emailing a politician; creating news reports; writing instructions about sustainable products; STEM-based activities; workshops, visits and visitors both in person and online, including local authors and illustrators, and writing for a purpose (for example writing to notable public figures such as Sir David Attenborough

We teach English explicitly and through practical, purposeful and more meaningful ways.  Subjects, topics, knowledge and skills are linked and applied in a variety of situations. We aim to inspire the children to actively and enthusiastically learn the literacy skills they need to be well-equipped, literate members of society, who may resourcefully influence the world around them and have a positive impact as global citizens.

Intent:

At The Bluecoat School, we have a rigorous and well-organised English curriculum that provides many opportunities for reading, writing and discussion. Our curriculum closely follows the aims of the National Curriculum for English 2014 to enable all children to:

• read easily, fluently and with good understanding.
• develop the habit of reading widely and often, for 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 speakers and listeners, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate.

These aims are embedded through and across our literacy lessons and the wider curriculum. We aim to provide the means for children to develop a secure knowledgebase in Literacy. Rigorous assessment and review will ensure that we are able to provide targeted support so that all children experience success. 

Implementation:

English is taught through daily phonics lessons (Early Years Foundation Stage, Year 1 and Year 2), English reading lessons (Year 2 – Year 6), daily English writing lessons.  GPS (grammar, punctuation and spelling) is integrated into our English curriculum. lesson.

There is a high emphasis on talk and vocabulary development within our English teaching, which is supported by the use of sentence stems. Oral practise and rehearsal enable the children to practise what they want to write before they write. Children can do this through several ways, including talk partners. These strategies can be used across both reading and writing to scaffold learners with confident responses to questions and tasks they are posed with. We use model texts and check lists to guide, support and scaffold children with knowing what to include in their writing and why. In addition, children can carefully consider their role as an author and are able to apply their growing knowledge of authorial techniques to writing.

English writing lessons, where possible, are linked to the topics and texts we are working with, which means that high quality English is at the centre of our curriculum. We teach specific English skills in our daily English writing lessons, giving the children the opportunity to apply, develop and deepen their English learning. We also ensure that there are extended written outcomes in topic and science lessons too, so that English skills can be practised and applied beyond the English lesson.

We start by teaching phonics in Reception using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds (see further down for more detail on our approach to reading and phonics). This is essential for reading, but it also helps children learn to spell well.

What does English look like outside the classroom?

We believe that an important part of teaching English is to recognise the inspirations and opportunities both the natural world and the wider world provide. Encouraging the children to observe and make links with themselves, the school community, the locality and beyond, for example, global challenges including the environment, health and wellbeing, advertising and society.

Through using key literacy-based skills such as talk, questioning, report writing, instructions, persuasive language, fiction, poetry and presentation skills, the children are empowered to positively make a difference to their own and others’ lives.

Such opportunities include mark making (with the younger children), teaching through drama, music, workshops, visits (actual and virtual), trips, visitors to school both in person and online, outdoor activities and taking inspiration from nature. For example: Creating labels in the EYFS outdoor learning area; creating a river on the school field led to writing explanatory texts about how rivers are formed. 

Reading in School

Our approach to the teaching of reading

Learning to read is one of the most important things your child will learn at our school. Everything else depends on it, so we put as much energy as we possibly can into making sure that every single child learns to read as quickly as possible.  We want your child to love reading – and to want to read for themselves. This is why we work hard to make sure children develop a love of books as well as simply learning to read.

Phonics Programme: 

At The Bluecoat School we use Little Wandle as our phonics programme. 

This programme systematically teaches our younger children to phonetically decode and develop early reading fluency and skills. In the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and Year 1, reading books are matched to the phonics children are learning in class so young learners can consolidate their growing reading skills at home. Find more information about Little Wandle here

As children begin to master their reading, each classroom has a set of age and level appropriate reading books so that they can match each child to a specific range of reading books. Children have a wide choice of books to choose from which include a range of genres and authors. Children take these books home to read and are encouraged to read to an adult at home daily. Children read to an adult in school to ensure they are progressing with reading skills, reading the correct book band and developing pleasure in reading.

All children are given access to our well stocked and high quality library. 

Teachers regularly read to the children, so the children get to know and love all sorts of stories, poems and information books. This helps to extend children’s vocabulary and comprehension, as well as supporting their writing.

In the summer term, the government asks us to do a phonics check of all the Year 1 children. We will let you know how well your child has done. If they don’t reach the required pass mark the test is repeated at the end of Year 2.

What can parents/carers do to help?

Within the first few weeks of your child starting Reception, you will be invited to a meeting so that we can explain how we teach phonics and reading and show you the resources we use. During the meeting, there are lots of suggestions on how you can help your child to read. Your support really does get your child off to a flying start and encourages them to make great progress., with improved and increased confidence in their communication skills

You can help your child to sound out the letters in words and then to ‘blend’ the sounds together to make a word. For example: e.g. c-a-t to make the word ‘cat’.

Try not to refer to the letters by their names. Help your child to focus on the sounds. Sometimes your child might bring home a picture book that they know well. Encourage your child to tell you the story out loud; ask them questions about things that happen or what they think about some of the characters in the story.  During the phonics meeting, we will explain how you can help, support and encourage your child.

Make reading fun. Remember to keep reading to your child. They will come across far more adventurous words than they will in their early reading books. You will be helping them to grow a vast vocabulary and understand the meaning of different stories etc. It will also encourage them to love books, read for pleasure and want to read more.

It is important that the children are choosing books within their reading range.  We encourage pupils to read at other times from any sort of material that interests them, so please help you child by encouraging them to read, hear, share and experience a range of reading materials that interests them.

Did you miss our Phonics Fayre?

Work through our PowerPoint to catch up: