Easington C of E Primary progression of knowledge and skills WRITING.
What does writing look like at Easington Church of England Primary School
Easington C of E Whole School progression of knowledge and skills READING
INTENT
Subject Leader – Miss O’Neil
Reading:
Much like our school vision, “May we give them the roots to grow and the wings to fly” we seek to give children a robust grammatical foundation and the inspiration to create magical worlds in their writing. Children are encouraged to use their reading to cultivate their ideas in writing and have a greater impact on the reader. Pupils are taught decoding and comprehension, along with spelling, grammar, and punctuation in skill specific lessons to support their understanding of the English language.
Writing:
Much like our school vision, “May we give them the roots to grow and the wings to fly” we seek to give children the skills to escape with a book and create magical worlds in their writing. Pupils are taught decoding and comprehension, along with spelling, grammar, and punctuation in skill specific lessons to support their understanding of the English language.
IMPLEMENTATION AND CONTENT
Teaching and Learning Time:
Guided Reading, English, phonics, and basic skills lessons are taught daily. In EYFS and KS1 English is taught for 1 hour. In KS2 English is taught for 1 hour a day. Guided Reading, phonics, and basic skills lessons and 30-minute lessons daily.
Planning
September 2022
From September 2022, the Genre Coverage document will be used to select the books and the time spent on each purpose. The Long-Term Plan will be used to complete specific SPAG and Reading objectives.
Medium Term Planning
Teachers produce a medium-term plan which will be linked to the Genre Coverage Document and the Long-Term Plan. This will show the activities and differentiation in each lesson.
Short Term Planning
Each class teacher is required to produce a two-week overview-which provides greater detail of the specific National Curriculum, year group objectives being taught. Each genre is broken down into two distinct weekly ‘blocks’:
Week 1 – Reading and SPAG Week – during this week, teachers plan to teach specific reading objectives as stipulated by the National Curriculum for their year group. Activities during this week could include writing summaries, completing reading comprehensions, performance, and drama etc depending upon the genre being covered. They will also plan and teach specific grammatical, spelling and punctuation related objectives from the National Curriculum. These will be specific to each year group and will be clearly evidenced within the children’s books.
Week 2 – Writing Week – during this week, the children are required to produce a piece of writing based on the genre that has been studied during the previous two weeks of the block. It is an expectation that the children will use the reading knowledge from the reading week and the GPS features studied in week two in their composition. Children will plan, draft, edit and re-draft during this week in order to produce the highest quality of work that they are capable of.
In instances where the National Curriculum requirements for each year group do NOT align, a split teaching approach must be employed to ensure that each year group receives their curriculum entitlement.
Success Criteria labels will be used as an indicator of the progress that has occurred throughout the course of the lesson. The labels need to be specific to the year group objective and the Success Criteria specific to each year group. The success criteria SHOULD NOT be generic but SHOULD BE differentiated and matched to the children’s ability.
The modelling resources used by teachers to facilitate learning should indicate progress clearly and use models, images and other interactive stimuli vital to the children achieving mastery (by the end of the academic year). Marking and assessment within lessons (Verbal Feedback), at the point of learning, should be an integral part of practice. Please use the ‘Next Steps’ to further challenge the Greater Depth children or to consolidate learning. It is an expectation that when the children’s work merits it, the ‘next step’ will be given. Crucially, teachers need to mark and acknowledge the ‘next step’ feedback by marking and initialling it.
When marking any piece of work that contains writing (English, history, geography etc) the teacher must mark to the Success Criteria of the lesson. However, it is essential that the basic skills of writing are also marked and addressed if required ie. It would be unacceptable to allow an unpunctuated piece of writing to permitted in history. The basic skills of English need to be utilised accurately at all times and in all subjects.
Phonics
Phonics will occur in Key Stage 1 from 13:10-13:40 on a daily basis. Please note that in Key Stage 2, phonics will occur as an intervention session.
As a school, we use the Sounds Write approach to teach phonics. This is matched precisely to our reading scheme in EYFS and KS1. This was a recommendation in the Bold Beginnings Documents and ensures coverage over the 2 years and a smooth transition from EYFS into year 1. This also develops confidence, as children have the knowledge and skills to decode the books that they are reading.
In EYFS, phonics delivery is aligned with the schools reading scheme and the Sounds Write approach of teaching ‘sets’ of sounds from the initial code is used.
Similarly, in Year 1 and 2 phonics delivery is aligned with the schools reading scheme reading scheme and the Sounds Write approach of teaching ‘sets’ of sounds is used. Revision of the previous sounds is also commonplace.
EYFS – The initial code is taught in ‘sets’.
Year 1 and 2 – a revision of initial code then extended code is taught in ‘sets’.
Where Assessment for Learning indicates it is necessary, children in Key Stage 2 will access phonics interventions in order to address any gaps in their knowledge.
Reading
At Easington Church of England Primary, reading takes various forms.
Procedure for lack of engagement:
Step 1 – dojo message regarding school’s ability to check diaries.
Step 2 – Following day – no book – speak (in person/phone call) to parents face to face.
Step 3 – J.A. to contact parents directly regarding engagement of reading.
Spelling
At Easington Church of England Primary, spelling is of the utmost importance, which is why we use ‘Spelling Shed’ to ensure thorough coverage. The ‘spelling rationale’ documents stipulates the year group specific requirements for spelling and the spelling rules etc to be taught (please refer to this document for the specific requirements for each year group). It is an expectation that the spelling sessions are completed each week with a ‘hot hive’ being completed each week.
Basic Skills
Basic Skills will be utilised to address any gaps in knowledge that become apparent from AfL and any formal assessments that take place and as such, is of vital importance. Initially, Basic Skills will be used to address any gaps in knowledge from the previous year e.g. this may be based on an element of GPS, phonics, reading, applying a spelling rule etc. This should be specific to the needs of individual cohorts and be determined by ongoing AfL carried out by the class teacher. The children will have a Basic Skills exercise book in order to complete work which can be marked an assessed following the guidance set out in the Marking and Feedback policy (verbal feedback and marking at the point of learning will be crucial to ensure that this time is maximised for the benefit of the children). Staff need to ensure that this time is utilised as efficiently as possible and SLT will monitor the impact of these sessions across the academic year.
Curriculum Impact
The work completed in exercise books on a daily basis is the main source of evidence a class teacher will use when making assessment judgements. This is why we tell our children that every day counts and every piece of work in their book needs to be their absolute best. Children complete an independent piece of writing at the end of every two-week unit. This writing is marked by teachers against a set criterion which then indicates whether the piece of writing produced is Below, At or Higher Standard within each year group. Teachers refer to these when making an assessment judgement at the end of each term and end of year.
