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English in our Curriculum
Mr Heesom is our English Lead
If you have any questions or would like any more information about English in our curriculum, please contact Mr Heesom on class dojo or by email: jheesom@alvastoni.derby.sch.uk.
Our English critical friend is Mrs Zarattini and our Governor is Miss Walendziewski.
Why do we teach English?
A high-quality education in English will teach pupils to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others and through their reading and listening, others can communicate with them.
Through reading in particular, pupils have a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. Literature, especially, plays a key role in such development. Reading also enables pupils both to acquire knowledge and to build on what they already know.
All the skills of language are essential to participating fully as a member of society; pupils, therefore, who do not learn to speak, read and write fluently and confidently are effectively disenfranchised.
The overarching aim for English in the national curriculum is to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written word, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment.
Knowledge and Skills Progression Documents:
What will I be learning about?
Your English learning will focus on 4 key areas:
Spoken Language
Reading
Writing
SPAG (Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar)
You will be:
Learning to read easily, fluently and with good understanding
Developing the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information
Acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language
Appreciating our rich and varied literary heritage
Writing clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences
Using discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas
Developing competency in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate.
Curriculum Intent
At Alvaston Infant and Nursery School, English is at the heart of our rich and creative curriculum. Teaching takes place through discrete lessons as well as being imbedded throughout other areas of learning. This allows our children to practise, apply and master their skills in a variety of contexts. Our key aim is for all children to foster a life-long love for reading which equips them with the enthusiasm and passion to become primary literate. This will unlock endless possibilities for our children to access all areas of the curriculum and provide them with the skills they need to succeed now and in the future. To achieve this, our children experience a high-quality and bespoke phonics programme where they are able to readily apply their phonic knowledge to read fluently and write fluidly across the curriculum and beyond. We aim for our school to be a language-rich environment whereby children are exposed to an abundance of speech and language opportunities. This allows our children to communicate effectively and purposefully, express themselves and build their knowledge through their experiences.
Our Reading Approach
Our approach to reading compliments the Fresh Phonics approach where books are carefully chosen for the children based on the sounds that each child is currently learning. Our Phonics Progression Document allows us to identify where each child is in relation to the pace of learning and books are matched on this basis. Reading at Alvaston Infant and Nursery School focusses on developing our children's word reading fluency alongside reading comprehension so that children are able to read words with automaticity whilst also gaining meaning and understanding so that reading becomes an exciting and pleasurable experience. When reading with children, we take the following 3-step approach:
Setting the Scene: Here we introduce the children to the book, considering what we can see from the front cover and considering what this might be about. We aim to activate prior knowledge within the children through our discussions and where we identify any gaps in this, we will provide the children with the necessary knowledge through research and discussions. This essential knowledge will allow the children to contextualise the text and therefore support their understanding of this. We will also ensure that we recap any sounds that the children might need to access the text as well as any 'tricky' words. We also appreciate that some children may be reading ahead of the pace of learning in phonics. In step 1, these children will be introduced to a new sound that they need to continue their learning.
Read: We focus on the child's word reading of the book, encouraging the children to use their phonics skills, where appropriate, alongside other reading strategies such as reading ahead or searching for picture cues. We will consider the VIPERS reading comprehension skills, to check the children are beginning to develop an understanding of the text.
Re-read: To support the children's fluency and comprehension, in step 3 we will re-read some, or all, of the text to empower to recognise and read words quickly and accurately. As the cognitive load shifts from word reading, children will begin to focus more on their understanding of the text and we will consider the VIPERS skills.
Alongside this approach, we also use Shared Reading as a method to explicitly teach word reading skills and these opportunities are incorporated across the curriculum.
To support our lowest 20% of readers, intervention support may be used to support these children to make rapid progress. This may take place through Personalised Phonics Intervention, NELI (Nuffield Early Language Intervention) programme, Talk Boost or a Reading Recovery Programme.
