English
Spoken Language
Developing pupils’ speaking and listening skills is vital for their development and underpins their learning across the whole curriculum.
For this reason, our EYFS teams take great care to plan and deliver opportunities for rich speaking and listening within their provision. These are the foundations to strong spoken language and crucial to further progress. The children acquire the skills necessary to take turns, organise their play and articulate their thoughts, needs and ideas clearly.
We continue to explicitly teach children spoken language skills through Key Stages 1 and 2, and provide children with a range of experiences to enable them to practise and develop their confidence. Pupils are encouraged to discuss their learning, using new vocabulary and ask questions to improve their understanding. Opportunities for drama and presentations are included across all year groups. These are both within the class setting, but also as part of the wider school community during events such as assemblies, Pupil Parliament, performances at Christmas, Harvest and the end of academic years especially Year 6.
Reading
At Kimpton, we are determined that every child should learn to read and develop a love of reading. Our focus is developing pupils’ fluency so that they have a better understanding of the texts they read. Reading is the key to learning and as such is developed and promoted across the wider curriculum.
In Early Years and Key Stage 1, we teach children phonics using the Anima Phonics -letters and sounds updated scheme. This involves pupils in Reception and Year 1 having daily interactive lessons that provide a fun world for children to learn, practise and apply new skills.These sessions are supported by ongoing reading opportunities throughout the school day.
In Year 2, pupils are taught reading daily in guided reading groups and the pupils who need further phonics support participate in additional phonics lessons with the use of Anima Phonics interventions.
In Key Stage 2, pupils have a daily session using Bug Club resources with explicit teaching of reading skills. Within English lessons, these skills are further developed through use of VIPERS. Other opportunities for reading, including 1:1 reading, guided groups and phonics are planned for as necessary.
Reading for pleasure is promoted throughout the school. Teachers regularly share books with the pupils for their enjoyment and pupils are encouraged to choose books from the school library and class book corners. We enjoy celebrating reading in many different ways, including inviting parents into school to be 'mystery readers'!
Traction Man is Here was the first of our whole school writing units.
Writing
Writing is a tool to communicate and an essential life skill. At Kimpton, we want our children to be able to express themselves and be understood using the written word. We aim to be a school of exceptional writers who love to write for a variety of audiences and purposes. Writing always serves a purpose, even if that is simply to enjoy the process of putting pen to paper, so teachers make explicit the reasons for writing and how these relate to the children's future selves. An enthusiasm for writing and enjoyment of the writing process is modelled by our staff at all times.
The writing learning journey begins in our Early Years where teaching teams develop core strength, fine and gross motor control. Muscles need to be sufficiently developed before a good pencil grip can be introduced. Mark making is the beginning of the written word and explored in a variety of exciting contexts.
Transcription* in writing is the process of handwriting and spelling. Letters are explicitly taught in our EYFS alongside the phonetic sound. Pupils learn how these are formed and varied practice is provided across the week both in practical and more formal teacher-led sessions . Pupils use Nelson Handwriting workbooks to practice fine motor skills and their letter formations. As the children progress through Key Stage 1 and 2 we use a structured handwriting scheme (Nelson) to introduce letter size, the letter families and the four joins for cursive writing. They progress through the RWI spelling and phonics learning and when their common exception words are secure, teachers begin teaching spelling rules with the support of Oxford Owl RWI Spelling.
Our Key Stage 2 Spelling programme builds strongly on the pupil’s phonic knowledge from Key Stage 1, developing their understanding of word structure as well as comprehension on words and spelling rules. We continue to revise and overlearn the common exception words and frequently visit the Statutory spelling lists for Years 3-6. Homework focussed on the spelling rule for the week is integrated into each sequence of learning and children complete a spelling review once a week so teachers can monitor their progress.
English lessons across the whole school are carefully mapped and planned. Interesting, engaging lessons and opportunities are provided and the use of high-quality texts (including picture books) and film clips enrich the children's literary experiences. Writing skills are explicitly taught and then practised through weekly writing opportunities, covering a wide range of subjects and genres. Within our writing curriculum, we specifically plan termly whole school focus units to unite the school in a shared love of writing. Whenever possible, writing is linked to the thematic topics being taught in classes and we aim to further develop this within the school.
The teaching of grammar and punctuation is a necessary focus and is embedded within English lessons. Children's understanding must be secure each year as new learning is introduced to their ever-growing repertoire of skills. The skills that pupils learn in English lessons are developed and applied across all areas of the curriculum. Pupils are expected to use their knowledge of genres, text features, grammar, punctuation and spelling when writing in any lesson. Writing in different subjects provides a real-life purpose for their writing in order to engage and enthuse. Weekly handwriting is set for children in KS1 as homework, whilst KS2 compete learning activities which practice or overlearn grammar and punctuation taught in class sequences.
Composition
For children to create strong, varied and exciting compositions, independent of teachers, they first need strong and secure transcription skills. Once children have mastered these, the working memory is freed to focus on developing varied and exciting language use; connecting with their audience; or creating, for example, a specific sense of atmosphere or tone in their work. The compositional phase begins with strong oracy skills in EYFS and Key Stage 1 where the children articulate their ideas. As they develop, they learn to plan writing and experiment with how they want it to read and feel. Edits and changes are made so that the writing is crafted. Children love to see how their writing skills progress across the years and so we have a special writing book that travels with the children on their journey through school. Writing is celebrated across the school and weekly in our special Going for Gold assembly.
There are five Skills Progression Documents for English:
