English

At Uplands Infant school we have a rigorous and well organised English curriculum which provides many purposeful opportunities for reading, writing and discussion. We use a wide variety of quality texts and resources to motivate and inspire our children. We take our time and do not rush through content. Therefore, we give our pupils many opportunities to apply their learning in different contexts. We know that learning has to become part of a child’s long term memory for it to be effective, consequently we know that intelligent repetition and skilled teaching is the key for this to be the case. We rarely teach skills in isolation, such as grammar, and punctuation – we include them in a well thought out unit of work that enables children to make links, apply taught skills in a context and see a purpose to their work

Termly scrutinies of every child’s English book allow the subject leader and Senior Leadership Team to identify progress in writing skills. Detailed feedback is given to individual staff and teams highlighting areas for improvement. The scrutiny pays particular attention to groups of learners including disadvantaged pupils and those with Special Educational Needs. This feedback enables teachers to address gaps in learning and secure greater progress for all. We track carefully to ensure children are on track to reach the expectations of our curriculum through our Symphony Assessment System for reading and writing. Our phonic attainment is tracked through specific KTC assessments begun in Nursery and frequently assessed against as children move through the phonic phases. Our assessment systems enable teachers to make informed judgements about the depth of their learning and the progress they have made over time. At the end of Reception, children are assessed against the Early Learning Goal for reading and writing. At the end of Year one children undertake the statutory phonics test and at the end of Key Stage One children are assessed against the Teacher Assessment Framework for reading and writing.

Decoding and graphic knowledge are taught using the ALS Phonics Scheme. Children are taught the graphemes and their corresponding phonemes in the order set out in the scheme. This begins with the simplest sounds first and progresses systematically through to the most complex combinations of letters. In each session, there is a review of prior learning through the quick recognition of previously learned graphemes/ phonemes and the skills of blending and segmenting are modelled by the practitioner, recapped collaboratively and practised individually in the contexts of reading and writing words, captions and, where appropriate, sentences.

Our phonics teaching is linked to shared and guided reading and one to one reading sessions in which the children read phonically levelled (or phonetically decodable?) texts. This ensures that the children understand the purpose of their phonics learning as they are able to apply their learning in a meaningful manner.

In the Foundation Stage, we work to secure Phase Three, but crucially, we do not progress beyond this as instead we identify and secure the graphemes that they are finding difficult. It is this consolidation that ensures that children’s foundations are firm – allowing them to make accelerated progress in year one where we work to secure to Phase Five and beyond. Children who are identified as not being on track to pass the phonics screening check, receive a phonics intervention in addition to their daily phonics session. A small proportion of children who continue to lack confidence in their reading receive daily BRWP thus giving them the best possible chance of reaching age related expectations.

In Year 2, children who did not pass the phonics screening check, continue to receive daily phonics sessions.

For their home reading, children read two books: one phonically levelled text and one benchmarked book at their decodability level to ensure that their comprehension skills are also developed.

Finally, the reading of common exception words is threaded through phonics sessions and shared and guided reading and addressed through fun games and individual five minute sessions with teaching assistants focusing on targeted words for each child. To allow for further consolidation, these words are sent home with children to ensure continuous practise.

Children’s progress in phonics is continually reviewed through periodic phonic assessments and evidence from their reading and writing. Through these, teachers identify the graphemes that need to be addressed which then informs groupings. In June, the National Phonics Screening Check is undertaken to confirm that the children have learned to decode to an age appropriate standard and determines what level of provision they will require the following year. In Key Stage One, regular assessment of the children’s decoding and comprehension is undertaken through PM Benchmarking.

Shared and guided reading are taught routinely and effectively using a linked approach whereby a key skill focus is modelled by the teacher in shared reading which is then practised by the children in a series of subsequent guided reading sessions. In whole class shared reading, a rich, challenging text is used by the teacher to explicitly model the key skill by voicing reader ‘think alouds’. Children are then given the opportunity to apply the skill in pairs, discussing their application of the strategy. In group guided reading, the teacher works with each ability group in turn, reiterating the taught focus, listening to each child independently read a text at instructional level and assisting them in applying the focus. Oracy is a key element of our guided sessions as the children reflect upon their progress towards the key objective and respond to a ‘talking point’. This is a statement about the text which the children discuss as a group allowing the teacher to assess the children’s comprehension. Both shared and guided reading sessions include a wider strategy check to ensure that children continue to apply the full range of strategies as they read; when introducing the text children are also given a few minutes to clarify vocabulary in context. Sentence stems are frequently used to scaffold the children’s application of the strategy in both sessions.

The key skills focussed on in these sessions cover the objectives set out in the National Curriculum as well as the strategies that evidence based educational research has found make a good reader. These are set out in our progressions statements. These progression statements explain precisely what level each of the key skills should be taught at in each year group and are used to ensure that an appropriate pitch and expectation in reading is being planned for. Furthermore, progression is ensured through the strategic planning of reading across the school with a greater emphasis being placed on the teaching of word reading objectives and a lesser proportion of sessions dedicated to wider decoding skills, comprehension strategies and the children’s response to text in Key Stage One.

Reading judgements are secured through the triangulation of test data, evidence from the pupil and the curriculum. Our test data comes from SATs and evidence from the pupil is through their benchmark book level. Finally, evidence from the curriculum is gathered from their English books and guided reading session notes.

Our school environment and curriculum crystallise reading for pleasure as a valued and purposeful part of our school curriculum. The classroom reading environment has been designed to help children make more informed and adventurous choices when choosing their own books. The frequent reading aloud of good quality picture books, short stories, chapter books, poetry and non-fiction is part of our whole school routine and there is dedicated curriculum time for this. This is in acknowledgement of the fact that children who are regularly read to, do better both socially and academically. The texts used are selected from the Uplands Infant School Reading Spine to ensure that during their time at our school, children experience a range of authors and genres encouraging a breadth in their reading that will lead to greater engagement.

Children are actively encouraged to draw comparisons between the books and authors they have read, both in class and independently, to make them more astutely aware of their own likes and dislikes. In order to promote reading for pleasure at Uplands, we have implemented the following:

• Author books
• Reading spine
• School Library
• Links with the local (Highfields Library)
• After School Book Club

Moreover, we have taken measures to ensure that the books they can choose to read independently reflect the different cultures in our school and wider community with books featuring BAME characters and written by BAME authors available.

To promote parental engagement in home reading all children are provided with a ‘home reading’ card which their parents initial when they read it home, once they have read 30 times, they are awarded a prize.

Throughout the year we support parents by running workshops in reading, phonics and how to teach high frequency words. Our Family Liaison Officer supports families that have English as an additional language.

In order to promote home reading further our nursery parents are invited to take part in the ‘Early Words Together at Three’ which is run by The National Literacy Trust and delivered over five weeks by our trained practitioners. The aim of this programme is improve communication, language and literacy practice and help families improve their home learning environment through simple, playful activities. This is to support our pupils to get the best possible start in life and be ready for school.

Children’s progress in reading is shared with parents three times a year; through parents’ evenings in the autumn and spring terms and written reports in the Summer term. Uplands use Seesaw as a home learning platform which allows parents to have ongoing interactions with their child’s reading and to track their progress throughout the year.