Expectations in Reading Writing and Phonics

English

At The John Bamford Primary School, we believe that a quality Literacy (English) curriculum should develop children’s love of reading, writing and discussion. We aim to inspire an appreciation of our rich and varied literary heritage and a habit of reading widely and often. We recognise the importance of nurturing a culture where children take pride in their writing, can write clearly and accurately and adapt their language and style for a range of contexts. We want to inspire children to be confident in the art of speaking and listening and who can use discussion to communicate and further their learning. We believe that children need to develop a secure knowledge-base in Literacy, which follows a clear pathway of progression as they advance through the primary curriculum. We believe that a secure basis in literacy skills is crucial to a high quality education and will give our children the tools they need to participate fully as a member of society. Our curriculum for English is carefully followed through our transferrable concept grids. The objectives are from the National Curriculum and Development Matters documentation.

Transferrable Concepts for English Reading

Transferrable Concepts for English Spoken Language

Transferrable Concepts for English Writing

Writing

Our curriculum ensures that all children have plenty of opportunities to write for different purposes. We encourage writing through all curriculum areas and use quality reading texts to model examples of good writing. Writing is taught through a number of different strategies. We believe that children need lots of rich speaking and drama activities to give them the imagination and the experiences that will equip them to become good writers.

As a school we have adopted “The Write Stuff” by Jane Considine to bring clarity to the mechanics of writing.  “The Write Stuff” follows a method called “Sentence Stacking” which refers to the fact that sentences are stacked together and organised to engage children with short, intensive moments of learning that they can then immediately apply to their own writing.  An individual lesson is based on a sentence model, broken in to three chunks:

1. Initiate section – a stimulus to capture the children’s imagination and set up a sentence.
2. Model section – the teacher close models a sentence that outlines clear writing features and techniques.
3. Enable section – the children write their sentence, following the model.

“The Write Stuff” also reinforces grammar through the use of:

The FANTASTICs which are an acronym that summarise the ideas of writing.

The GRAMMARISTICS is a classroom tool that enables the teacher to drive key grammar techniques, skills and knowledge. Pupils learn how to apply this new learning in their own writing live in the moment.

The BOOMTASTIC which helps children capture 10 ways of adding drama and poetic devices to writing in a vivid visual.

These are represented through the lenses on ‘The Writing Rainbow’.

 Writing is celebrated across our school through displays.

Reading

Our reading moto at The John Bamford Primary School is:

Each classroom has a book corner which reflects our school library ‘The Enchanted Reading Forest’. Each classroom library contains the recommended reads for their year group ensuring a balance of genres and high quality texts. Staff across the school read to their class for pleasure for ten minutes each day. Our staff are role models for reading. Children then get a chance to reflect on the class reader and record their views in the ‘Class Reader Review Book’ which is located in their classroom.

The school library is sited in the main building and a timetable is available to allow classes to book into the library to explore at their pleasure. Please follow the link below to a 360 tour of ‘The Enchanted Reading Forest’ that has been created by our pupils.

https://kuula.co/share/N4bBz/collection/7Yt1P?fs=1&vr=1&sd=1&initload=0&thumbs=1&info=0&logo=0

The teaching of the key skills of reading are approached in varied and systematic ways in order to ensure that pupils have a wide range of strategies at their disposal. Various approaches are adapted and integrated to meet the needs of the individual and a flexible approach is taken in the use of different methodologies and materials. Ability and mixed ability groups are used for different purposes and planned to meet specific objectives.  Children in Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 take part in weekly comprehension lessons which link to The Reading VIPERS and there is Guided Reading Session once a week to support their developing reading skills. We strive to ensure that our pupils read with fluency, accuracy and understanding across a range of texts; both fiction and non-fiction – showing a true commitment to the encouragement and value of reading!

Phonics:

Details of our systematic phonics programme can be found on our phonics page:

https://www.johnbamford.staffs.sch.uk/Curriculum/Phonics/

Spelling: 

The whole school spelling strategy is used as a vehicle to encourage a creative approach to the teaching of spelling strategies amongst staff. We follow the Nelson Spelling Programme in Key Stage 2.

Teaching Spelling from Years 3 to 6