English
At St Augustine’s School, our staff believe that the following elements are crucial to creating successful writers:
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A clear focus and teaching sequence
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High quality texts and models
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Links to prior learning
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Exposure to new vocabulary
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Success criteria to guide and support
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Opportunities to use oracy
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Modelled writing: live, shared, guided
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Strong subject knowledge using appropriate grammatical terminology
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High expectations for all
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Successful use of AFL to move learning forward
English lessons mainly follow a book style approach where teachers plan a sequence of lessons incorporating the teaching of: Composition, Grammar, Punctuation, Transcription and Spelling.
A typical teaching sequence will consist of opportunity to:
- Engage: Identifying a clear outcome, purpose and audience
- Investigate: Opportunities to explore models, vocabulary, etc
- Model: Demonstration of the writing process, including live modelling (I do) and shared writing (we do)
- Write: Applying skills taught, teacher providing live feedback and guided support
- Review: Time to check, including reading work aloud, proofreading and editing
On some occasions, children will celebrate writing success through publication of pieces of writing for different purposes and audiences.
Pedagogy that supports the teaching of English at St Augustine’s School
- Rosenshine’s 10 Principles of Instruction
- Walk Thrus
- The EEF ‘5 a day Approach
- The Writing Framework
Bespoke Curriculum – Age Not Stage
Where children are unable to access the curriculum through adaptations within or before the lesson, a bespoke curriculum will be adopted.
Teachers are responsible for identifying who these children are and to use the continuum of learning to identify the stage that the individual is at for: handwriting, composition, grammar and punctuation and spelling.
Vocabulary
We strongly agree with the statement by James Britton that ‘Reading and writing float on a sea of talk’. All adults use aspirational vocabulary when talking to children – ‘never dodge a good word’, Classes across the school are encouraged to magpie words in all lessons across the curriculum and can record on their magpie wall (EYFS/Yr1) or in their magpie books.
Spelling:
In EYFS and Year 1, children are primarily taught to spell word phonetically by aplying the sounds taught to them during RWI. Children will use Fred Talk, Fred Fingers and sound mats to help them spell independently. Alongside this, in Year 1 spelling rules, inline with the NC POS will also be taught and applied across writing.
Spelling in years 2-6 is taught using the Place Value of Spelling Scheme which is a systematic approach to the teaching of spelling. It aims to build on the foundations of phonics taught in EYFS and Year 1 and explicitly teach morphology, orthography and etymology. AFL is used to address gaps in spelling rules and patterns before age-appropriate lessons are taught. Staff constantly refer back to previously taught patterns/rules and ensure that this is applied across all writing. Children are also required to learn strategies to help them spell common exception and high frequency words in EYFS and Key Stage 1 and Statutory word lists in years 3-6 (Found in Appendix 1 of the National Curriculum).
At home, children have access to Spelling Shed, where teachers can set spelling tasks inline with learning in the class or revision of previous rules taught.
Grammar, punctuation: Grammar and punctuation are taught within lessons, through direct teaching and within the modelling of writing. Teachers use the National Curriculum to ensure progression and grammar starters are built into lessons to help revise and revisit key concepts, using resources from the Vocabulary Ninja.
Handwriting: we teach handwriting using the Nelson Handwriting scheme, with correct letter formation as the initial focus, leading to the introduction of joins towards the end of year 2, if children are secure with basic letter formation. We teach specific lessons every week with practise time. For those children for whom handwriting presents difficulties, we provide small group handwriting and targeted intervention.