At Our Lady of Grace Junior School, we aim to help children become confident users of all aspects of the English language. Language and literature are at the heart of each individual’s humanity and we respect the many languages that our pupils bring to school.

We recognise that English is a core subject within the National Curriculum and a prerequisite for educational and social progress. Language empowers children to communicate creatively and imaginatively, as well as allows them to interact with the world at large. With success in English, all of our children can succeed in all areas of their learning. 

INTENT

At Our Lady of Grace Junior school we aim to inspire a love of English and as a staff and community we work closely together to provide curiosity and enthusiasm, building upon the skills from Year 3- Year 6 and beyond.

The 2014 National Curriculum for English aims to ensure that all children:

• Read easily, fluently and with good understanding.
• Develop 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.
• Appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage.
• Write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences.
• Use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas.
• Are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate.

At Our Lady of Grace Junior School we combine these fundamental principles with a love of reading, and these are embedded in English lessons and in all areas of cross curricular learning. We aim to follow clear pathways of progression as each child advances through the primary curriculum.  We are committed to providing clear, rich and high-quality examples of English through both our teaching and the exposure of the children to high quality texts and the building of the children’s individual collection of the spine books that they study. We aim to ensure that each child recognises the significance of secure English skills for their future success.

At the heart of our school ethos is the idea that every child can achieve, and we believe that nurturing this growth mindset will equip the children with skills to embrace life opportunities.

IMPLEMENTATION

Our approach to reading, writing, speaking, listening and grammar skills at Our Lady of Grace gives all of our children the opportunity to succeed. We use whole-class teaching which encourages children to understand and master a concept before moving on to the next aspect of their learning. Our English lessons are designed to break down the National Curriculum into smaller and achievable steps of learning with the building of skills in each lesson and year group. This high-quality teaching is supported by our use of The Power of Reading Scheme, The Nelson spelling scheme, Oxford Reading Tree Scheme our cross-school Guided Reading Scheme, the high-quality texts, planning and teaching that we provide at Our Lady of Grace, and The Reading Eggs Scheme. The school ethos with our approach to reading and writing is also not limited to simply English lessons and instead a cross-curricular and teaching through books ideology has been implemented in the last academic year and is constantly evolving to include high-quality texts which compliments all aspects of the children’s learning.

We also aim to ensure that there is:

* ‘focused' learning of reading, writing, speaking and listening, in periods specifically allocated to this work.

*  learning, which goes on throughout the school day and throughout all curriculum areas.

* 'Excellence and Enjoyment,' as we seek to promote high-quality English skills across the whole curriculum.

Equal importance is given to each of these areas of learning.

IMPACT

Our school has a supportive ethos that looks to develop children’s collaborative and independent skills whilst recognising each child’s achievements and the achievements of others. Our growth mindset allows our children to understand that they can all achieve in English promoting both challenge and success in children’s reading and writing skills. Our regular and ongoing assessment in English alongside the intervention, support, and celebration of the children’s achievements through internal ‘Reading challenge’ which allow the children to celebrate their love of English whilst also developing their skills and understanding. The achievement of our ‘pen licenses’ also encourages the children to take pride in their work, increasing a focus on presentation and accuracy with spelling rules, grammatical rules which further enhance children’s understanding of what they are reading, and inspire high-quality writing achieved through modeling. These factors ensure that we maintain high standards in English and the achievement of our children at the end of KS2.

READING

At Our Lady of Grae we aim to promote a love of reading through our 'Book First Approach,' this is used in partnership at home and at school, is to bring success in reading for all students. 

During many parent/teacher consultations we have been asked reading advice and we ask that you: 
- Read with your child for at least 15 minutes 5 times per week, the more regularly you read the 
  quicker your child will make progress. 
- Listen to them read out loud so you can check for expression and fluency (i.e. not   
  monotone and robotic sounding). 
- Use the questions provided to help you to further develop your child’s understanding of 
  what they are reading.
- Encourage your child to read a range of text types: fiction, non-fiction and poetry.   
- Model reading. If they see you as a reader, your child will be more likely to become a 
  reader too. 

This will enrich your child's understanding and reading experiences. 

Reading Records 

Each child is expected to make a reading record entry at least 5 times each week. They should write a response to the 15 minutes of reading they have completed that evening. Their entries should be varied and ideas can be found on the inside cover of their reading record, for example:

Ideas for things I can write about:

- Explain what has happened in the part I have read. 
- Write a character description using evidence from the book.
- Discuss what I think about a character’s actions using evidence from the book. 
- Predict what I think will happen next using evidence from the story.

READING CHALLENGE

Many students are actively completing the Reading Challenge!  

The Reading Challenge has been running in our school for the last two years.  Each child is expected to read twelve books from the Reading Challenge box in their class over the year. The reading of four books and completion of the appropriate challenge sheets ensures that the children are awarded the Bronze Reading Award, after eight books the children achieve the Silver Reading Award, after twelve books the children achieve the Gold Reading Award. They will be introduced to exciting authors and genres and the boxes are constantly being updated. Your child will be supported by their class teacher when picking their book however, if your child is finding reading the book independently a challenge, we ask you to share this book with them. Please support your child in completing their challenge. 

EXPECTATIONS FOR YEAR GROUPS

YEAR 3
 

• To be able to spell and read all high frequency words.
• To read within Level 3.
• To be able to use full stops and capital letters consistently and independently.

YEAR 4
 

• To form all letters correctly and of uniform size to enable joined writing.
• To use a range of connectives and punctuation independently in all pieces of writing.
  (and  so  but   because    meanwhile   despite    first   after  etc.)
  (,   ?   !   " " ...) 
• To use a range of openers in sentences.

Year 5

• To recognise, annotate and write a variety of text types
• To develop a range of formal vocabulary
• To be able to form a number of complex sentences using different sentence structures

Year 6

• To be secure in a range of text types
• To use a range of punctuation (-;:

LEARNING ZONE

Spellings and Sentence Level work
20  Key Stage 2 Literacy interactive teaching resources.  Activities include; spelling, sentences, verbs, collective nouns, compound words, singular to plural, story sequencing, alphabetical order and grammar.

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/ks2literacy.html#looksay2

AUTUMN CURRICULUM 

YEAR 3

Children focus on a range of different text types to enable to plan and write.

Non-fiction:  

Report writing

Write a non-chronological report using headings, paragraphs, technical language and present tense.

Writing Instructions

Will produce instructions orally and in writing using powerful verbs, adverbs and time connectives.

Fiction:

Stories in a familiar setting

Read a range of books with familiar settings using Fangs, The Worst Witch and Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf. 

Explore the authors use of punctuation and language. Write a setting description using a variety of adjectives, sentence openers and punctuation.

Myths and Legends

Analyse a range of quest myths, identifying the text structure and language features.

Write a myth with settings & character descriptions.

Poetry:

Poetry to perform 

*Owl and the Pussycat- Edward Lear, 

*The Sun is Laughing- Grace Nichols,

*Chocolate Cake- Michael Rosen.

Identifying distinctive features such as repetition, rhyme, rhythm, alliteration in poems.

YEAR 4

Children focus on a range of different text types through the term. They learn to recognise the features of each type and go on to plan and write them.

Non-fiction:  

Recounts: newspapers/magazines

Children plan, draft and write a newspaper article that contains both factual and opinion-based content..

Fiction:

Children will also explore and write stories set in imaginary worlds. They focus on powerful verbs, connectives, and writing in paragraphs. They will do this through the stimului of KrindleKrax, Charlotte's Web and Varjak Paw. 

Poetry:

Children will explore and create similes using- 

*Dis Poetry by Benjamin Zephaniah,

*Charges of the Light Brigade by Alfred Tennyson,

*Please Mrs Butler by Allan Ahlberg. 

YEAR 5

Non-Fiction

Children focus on the writing of instructions and use of present tense and imperative verbs.

Fiction:

Children look at an author’s style and, from careful observation and study, work on producing a similar

tale using: Street Child, Coming to England and Secrets of A Sun King. 

Poetry

Children explore the use of language and style of prominent poets: 

*The Highway Man by Alfred Noyes

*Only One of Me by James Berry 

*Night Mail by W H Auden

YEAR 6

Children focus on a range of different text types through the term. They learn to recognise the features of the text types and plan and write them independently.

The text types include:

• narrative writing
• explanation texts
• discussion texts
• report writing
• poetry
• media and plays

Non-Fiction

Children focus on combining all of the text types that they have studied to master the subtleties of these text types. 

Fiction:

Children look at an author’s style and, from careful observation and study, work on producing a similar

tale using: Holes, High Rise Mystery and Goodnight Mister Tom. 

Poetry

Children explore the use of language and style of prominent poets: 

*Bushfires by Jackie Kay 

*Tyger by William Blake 

*Jabberwocky By Lewis Carroll. 

Spring Term Coverage

Year 3

Year 3 use George's Marvellous Medicine and The Magic Finger by Roald Dahl to write a selection of text types eg instruction texts and play scripts. They will also cover a variety of grammar  concepts including connectives, verbs and adverbs.

Year 4

Year 4 use Journey to the River Sea  by Eva Ibbotson to cover a selection of text types including persuasive writing and narratives which focus on settings. They will also focus on grammar and punctuation based activities including different sentence types and the difference between plural and possessive.

Year 5

Year 5 use the Highway Man by Alfred Noyes to write narratives using suspense and mystery and non-fiction texts including instructions and persuasion. They will also focus on grammar and punctuation based activities including semi-colons and the use of commas to clarify meaning or avoid ambiguity.

Year 6

In the Spring term Year 6 will read the novel Toby Alone by Timothee de Fombelee. They will use this as a stimulus to produce different text types and to cover a variety of grammar and punctuation based activities  including use of passive voice, expanded noun phrases and parenthesis.