English at Harlyn

Intent

At Harlyn School, we strive to give our children the best start in establishing secure foundations in reading and writing. We aim to develop children’s skills and knowledge that will empower them to communicate effectively and creatively, through spoken and written language. It is our intention that by the end of Key Stage 2, all of our pupils will be able to read fluently, with confidence, in any subject in their forthcoming secondary education and beyond.  Here at Harlyn our teachers aspire to ignite children’s passion for reading and writing and continue on their journeys as life-long readers.

Harlyn School aims to ensure that all pupils:

• read easily, fluently and with good understanding;
• that children can develop strong skills in inference and deduction;
• develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information;
• to be able to recognise real and pseudo words in preparation for the KS1

phonics test;

• acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language;
• write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style to suit 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;
• and have opportunities for drama and improvisation.

Implementation

Phonics and Reading

The teaching of reading is progressive throughout our school. This starts in the early years through the systematic teaching of phonics via our chosen phonics scheme of work, Twinkl which we have adapted to suit the needs of our children at Harlyn.  This is reviewed often and amended as needed. Phonics is taught daily from Nursery to KS1 and beyond. In addition to the daily phonics sessions, children in KS1 read to a teacher as part of a guided reading group which encourages and assesses their word reading as well as comprehension skills to deepen their skills of fact retrieval and inference.

In KS2, reading is implemented through opportunities to read a range of texts fluently, with understanding and with a focus on expanding children’s vocabulary. Immersive whole-class reading sessions take precedent in KS2 and we use challenging texts to ensure our reading curriculum offers ambition and challenge. These sessions help to develop fluency across a range of genres. We also prioritise establishing a reading culture in which children are encouraged to read widely and for pleasure.

Writing

As a school, a wide range of stimuli is used to ignite the imagination of the child.  Shared writing, editing skills, implementing and embedding grammar and punctuation are all incorporated into writing lessons allowing, the children to later apply these skills to their own independent written work. In EYFS, we encourage the independent invention of stories, using a simple familiar and repetitive structure.

Impact

Children are enthusiastic about reading and can apply their skills to reading across the curriculum and for pleasure. Harlyn’s end of Key Stage 2’s data historically show that we are inline or above the national average. Progress is good from Key Stage 1 to Key Stage 2.

Teachers use assessment as an integral part of the teaching and learning process and link it clearly to the children’s next steps.

• Formative assessment (statements taken from progression map and national curriculum)
• Constructive marking with ‘next steps’ through the use of ‘two stars and a wish’ where appropriate. Teachers leave next steps in books when marking to ensure that children know exactly what they need to do next to make progress in their writing and children are expected to respond to this in green pen.

The impact on our children is that they have the knowledge and skills to be able to write successfully for a purpose and audience. With quality first teaching, children are becoming more confident writers and have the ability to plan, draft and edit their own work. This begins in Key Stage 1. By the end of Key Stage 2, children have developed the ability to manipulate language, grammar and punctuation to create effect. As all aspects of English are an integral part of the curriculum, cross curricular writing standards have also improved and skills taught in the English lessons are transferred into other subjects; this shows consolidation of skills and a deeper understanding of how and when to use specific language, grammar and punctuation.

We expect the impact of our teaching to be that children meet age related expectations. These can be seen in the progression document below.