1. ENGLISH AT PARK GROVE

2. AIMS OF ENGLISH TEACHING AT PARK GROVE To give children a rich variety of written, spoken, seen and heard language experiences To give pupils the basic language skills they will need throughout their lives and develop the skills of each child to the highest level. To provide children with the language ability they need to think, communicate, understand and learn in all curriculum areas. To give children confidence in, and enjoyment from, all aspects of language.

3. A CONSISTENT APPROACH

4. DELIVERY OF THE ENGLISH CURRICULUM AT PARK GROVE We take a creative, cross-curricular approach when planning English units at Park Grove and work together in our mixed year teams to ensure that we have coverage of the curriculum objectives and skills Where possible, we will link reading and writing tasks to our current topic – for example, in KS2 at the start of the year we studied Fossils and Dinosaurs and so we planned for a range of writing based on these subjects e.g. biographies of fossil hunter Mary Anning, adventure and scary stories, instructions on how to look after a pet dinosaur, explanations of how fossils are formed, information texts on different species of dinosaur etc. This is an approach that has proven to successfully engage children in the writing process.

5. PLANNING

6. See the website links for example English overviews which break the new curriculum down into spoken language, reading (word recognition and comprehension), writing (transcription, handwriting, vocabulary, grammar, punctuation and composition). From these overviews, we devise long term plans for Y1/2, Y3/4 and Y5/6 which are linked to our Topic planning. From our long term plans, we devise medium term planning and then weekly plans (see website links). When planning, we begin with our Topics and aim to choose engaging books and authors in order to inspire children.

7. PLANNING AT PARK GROVE Effective weekly planning for English will show: Clear learning objectives and steps to success Vocabulary Differentiation Adult support Assessment for learning

8. VOCABULARY, MARKING AND SELF-EVALUATION

9. CONSISTENT VOCABULARY OLO (Our Learning Objective) Steps to Success This is because… VCOP (Vocabulary, Connectives, Openers, Punctuation) Magpie (to use elements we admire from others’ writing)

10. MARKING AND SELF-EVALUATION We use an agreed set of marking symbols in all subjects (see link). We also encourage the use of these symbols when children evaluate their own writing or that of others. In addition, we use a range of assessment for learning techniques with children including talk/editing partners and writing checklists in order to encourage children of all ages to become confident in editing and making improvements to their work.

11. PHONICS AND READING

12. PHONICS Ensuring consistency in the delivery and planning of Phonics at Park Grove has been a clear priority over the last year. Children from Reception to Year 2 receive daily Phonics teaching in targeted groups with teachers and teaching assistants. Children needing ongoing Phonics intervention in Key Stage 2 will continue to receive additional support.

13. READING Children take part in a range of weekly reading activities: Reading in small groups guided by a teacher or teaching assistant (Guided Reading) Reading with an adult in school. Children access banded books (colours linked to their reading levels) until they become confident, independent readers Reading as part of a whole class when studying texts during English lessons We also encourage children of all ages to read regularly with adults at home using their Reading Records Each class has a timetabled slot to visit the school library each week

14. CELEBRATING SUCCESSES

15. We award pen licences in Year 3 Each teacher nominates a Writer of the Week from their class to receive a certificate and pencil during Good Work Assemblies. Each writer will have the opportunity to share their writing with children from their key stage, adults within school and visiting parents Each teacher nominates a Bookworm of the Month based on how well children have been completing their Reading Records. Bookworms will receive a certificate and have their photograph displayed in school

16. WIDER OPPORTUNITIES

17. We aim to provide as many wider opportunities for English as we can throughout the year Recent examples have been: Successfully applying to take part in the Long Term Partnership Project with York Theatre Royal Shakespeare performances and workshops for all of KS2 World Book Day Enrichment Day Reading for Pleasure – Travelling Books Fair Children having opportunities to write their own scripts for Class Assemblies

18. ASSESSMENT

19. ASSESSMENT AND RECORDING Teacher assessment is an integral part of teaching English and is used to inform planning. Independent writing (Exciting Writing) takes place every other Monday morning at least 2 weeks after initial teaching to ensure that knowledge and skills have been retained. Reading and Writing are formally assessed on a half-termly basis using APP (Assessing Pupil Progress criteria). Children’s sub level data is recorded on the integris G2 system. Children create a piece of writing in their continuation books each term. Continuation books follow a children through school from Reception to Year 6 and give a clear picture of their writing progress at Park Grove