Implementation

We teach our children the skills to help them:

 

Listen attentively:

Paying attention to detail to process the information and respond.

• Modelling reading out loud

• Encouraging the sharing of work

 

Talk confidently:

Explore, develop and sustain ideas through talk. Speak confidently with intonation, clear diction, accurate grammar and style with regard to their audience.

• Effective questioning

• Discussion using ‘book talk.’

• Partner talk

 

Read fluently:

Using appropriate expression and intonation, with good comprehension, from a wide variety of texts, at their own level, for pleasure.

• Daily phonics (Read, Write, Inc) in Early Years and KS1

• CLPE Power of Reading strategies in KS2

• Appropriate-level home reading books

• Buddy reading, engaging book corners and visits to the school library

 

Understand and interpret texts:

Retrieving, deducing, identifying and explaining the writers' use of syntax, context, vocabulary and literary features.

• Daily comprehension carousel in KS1

• Daily guided reading in KS2

• Quality texts

• Texts linked to topics and areas of interest

 

Write for a range of purposes:

Develop their skills, imagination and personal expression through a range of writing tasks using clear, concise language with accurate punctuation and grammar in a style appropriate for the purposes.

• Opportunities for independent, free writing

• One ‘Big Write’ every term

 

Spell competently:

Become a competent speller using a range of strategies. 

• Read, Write Inc in Early Years and KS1

• National Curriculum and topic-based spelling in KS2

• Weekly spelling lists for homework, tested weekly

 

Write legibly:

Using neat, legible joined handwriting in the cursive style.

• Take pride in their presentation.

• Use PenPals handwriting in Years 2-4

• Individual handwriting interventions in Years 5-6

 

Evaluate critically:

Make fair critical responses about their own language work, that of their peers and a variety of published authors.

• Reading high-quality, thought-provoking and inspiring texts.

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We provide exceptional opportunities through visits, partnerships and exemplary teaching supported by CPD.

• We invite authors, poets and storytellers to visit Handsworth to encourage reading for pleasure and develop writing skills.

• We have developed a partnership with the local secondary school to offer Guided Reading and Paired Writing projects.

• Teachers have attended the National Theatre’s Let's Play CPD to develop creativity and theatre-making in primary schools.

We promote a growth mindset through the support we offer and the questions we ask.

• Our teachers use various teaching and learning methods to cater to different learning styles.

• In daily lessons, children participate in a range of activities which enable them to practise their English skills. This includes whole-class teaching and reading, small group focused activities and independent work.

• We regularly encourage children to edit, improve, share and evaluate their own work and that of their peers as an integral part of each unit of work.

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We celebrate each individual child to be confident, curious and ambitious by reflecting and affirming pupil identity in the texts we choose and the context we teach.

• All children have the opportunity to experience a wide range of texts, whether in full or as extracts, which are carefully selected by teachers for their quality.

• These texts are regularly reviewed, with teachers aiming to ‘refresh’ one book from their list once a term.

• We use CLPE’s ‘Power of Reading’ approach to foster a love of reading that goes beyond school. The five key areas covered are:

  • Explore it: Questions to develop an awareness of language and vocabulary. 

  • Illustrate it: Visualisation skills to aid comprehension.

  • Talk about it: Book talk to encourage referring to the text to support ideas.

  • Imagine it: Thinking beyond the text and linking to real life.

  • Create it: Writing in response to a text, developing imagination and creative ideas.