Intent

At Boughton Leigh we believe that a quality curriculum should teach the skills of phonics and early reading, develop children’s love of reading, writing and discussion. We aim to inspire an appreciation of a rich and varied literary heritage and a habit of reading widely and often. We offer a nurturing culture in which children take pride in their writing, can write clearly, accurately, adapting their language and style for a range of contexts. We want to motivate children to be confident in the art of speaking and listening, using discussion to communicate and further their learning. We believe that children need to develop a secure knowledge base in English, which follows a clear pathway in progression with regular assessment as they advance through the primary curriculum. It is also important that pupils develop a secure basis in English skills allowing them to access a high-quality wider education.

Implementation

At Boughton Leigh we use RWI to teach our spelling and writing. Children are taught to spell using ‘Fred Fingers’ to count the sounds they need to write. They practise this skill during the Speed Sounds lesson and then apply this rule when spelling words in their independent writing. Through RWI teach children how to use punctuation, spelling and grammar. They then apply these skills using supported, shared and independent writing.

Through our EYFS, activities are carefully planned to develop the children’s fine, gross and mark making skills.

In Reception the children are taught to:

• hold a pencil correctly, sitting at a table when writing
• form lower-case letters correctly as they learn the sounds for them
• spell words by identifying sounds and representing them with letter/s
• spell common exception words
• memorise and write short sentences using words with known sound-letter correspondences
• use capital letters, full stops and question marks correctly
• make up their own sentences and say them aloud before writing them down
• re-read what they have written to check it makes sense
• read aloud and discuss what they have written with the teacher and other children.

In Year 1 and 2 we teach the children a range of punctuation and grammar, and support children to write their own compositions as well as developing their ideas through shared and supported techniques. Children are then able to use these skills to write confidently at other times of the day too, not just in their Read Write Inc. lessons. Phonics is embedded across the curriculum and the children are encouraged to use phonics to support them in a range of topic work. Phonics is displayed in each classroom across the school and children have access to the RWI sound mats including the red words. The children are encouraged to use these to support their writing in all lessons across the curriculum. Across EYFS and KS1 teachers plan a wide range of writing opportunities through their topic sessions to allow further application of skills across different genres.

Once children have completed the RWI Program they continue their spelling journey through our RWI Spelling Program which is taught every day at the beginning of their lesson. All English lessons are planned around a high-quality, age-appropriate text covering a range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Grammar and punctuation are taught through these lessons through a range of planned activities to equip the children with key skills to apply through their independent writing. Vocabulary and word choices are explored together and displayed for children to access and use.

Handwriting teaching begins in the early years with teachers planning activities for children to develop their gross and fine motor skills. We follow the Read, Write, Inc. scheme for handwriting; children have daily handwriting lessons and are expected to apply the skills learnt in these sessions in all their written work. Once the children can form their letters correctly and write their ascenders and descenders securely they then learn to join their handwriting. Each week we celebrate our children’s efforts with handwriting by selecting a child from each class to receive our ‘Handwriting Award’.

Assessment for Learning is embedded throughout our RWI and English lessons and children are active in reviewing the successes in their work and that of their peers. With guidance from their teacher, they identify areas for development and then edit and improve their work.

Impact

• Children will be able to apply their phonic knowledge to confidently spell many words either correctly or phonetically using the sounds they have learnt. They will know spelling alternatives for different sounds and be able to apply these consistently. Through the teaching of systematic phonics, our aim is for children to become fluent readers by the end of Key Stage 1.
• In writing, pupils make at least good progress from their own personal starting points. Outcomes of work in their RWI and Time to Connect books evidence the progress children are making and impact of children’s exposure to a range of texts, the experiences they are given and the varied and cross curricular writing opportunities. These enable children to write across a range of forms and adapt their writing successfully, considering the purpose.