English - Writing, SPaG and Reading
English
Our Aims:
At St Patrick's, we believe reading and writing to be two of the most crucial skills in life, and a critical part of a child's education; high quality English teaching should underpin each child’s learning across all other areas of the curriculum and provide them with a firm foundation to be confident and competent lifelong learners. Reading and Writing allows children to improve their language skills by widening their vocabulary, supporting their use of language structure, and developing their understanding of grammar. We strive for all children to improve their aptitude in the fundamentals of language such as being able to read, write and speak well with an expansive vocabulary.
What is our English INTENT at St Patrick's?
The teaching of English promotes the development of the essential life skills of reading and writing. It is a subject which recognises our God-given talents to communicate creatively and express ourselves in different ways. The ability to speak and listen well is vital if we are to communicate our thoughts, feelings and ideas effectively.
Outcomes:
Below, you will find documents explaining what are the expected outcomes for English at each year group/key stage. This covers reading comprehension, word reading, phonics, spelling and vocabulary, grammar and punctuation, spoken language, writing composition and handwriting.
Year 3 and 4 English Objectives
Year 5 and 6 English Objectives
Reading
How do we IMPLEMENT Reading at St Patrick's?
In Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 children take part in daily reading and phonics lessons. In KS2 English lessons are planned used high quality and engaging texts. Children take part in discussions about texts and learn the skills they need to support their understanding of these texts.
Our school library has been revamped recently and lots of lovely, new books have been purchased by our PTA. Children visit the library to listen to stories, browse and borrow books.
How do we measure IMPACT of Reading at St Patrick's?
Children reading books from our Read, Write Inc scheme are assessed termly using the Read, Write Inc assessment materials. From Year 1 to Year 6 pupils complete reading tests three times a year. These assessments are combined with teacher assessment based on class work to give a rounded picture of a child's reading and their next steps.
Phonics
Please see our Phonics and Early Reading tab.
https://www.stpatricksbristol.org.uk/Curriculum/Phonics-and-Early-Reading/
Writing
How do we IMPLEMENT Writing at St Patrick's?
We aspire for our children to see themselves as young writers and to excel through following the writing and editing process in order to produce narrative and non-fiction pieces that they are proud of.
Writing and Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar will be taught in accordance to the National Curriculum guidelines.
- Phonics is taught from the EYFS to support the acquisition of writing.
- Drawing Club in EYFS and Year 1
- Our class writing units are centred around high quality texts. Covering both narrative and non-fiction writing genres, children are taught the key skills and language to be able to write for different purposes and audiences.
- Children will work towards writing against a success criteria that they have helped design; self/peer assessment against these criteria then inform next steps and editing.
- Talk for Writing strategies are used to support the teaching and learning of Writing.
- Genres will be revised and consolidated in writing in other curriculum areas.
Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar
- Throughout Key Stages 1 and 2, the children are taught their age related expectations for Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar. This provides the children with the foundations to be technically skilled writers and spellers and gives them the next steps in order to develop these areas further.
- Grammar and Spelling are naturally taught through our Reading and Writing units, however we also hold discrete sessions in KS2.
How do we measure IMPACT of Writing at St Patrick's?
The combination of skills in writing, reading. spelling, handwriting, speaking and listening, encourage the development of confident learners who can communicate effectively. We are clear about how these areas overlap and providing opportunities, children learn to apply their knowledge.
Summative assessment of writing takes places three times a year. A judgement is made based on their assessment, class-based evidence and moderation of independent pieces of work. Moderation takes place between staff within our school, as well as with teachers of the same year groups within our Aquinas Cluster.
Writing Genres
Take a look at some of the links below... here you'll find out which writing genres our classes cover.
SPAG - Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar
Take a look at some of the links below... here you'll find out the skills our classes are learning in SPAG lessons. There are examples given, too.
Grammar
The first button below links together the Grammar skills needs for specific genres.
The second button here shows you the progression of Grammar Skills from Year 1 to Year 6.
Grammar Progression (with examples)
This button below shows how our teachers will teach sentence structure progressively from Year 1 - Year 6.
Click on a specific year group to see the specific skills (with examples) that our classes are learning in Grammar.
Spelling
These links show the statutory spellings set by the National Curriculum in 2014. Our children are expected to know these spelling by the end of each phase: end of KS1 (Year 2), end of LKS2 (Year 4) and end of UKS2 (Year 6). For Year 6 SATs, pupils will revise the spellings from all three lists, and will be expected to use them independently in their writing across all subjects.
Year 1 and 2 Statutory Spellings
Year 3 and 4 Statutory Spellings
Year 5 and 6 Statutory Spellings
Handwriting
When writing children are reminded to sit in:
The Perfect Handwriting Position
- Feet flat on the floor
- Bottom at the back of the chair
- Body one fist from the table
- Shoulders down and relaxed
- Back leaning forward slightly
- Paper sloped as diagram below
- Left or right hand holding the paper
- Hand ready in a tripod grip
We teach and practise letter formation using the Read, Write Inc (RWI) letter families and Handwriting Phrases.
- Around letters: c o a d g q
- Down letters: l t b p k h i j m n r u y
- Curly letters: e f s
- Zig zag letters: v w z x
how we form our letters and numbers at st patricks.pdf