English

Reading For Enjoyment

Reading is a fundamental skill and the experience of reading for pleasure is invaluable.
We strive to develop an ethos and environment that excites, enthuses, inspires and values reading.

Our Aims

To enable children to:

• Develop positive attitudes towards reading so that it is a pleasurable and meaningful activity
• Read fluently with good understanding
• Develop a habit of reading widely, for pleasure or for information
• Have a curiosity about authors and books that will be the foundations of a personal journey and life long learning

Reading Skills

Our Aims

• To read fluently with good understanding
• To acquire a wide vocabulary
• To develop a range of strategies for approaching reading
• To question and discuss reading content with growing confidence

Pupils have access to the following reading opportunities to develop the skills of reading

• One-to one reading
• RWI approach to the teaching of phonics
• Shared reading in KS1
• Focussed comprehension activities - from Year 2-5
• High quality well planned literacy activities in KS2 to follow reciprocal reading sessions to build better comprehension skills
• Paired reading with peers
• Daily independent reading
• Home school reading supported by a graded reading log across three key stages
• Regular visits to the school library
• To use reading skills as an integral part of learning throughout the curriculum
• The school uses banded books to widen pupils experience and enjoyment of a variety of texts as they read independently.
• Conscious effort is made to reflect the realities of experience of our children and positive representation of gender, culture and religion in book choices.

Comprehension

Aims

During Reading Workshop sessions in KS1 And KS2, comprehension skills will be developed through a reciprocal reading approach.This uses high quality dialogue around selected texts.Reciprocal teaching was developed first by Ann brown and Annemarie Palincsar, researchers in educational and cognitive psychology. Underpinning this approach is an understanding that dialogic interactions between the teacher and learner can support the comprehension of text by exposing it,explaining it and expanding upon it.

Teachers will be working with a small group of six pupils on rotation over the week to develop the following skills.

• Visualising
• Predicting
• Question making
• Clarifying words and ideas
• Question answering
• Summarising
• Activating prior knowledge
• Making connections
• Inferring

Independent follow-up activities planned by the year group will involve pupils in the following and be appropriate for each phase:

• Retrieval
• Interpretation
• Considering author choice - word and structure
• Commenting on viewpoint
• Discussing context
• Explanation and justification of ideas

This approach;

• Makes the reading process visible
• Provides time for explicit teaching and scaffolding of skills
• Strengthens metacognition and self-regulation
• Provides time for book talk

High order reading skills are taught and embedded through carefully planned sequences of focussed activities in reading Workshop and the main literacy session based on core texts.

Grammar Punctuation and Spelling

Grammar and Punctuation
We acknowledge that children learn the grammar that they use from the constant language interactions around them. Much of this is influenced by reading and being read to. This learning occurs naturally and implicitly. However the explicit, active teaching of grammar in relation to being a speaker, writer and interested reader can be a powerful part of developing an increasing control over language. It is this control over language that will lead to deeper learning.

Grammatical teaching makes most sense is it taught as an active process.

Aims

For pupils in speaking,reading and writing to :

• Be able to make and/ or talk about great word choices
• Construct and manipulate sentences to create different effects
• Hold texts together so that the writing is linked and flows

Spelling

Aims

For pupils to develop;

• A range of personal strategies for learning new and irregular words
• A range of personal strategies for spelling at the point of writing(application)
• A range of strategies for checking and proofreading spellings after writing

In addition to learning set words from the curriculum pupils will be encouraged to take increasing ownership of the selection of words to investigate and learn (based on the refining and editing process in English) as they move through the key stages.

Writing

Aims

To provide children with the experience of writing for a wide range of purposes in order that they can:-

• Develop self confidence,emotional intelligence, creativity and sense of achievement
• Experience what writing can communicate across a range of genres
• Develop a personal voice
• Create, compose and improvise independently and with others
• Understand and explore how writing is created
• Understand the language of written text
• Reflect on ideas and re-shape thinking through critique
• Develop fluency in writing by increasing accuracy in grammar, punctuation and spelling and flow in handwriting style.

We understand the role reading plays in developing writers and the value of being immersed in high quality literature therefore:

• We provide a range of meaningful opportunities to write for real purposes and audiences
• We provide access to authors,illustrators and poets so that children can understand the craft of writing in the real world
• We provide opportunities for pupils to identify themselves as writers through book publishing
• We use the Cycles Planning Approach to Writing (Eve Beam 2002) )
  This allows children time and space to develop their own ideas within the following structure;
  • Familiarisation
  • Gathering of ideas and planning
  • Independent final outcome through the process of draft,critique edit and refine
• We use creative teaching approaches that build imagination and give time for oral rehearsal at all stages of the process
• We know the importance of teaching grammar punctuation and spelling in context to embed skills
• Pupils will be taught letter formation and cursive script through the Nelson Scheme

The Learning Power Approach (LPA) is an emerging school of thought about the kind of teaching that prepares young people for life in the mid to late 21st century. The premise of The Learning Power Approach is based on giving pupils and young people the opportunity to take responsibility and ownership of their own learning and become capable and confident in their ability to learn. LPA is not a stand-alone subject to be “taught” discretely within our curriculum, rather it is a mindset which needs embedding within an already existing curriculum. 

At Sandringham, we aim to develop a LPA ethos in our children and teachers enabling children to develop in confidence, to trust their own judgements, to make informed decisions based on research, to troubleshoot and to assess and evaluate their own learning. 

At Sandringham, we have been developing the LPA mindset in our children and teachers alike for several years in order to create a rich learning culture for our school community.  Introducing this way of thinking to all stakeholders, embedding it within our curriculum and seeing the impact it can have, has taken time. The approach has, over time, given our children the understanding and confidence to develop and improve their own learning. The children at Sandringham understand that they are responsible for their learning and achievements. Our children are independent learners.

Our pupils:

• Think about their learning and next steps
• Articulate and explain their learning process
• Are resourceful
• Are decision makers
• Work collaboratively with others
• Question themselves and each other
• Are curious
• Take risks
• Want to get better

Embedding an LPA culture within our school impacts the whole school community.  Our children are motivated and determined learners. They seek ways to improve their understanding and challenge themselves.

Welcome to Earth

This is a geography based unit that will explore the countries of the UK. They will be looking at maps and locating countries and the oceans. 

One day on blue planet

This is a geography based unit of learning where children will be comparing England to a  non EU country (Kenya). They will be exploring the text Handa’s Surprise  and will be looking at the weather in Kenya, the clothing, population, coastal/inland - Savannah, village life and the city life of Nairobi compared to London. 

How dark were the Dark Ages?

This is a history based unit following the requirements of the NC. Children will have an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding into why, where and when the Scots and Anglo Saxons invaded Britain.

Seasons Come, Seasons Go

In this unit, children will be learning about different seasons and exploring the outdoors. Children will have the opportunity to explore different sensory experiences (play snow, leaf printing etc).

Can you Find a Dinosaur?

Children will have the opportunity to explore small world play with dinosaurs, moving in different ways and will have the opportunity for dancing sessions in afternoon sensory circuit.