Reading 

Curriculum Intent 

Our children will leave school with a life – long love of reading and books. They will develop the fluency and confidence to successfully enjoy and understand a wide range of texts across the whole curriculum. They will develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information, and know that reading is an open door to expanding their world. Our children will explore genres and appreciate the work of a wide range of authors, developing preferences and making discoveries. They will develop a love of language, build a wide vocabulary, develop a range of reading strategies, experience unfamiliar settings, meet new characters and develop a deeper level of empathy. They will learn to enjoy reading aloud with developing prosody.  Research tells us that reading for pleasure has many non-literacy benefits and can increase empathy, improve relationships with others, reduce the symptoms of depression and improve wellbeing throughout life. (The Reading Agency, 2015) Students who read for pleasure make significantly more progress in vocabulary, spelling, and maths than children who read very little. (Sullivan and Brown, 2013) 

 

Curriculum Implementation 

From the beginning of Reception, our children develop their early reading skills through the consistent and robust teaching of the daily systematic, synthetic phonics programme Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised. Children have books that match and support their phonics development and ability and are encouraged to read them at home with an adult. Daily ‘keep up’ sessions ensure all children make progress and ‘Let’s Read’ sessions - focusing on prosody, comprehension, and decoding - are timetabled three times per week.  

Children enjoy listening to challenging texts through daily, dedicated story time in EYFS and KS1. 

From Y2 to Y6, our children continue to develop their fluency and comprehension through whole class reading. The WLT scheme ensures a clear skills progression within a wide variety of high – quality, diverse text types. Whole class VIPERS (Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation, Retrieval, and the ability to Sequence or Summarise) are taught at least three times per week. Individual reading interventions and extra reading sessions are provided for children who are catching up or not reading regularly at home. 

Reading skills are continually developed through the wider curriculum where children are exposed to a wide range of quality texts providing context to learning. 

Parents and teachers comment on children’s progress through the Home School Reading Diary: this communication is fundamental in helping each child to develop to their full potential. 

We provide a text - rich environment, to encourage a positive culture of reading throughout all classes. High quality reading displays support learning across the curriculum and inviting book corners foster a love of reading.  We provide enrichment opportunities to inspire reading, hosting author workshops, visiting GHS library and celebrating World Book Day.  

 

Curriculum Impact  

Children enjoy reading and choose to do so. They talk enthusiastically about books. They read fluently and with understanding and can discuss their opinions and preferences. They read aloud confidently with intonation and expression. They employ an increasingly wide range of reading skills:  they recognise ambitious vocabulary in context and can make inferences and deductions; they can predict events and summarise a text; they can compare texts and give reasons for their judgements. Children can evaluate, comment, and compare different styles of writers – providing evidence and explanations.  They read an extensive range of fiction and non-fiction texts, both for pleasure and to support their wider learning. Parents know how they can support their child’s reading at home.  

• Class library – inviting, fosters a love of reading, appealing, well organised. 
• No more than 30 – 40 good quality books at any one time.  
• All books to have large golden star sticker. 
• Books organised into clearly labelled sections e.g. poetry, our favourites, stories about animals, graphic novels, award winners etc. 
• Reading diary
• Must be acknowledged every day.
• Children expected to read at least 4 times a week. 
• Children need 1 book from the class library that they share at home. 
• KS1 and YR need another decodable book - challenging but manageable for the reader (90% word accuracy). 
• Reading records 
• Your spotlight children (lowest 20%) must be heard read at least once a week by an adult. 
• Make sure you know who the children who haven’t passed their phonic check are – target these children whenever you read aloud from the IWB. 
• Reading Raffle Rewards 
• Wishlists 
• Y6 have an amazon wishlist which is shared with parents. Speak to Bev/Ange if you would like to set up something similar for your year group. 
• Library 
• There will be a weekly slot to visit the Jubilee Library.  
• Y6 Librarians. 
• Whole Class Reading 
• Recorded in booklets.  
• 30-minute sessions. 
• Take the opportunity to hear children read aloud to assess their fluency. 
• Reading display 
• VIPERS 
• Current book 
• Key vocabulary 
• Reading Buddies 
• Y6s paired with spotlight Y3 children – read 10 minutes daily. 

Writing 

Curriculum Intent 

At Abbey Primary School, we believe that writing is a key skill for life both inside and out of education and that is why it features across all the subjects taught across our school. Our aim is to provide children with key transferable writing skills which build year on year throughout their education. We want our children to view writing as a lifelong skill that we continue to develop whatever our age.  

Our children develop a genuine love of language and the written word, through a text-based approach which links closely to our reading curriculum. Children master the knowledge and skills required to choose and use the appropriate genre, form and formality. Children will write for a purpose and a variety of audiences to ensure they see themselves as real writers. We encourage children to take ownership of their writing, from initial ideas through organising, planning and editing to final publication if appropriate, and to mirror this process throughout the wider curriculum. We write across all subject areas to deepen understanding, develop critical thinking and improve communication in the wider curriculum. 

 

Curriculum Implementation 

Children receive an hour and fifteen minutes of English lessons at a minimum of four times per week and are exposed to age-related expectations for writing within a range of texts as set out in the WLT scheme of work. Quality texts, films, artefacts and a real purpose for writing, feature at the heart of the writing curriculum. Texts are chosen for their stand-alone quality and will on occasion match to the wider curriculum for the benefit of context and purpose. Children are expected to transfer their key topic knowledge and vocabulary into their writing and vice versa to transfer their spelling, grammar and punctuation knowledge into other subject areas. Consistent feedback ensures that children know exactly what they need to do next to make progress in their writing and children are encouraged to respond to written feedback in red pen. Scaffolds and challenges are put in place for those children who require them.  

Texts for writing

As set out in the WLT scheme of work, planning flows from the building blocks of securing spoken language, a rapidly developing vocabulary and short, purposeful written texts in the EYFS to developing and mastering a secure grasp of grammar through to Year Six. Planning supports the development of each genre for writing and identifies desired outcomes to ensure there is breadth and depth in writing opportunity.

Phonics and spelling

At Abbey Primary, a strong phonics programme supports the development of spelling and handwriting. Little Wandle Letters and Sounds is an accredited scheme and the school invests heavily in supporting resources and CPD. In spelling lessons in KS2, children use an exploratory approach to investigate word etymology, morphology and patterns to inspire students and spark a curiosity for words. Children learn to problem solve when spelling unfamiliar words and draw on a range of spelling strategies.

Handwriting and Presentation

Children are taught to write in a fluent cursive style following a progression of skills as outlined by the National Handwriting Association. Daily practice for EYFS-Y3 and at least 3 times per week for Y4-Y6, improves fluency and stamina. As cursive script becomes embedded through practising letter join families, children then practise spelling words. A high standard of joined and un-joined handwriting is modelled across school and high expectations are expected to be evidenced throughout all work produced.

Talk for writing

Children are encouraged to orally rehearse their ideas and are taught using a mixture of modelled, shared and guided writing. Independent writing is encouraged in the form of short, mirrored learning or as longer, complete pieces of work. At Abbey we use the SEEC model to explicitly teach new vocabulary which increases precision and ambition in word choice and improves sentence quality and cohesion.

Working walls

Teachers at Abbey use working walls to support independence in learning through every step of a writing unit. The working walls are focussed on the specific learning objectives and are updated regularly throughout each unit.

Assessment

Arbor is used to analyse gaps in children’s knowledge and gain an overview of specific groups of children across school. Progress across classes is closely monitored by the subject leader and senior leadership team. Monitoring includes regular book looks, lesson observations, gathering evidence of good practice, pupil voice interviews, looking at data on Arbor and regular learning walks.

Curriculum Impact

Assessment in writing is ongoing as teachers carry out in-depth assessment of children’s writing at the end of each unit and highlight the age-related outcomes using that have been achieved using the Teacher Assessment Frameworks. By the end of their time at Abbey, our children leave us as confident, capable writers who know that writing is a powerful tool for communication, creativity and influence. They will write with clarity and purpose, make deliberate language choices and write with confidence and voice.