Intent

At Bishop Ridley, English forms an essential part of learning for every child. More than any other subject, English - and especially reading - gives pupils access to the rest of the curriculum and is fundamental to their educational success. Staff aim to support the school vision by ensuring that all pupils are able to flourish and achieve their full potential throughout every English lesson. Pupils respect the opinions and ideas of others and every pupil is valued, made to feel safe to make mistakes and encouraged to participate in all aspects of their learning.

At Bishop Ridley, we encourage a growth mindset, where pupils foster a positive attitude towards their learning of reading and writing. We believe that a high-quality English curriculum should develop children’s love of reading, writing and discussion. We have a rigorous and well-organised English curriculum that provides many purposeful learning opportunities and we look for opportunities to make robust links with the wider curriculum through our Cornerstones topics. We use mistakes and misconceptions as an essential part of learning and provide challenge throughout by diving deeper into the curriculum.

We aim for all pupils to:

● develop a love of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information

● become skilful readers who use a range of strategies to understand the content of what they read
● acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of spelling, punctuation and grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language
● be exposed to a wide range of texts in order to appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage
● become independent writers who are able to write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences

● develop fluency in handwriting to enable more time to be spent planning, thinking about content and constructing sentences
● use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas
● be competent in the arts of speaking and listening, with frequent opportunities for both ‘exploratory’ and ‘presentational’ talk.  

These aims are embedded across our English lessons and the wider curriculum. We aim that each child should develop a positive attitude to English, with a wide range of literacy skills and concepts which they can apply with confidence and enthusiasm. We will provide the means for children to develop a secure knowledge of a range genres, which follows a clear pathway of progression as they move through the school. Rigorous assessment and review will ensure that we are able to provide targeted support so that all children experience success in English; we believe that secure English skills are crucial to a high-quality education and will give our children the tools they need to participate fully as a member of society.

Implementation

Our English curriculum at Bishop Ridley Primary School is delivered with the support of the Little Wandle Phonics Scheme, the Big Cats Reading Scheme and a topic-based approach to writing. These schemes support teachers to deliver well-structured and exciting learning opportunities that enable our children to learn, revisit and progressively develop their skills in English at an age-appropriate level.

Reading

The teaching and implementation of the Reading curriculum at Bishop Ridley Primary School is based on the National Curriculum, with texts being well-sequenced and skills re-visited throughout the year groups to ensure progression and that confidence is built across a range of genres.

In each year group, high-quality texts are selected, guided by Cornerstones, and a topic-based approach is taken. Within the Early Year Foundation Stage, phonics by following the Little Wandle programme are heavily used to enable and develop decoding skills.

Familiarity with texts is embedded using a wide range of texts, both fiction and non-fiction, along common themes – such as rhyme, recall, sequencing and predicting.   

In Year 2, VIPERS (Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation, Retrieval and Sequencing/Summary) skills, through Literacy Shed, are introduced more formally and regularly, on a weekly basis, equipping pupils with the reading skills necessary for comprehension; the same skills that are taught throughout the rest of their time at Bishop Ridley Primary School. Texts are selected based on Cornerstones recommendations and whether Literacy Shed VIPERS resources are available for that text. Key Stage 1 teachers also select a longer, chapter book to read within each half term, related to the topic if possible, to give pupils experience and understanding of the features and structure of such texts - giving opportunities for discussion and develop a love of reading for pleasure.

The same process follows through Key Stage 2, providing consistency and clear expectations. If the selected text is complete before the end of term, a non-fiction book may be chosen, or a different book based on the Science topic. For example, pupils in Year 6 finished their Cornerstones recommended book, ‘Freedom’, so chose to read ‘Pig Heart Boy’ to accompany their Circulatory System topic.

Weekly trips to the school library are timetabled from Year 2-Year 6 and children are able to choose a book to take home to develop a love of reading for pleasure, as well as being exposed to a wide range of texts in order to appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage. We are well-supported by a group of parents on the Equality and Diversity Forum who have approved the content of texts within our Bishop Ridley Primary School Library.

Children are encouraged to read at home to an adult daily and record this in their Reading Record book. When pupils achieve 50 reads (or 30 reads for Pupil Premium children), this is celebrated in Celebration Worship and pupils have the opportunity to visit the Book Vending Machine where they get to select a book of their choice to keep.

World Book Day is celebrated in school, with whole school and year group activities planned to promote the love of reading. Activities in recent years have included a whole school book swap, dressing up, teacher readings and sharing books across year groups, with positive results and feedback. Book Fairs are held twice a year, providing the school with valuable funds to purchase new books to support our topic-based curriculum and ensuring children in Key Stage 2 are able to have a book each, or at least one to share, which, we believe, is essential for the teaching of key reading skills.

Writing

At Bishop Ridley Primary School, we support pupils to become independent and confident writers by exposing them to a wide range of high-quality texts, immersing them in the genre, providing opportunities for discussion and rehearsing ideas before the drafting, editing and publishing process.

This process begins in the Early Years Foundation Stage, where marks are made for a particular purpose or simple phrases and sentences are written before being re-read and changed to improve them. As pupils move into Key Stage 1 and 2, there are more opportunities to write an extended piece, over a series of lessons ranging from 1-3 weeks. Weekly Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPAG) lessons are taught and are planned to support, consolidate and challenge pupils to include genre-specific features in their writing.

With a topic-based approach to writing, there are opportunities for cross-curricular links in a vocabulary-rich environment specific to the topic and the organisational features of the genre being taught. In practice, this might mean composing a diary entry describing the sights along a vast river, designing a leaflet advertising life in the Stone Age, or writing instructions for the mummification process in Ancient Egypt. This careful integration of subjects is vital to the efficient and effective teaching of writing within our curriculum.

Opportunities are found to create a memorable experience for the pupils to enhance their learning, and therefore writing, experience. This could take the form of a walk to the local woods, baking, planting trees and seeds within the school grounds, a ‘messy’ afternoon, a trip to a local farm or borrowing a history resources and artefacts box as part of an Egyptian themed day.

High-quality teacher modelling is essential within all areas of the writing process. Working walls are used to support topics, promote independence and showcases learning. Resources, such as word banks, provide an interactive element for pupils to retrieve vocabulary themselves and support their learning. In addition, teachers provide detailed feedback during the planning and drafting elements of the writing journey, so that pupils understand how to improve their writing before redrafting and publishing. Opportunities are provided for pupils to respond to feedback and to reflect on their own successes and next steps with regular peer and self-assessment opportunities to consolidate learning. Depending on the genre, the last lesson in the writing process could be based around performance as the children are expected to read their poems, soliloquies, stories, diary entries and other short pieces aloud to the class, to better understand their own writing and gain confidence in public speaking.

Bishop Ridley Primary School hold high standards of presentation and handwriting as central skills across the whole curriculum. Beginning in the Early Years Foundation Stage, pupils are taught a comfortable grip and develop the foundations of a handwriting style which is fast, accurate and efficient. As pupils move into Key Stage 1, the Letter-join program is used to develop fluency in handwriting in all areas of the curriculum. By Key Stage 2, this fluency will enable pupils to have more time spent planning, thinking about content and constructing sentences as they will have the presentational style required. Pupils from Year 2 are awarded a ‘pen licence’ by the class teacher once a consistent, cursive style has developed.

With an embedded writing process, high-quality texts, a cross-curricular approach and excellent modelling, pupils have developed a positive attitude to writing with confidence and enthusiasm across a wide range of genres and to different audiences. This not only equips pupils well as they move into secondary school education, but beyond as members of society.

Impact

Subject impact is a way to monitor the effectiveness of our subject intent and implementation. It comes in many forms, such as continuous and termly assessments, Target Tracker data, provision maps and ways of checking retained knowledge as children progress through the school.

Reading

At Bishop Ridley we measure progress in reading using end of term Cornerstones Reading Assessments. Within term time, progress is continually assessed during VIPERS lessons, class reading and pupil voice.  The high-quality range of texts selected have had positive feedback from staff and children and this has helped provide a greater depth to the topic work, as well as embedding love of reading for pleasure. Children are exposed to a more diverse selection of books through the topics covered, those available in the library and those available in the vending machine.

World Book Day provided a day dedicated to promoting the love of reading. All children were able to complete a range of activities, read to different year groups and take a book home with them to keep from a successful book swap.

Writing

At Bishop Ridley we measure progress in writing at the end of every half term. We review the different genres of writing during the half term and assess whether criteria have been met. Staff are more confident assessing writing after a number of moderation sessions – both in-house and within the Bexley Collaborative – meaning gaps in learning are identified and next steps are put in place for efficiently.

The process for writing has become embedded within the school culture. Children and staff are more confident with the writing process and are able to explain what comes before, and what comes next, in that process. The wide range of English skills involved with writing have also become embedded and expectations are clear. Due to this, pupils are regularly able self-assess and are able to provide constructive feedback to their peers. Children are developing confidence in presenting and public speaking and will continue to have the opportunity to develop these skills as they move through the school.

Due to the consistent modelling of presentation, children’s handwriting has shown improvement, books are neat and children are taking more pride in their presentation. Attitudes to writing have improved and children enjoy the opportunities to write for purpose, both within English lessons and the wider curriculum.