English
What do teachers use to plan English?
We use set school based planning formats to plan our English units around a class text. These planning formats are used to clearly identify our assessment and intervention based on that assessment (see assessment section below). Planning is clear and follows a standardised format to ensure learning is sequenced logically and appropriately to build up to the writing piece. Planning is shared with all adults involved in the lessons the week before. This ensures all adults supporting children are fully aware of the learning objectives and how best to support children meeting those learning outcomes, especially the lowest ability and SEND children.
Our class texts are appropriately planned out across the year to ensure children are exposed to a range of texts outlined in the curriculum such as modern fiction, non-fiction, fiction from our literary heritage, non-fiction, fairy tales and traditional tales etc. We have also ensured the texts chosen expose our children to a variety of experiences, cultures and ways of life. Our class texts expose children to a variety of diverse authors and characters alongside exploring a range of themes within these texts such as diversity, protected characteristics, British values, links to our foundation curriculum and much more.
Kinetic Letters - Handwriting
Kinetic Letters, a structured handwriting programme that helps children develop confident, fluent and legible handwriting.
Kinetic Letters is based on the understanding that handwriting is both a physical and cognitive skill. The programme helps children build the strength, coordination and movements needed for comfortable and efficient writing. As handwriting becomes automatic, children are able to focus more on the ideas they want to express in their writing.
The Four Threads of Kinetic Letters
The programme is built around four key areas:
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Making Bodies Stronger – developing core strength, posture and stability so children can control their writing movements.
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Holding the Pencil – learning a comfortable and effective pencil grip for clear, controlled writing.
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Learning the Letters – children learn letter formation through movement and memorable patterns.
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Flow and Fluency – developing the stamina and rhythm needed to write quickly and smoothly.
How Children Learn
Children are taught letter formation through a multi-sensory approach, often beginning with larger physical movements before moving on to writing on whiteboards and paper. Letters are grouped into “families” based on how they are formed, which helps children remember the correct movements.
As pupils progress through the programme, they develop handwriting that is:
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Clear and legible
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Comfortable and efficient
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Fluent and increasingly automatic
Why Handwriting Matters
Strong handwriting skills support learning across the whole curriculum. When children can write fluently without thinking about letter formation, they can focus on spelling, vocabulary and expressing their ideas in greater depth.
Through Kinetic Letters, we aim to give every child the confidence and skills they need to become successful writers.
How are children supported in their English lessons?
Children in key stage two have access to writing skills booklets in English lessons. These booklets are designed to support children in ‘knowing more, learning more and remembering more’.
Children use these booklets to support their writing by giving clear definitions, examples, hints and tips in using punctuation and grammar skills in their writing autonomously.
We have standardised displays in and out of classrooms. These are used as a support mechanism for the piece of writing which they are building up to. This is referred to consistently across the unit and children use this as a tool to help them during lessons. Children are encouraged to apply the vocabulary they have been exposed to in their own writing .
Every child has their own writing board which shows their progress in writing over a term. Two pieces of writing sit side by side, this support children in recognising the progress they are making and it has pride of place in the school corridors so all visitors to school can share in this celebration of progress.
We also use quality first teaching to ensure children reach lesson objectives. Our marking and feedback policy ensures that teachers are in constant circulation around the room, supporting children and offering verbal feedback throughout children’s learning. This is highlighted by the Education Endowment Foundation as a highly effective strategy for pupil outcomes. Teachers use quality first teaching to provide proportionate support to pupils in most need of support in that lesson to achieve that lesson’s outcome. This policy also impacts teacher workload. Teachers have the majority of books marked for most lessons by the end of the lesson – reducing teacher workload.
How are lower ability and SEND children supported and how is the curriculum adapted to ensure these children make progress and are included?
At Collierley Primary and Nursery School, we ensure children of lower ability, children who may have fallen off track or children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) are given every opportunity to reach their full potential. Through our English teaching, we use the following strategies, techniques and resources to provide high quality support for these children.
Firstly, we use high-quality standardised assessment (see below for more detail). This assessment provides us with real-time monitoring of children’s attainment and progress from the start of their schooling with us. The impact of this assessment is that we can identify children who are of a lower ability or SEND early on in their schooling with us, intervening early and making an impact right away. This assessment also affords us the ability to monitor if children are making good progress, again intervening early where this is not the case.
The main driver of supporting children of lower ability and SEND is Quality First Teaching. Through this strategy, we ensure that children are appropriately catered for and tailored to in their learning. This includes but is not exclusive to: targeted questioning, focused support during independent work, scaffolding learners and ensuring work is appropriately differentiated and accessible for learners.
“Quality First Teaching is a style of teaching that emphasises high quality, inclusive teaching for all pupils in a class. Quality first teaching includes differentiated learning, strategies to support SEN pupils’ learning in class, on-going formative assessment and many others,” – Third Space Learning.
Our lower ability pupils and SEND pupils also participate in reading interventions. These reading interventions target two specific groups. The bottom 20% readers and what we classify as ‘non-fluent readers’.
At Collierley Primary and Nursery School, we classify ‘non-fluent readers’ as a reader who falls into any or all of the following categories:
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a) Regularly and consistently struggles with decoding.
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b) Regularly and consistently struggles with segmenting and blending.
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c) Has not passed the phonics screening check.
How are children assessed and what is this assessment used for?
Reading:
Reading is assessed termly using NFER assessments. NFER assessments provide us with standardised scores which help track progress across and through year groups. We use this data to identify children who are not making adequate progress and intervene. Children who are in the bottom 20% of readers, identified through these assessments, are provided extra one-to-one reading opportunities a week as follows: key stage one, five times per week; key stage two, three times per week. These interventions are completed by class teachers and teaching assistants. Please see our reading and phonics pages for more detail on how we support and use interventions for our off-track and bottom 20% children.
Spelling, punctuation and grammar:
Spelling, punctuation and grammar is also assessed through termly NFER assessments during our assessment weeks. This assessment informs both whole-class areas of need and misconception and are addressed through SPaG misconception sessions twice a week as starters for English lessons. This assessment also informs teachers of lower ability and off-track children, providing them with the knowledge and understanding of individual gaps in learning or misconceptions and in turn, informing their Quality First Teaching.
Writing:
Children are assessed termly using our writing assessment sheets. These writing assessment sheets are used to identify where gaps in skills are and are used to inform whole-class areas for development which are addressed in our SPaG misconception sessions. Individual areas of need for children are identified and used to inform quality first teaching and focused support during lessons to help children catch up on missed learning, areas of misunderstanding and misconception.
Under construction and coming soon!
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A revised reading spine detailing which books children will have read for pleasure at the end of each year group all the way from EYFS to year six.
Priority areas for developing English:
Writing :
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Implementing change following the publication of the Writing Framework.
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Implementing daily handwriting and dictation practice.
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Reviewing the writing cycle in place in school.
Spelling :
1. Continuing to teach spelling through high quality daily phonics sessions in Reception and KS1.
2. Using revised marking and feedback systems to improve spelling application across all subject areas.
3. Reviewed the teaching cycle for spelling in KS2.
Reading :
1. Review the reading spine.
2. Continue to monitor the children's reading in and out of school.
3. Monitor the impact of the reading VIPERS in KS1 and KS2.