English - Writing and Spelling, Kingfisher CE Academy

What does English look like at Kingfisher?

We teach using a Teach through a Text approach, building their literary repertoire through high-quality text choices and a deliberate sequencing of literature across the school. High-quality, award-winning texts by new and significant authors are chosen for their literary merit. Texts are linked thematically to support children to make strong connections between texts studied. Themes have links across year groups to allow children to make connections with texts previously studied. Quality Book Talk takes place from Reception. Themes, conventions and connections are explored and background knowledge is carefully considered. Layered learning with practice and application of skills within a range of purposeful outcomes. Snowballing of learning with repeated practice of skills across individual sequences, terms and across the year across a range of contexts.

Previously taught skills from both current and previous year groups are regularly revisited with repeated opportunities to practise in purposeful contexts through shorter writing opportunities. Regular sentence construction rehearsal and manipulation of sentences with oral rehearsal and use of manipulatives like sentence strips to secure understanding of sentence sense and grammar.

Based on this approach, the key elements of an English lesson at Kingfisher are:

Recap Task- This includes a task from the previous unit or lesson to support recall and deepen understanding. It is also an opportunity to make connections and links.

Learning Intention – This is when the What, How Why is displayed and explained so all pupils know what they will learn.

New Learning - the new learning is introduced. It may be book talk, grammar in context or the structure/content of text, images, ideas or opinions to promote discussion.

Construct new meaning – This involves the children applying their new knowledge, this might be identifying word classes, adding in punctuation, it might include modelled or shared writing.

Apply to demonstrate - This part of the lesson usually involves short writing opportunities to allow pupils to practice their new learning.

Review- This is a quick review of our learning in that lesson.

At the end of a unit a longer sustained piece of writing is written using all the skills from the unit and previous learning.

At Kingfisher, we use the Literacy Tree as the basis of our English curriculum.

We have chosen to use Literacy Tree - a programme which weaves reading and writing through a book based approach.

The writing resource and programme, Writing Roots, uses Teach Through a Text at its core, embedding all National Curriculum requirements and places high focus on audience and purpose. This motivates children to write for a range of audiences and purposes using high-quality, diverse children’s literature by significant authors. The wide range of books chosen for both writing and reading immerse children in a range of literary worlds and themes, and drama, discussion and debate which are woven into units heighten engagement, curiosity and motivation. The choice of books allows them to see themselves represented, and also explore the lives and experiences of others.

Carefully-planned sequences of lessons provide opportunities to explore writing conventions, which are embedded, and apply them into writing for a range of real-life audiences and purposes. Within a unit there are many short writing opportunities covering a range of different text types, revisiting these over time proves effective. Opportunities to write frequently have been identified as a factor that is positively linked to teaching pupils to write effectively (Ofsted, 2022). Put simply, pupils ‘who write more. write better’ (Slavin et. al, 2019)