Intent
Great Park aims to provide a broad and balanced curriculum, which is relevant to and widens the experiences of our children. English at Great Park is designed to not only challenge students’ current thinking and beliefs but inspire a love of knowledge, learning and life. Literacy is the gateway to success and the backbone of every subject. We believe that children need to develop a secure knowledge-base in Literacy, which follows a clear pathway of progression as they advance through Key Stage 2. We believe that a secure basis in literacy skills is crucial to a high quality education and will give our children the tools they need to participate fully as a member of society. At Great Park, we want to ensure all of our pupils become competent speakers, readers and writers who are able to transfer these skills to every subject and to continue to develop these skills in the future.
Reading is at the heart of our curriculum and learners are encouraged to appreciate literature in all its rich variety. We aim for children to become competent and confident readers, who are able to decode and read fluently whilst developing solid comprehension skills. We recognise the importance of nurturing a culture where children take pride in their writing; can write clearly and accurately and adapt their language and style for a range of contexts, using their love of reading to inspire their own creations.
Implementation
Our whole school approach to Literacy provides complete coverage of the aims of the National Curriculum and incorporates a thematic approach, with high quality texts at its core to engage and enthuse children in their learning.
Love of reading:
A love reading is embedded throughout school life; we regularly share stories and reading opportunities with our children. We celebrate a number of Reading themed days, such as World Book day and National poetry day, alongside our own Great Park Super Learning Days.
Students visit the local public library regularly and we invite authors and inspiring guests into school annually. We value the role challenging texts have on our growth, not just academically, but personally and students are encouraged to take time reading books from our new ‘Personal Development’ section. We link our learning to text poetry wherever possible and there is an abundance of opportunities for pupils to memorise, perform and create their own poems and scripts.
As a school, we place a huge emphasis on independent reading and our Key Stage 2 library area has been designed to entice our young readers and challenge their reading fluency while broadening their vocabulary. The ‘Great Park’s 50 books before Key Stage 3’ challenge provides children with a wide selection of genres and themes, rewarding their participation after every block of 10 read. We believe independent reading is a crucial time where children can get lost in a book and enrich their passion for reading- classes often have a ‘take 10’ moment, where all students stop what they are doing and read for pleasure.
The school library is an exciting area, where children can share their love of books and recommend them to their peers. The school librarian team ensure books are looked after and student ‘new book requests’ are fulfilled where possible. The library’s weekly ‘book café’, is buzzing with keen readers, where discussions about characters, stories and fun facts are shared over a juice and biscuit.
Guided Reading:
Guided reading is seen as paramount in developing children’s reading even further. It gives them the opportunity to read aloud or independently and discuss texts in a small group, inferring and deducing ideas, making predictions, summarising, discussing an author’s use of language and many other skills, essential in developing comprehension. These opportunities occur regularly in our active reading and personalised learning sessions.
Shared/Whole Class Reading:
As well as guided reading sessions, we also place a significant emphasis on whole class shared reading. This allows children to listen to the teacher read, which in turn helps them understand intonation and how to read fluently as well as extending their vocabulary. It also allows children to listen to the ideas of others and build upon their own, developing their comprehension, confidence and motivation to read. This can be seen during ‘Fluency Friday’ sessions or during active reading lessons.
Active Reading:
Active reading sessions encourage children to develop and explore literacy skills orally. Sessions range from book discussions and reviews to poetry performances and debates. These sessions were highly praised during student voice: pupils explained how useful they found the skills and enjoyed how they could be applied to other contexts. Tasks are varied and are delivered in a variety of ways- making active reading a popular lesson on the timetable for all students.
Reading Intervention:
At Great Park, we believe regular assessment is essential to monitor and boost the progress of children. Learning gaps are identified through low stakes quizzing and subject tasks, then addressed through PLT (personalised learning time) and super learning days. A wide range of effective questioning are used during class discussions to challenge, probe and extend children’s understanding and learning. We identify children who need extra support and provide intervention in the most effective and efficient way. We help each child maximise their potential by providing help and support where necessary whilst striving to make children independent workers once they are equipped with the confidence, tools and strategies that they need.
We run workshops for our Year 6 parents and carers so that they understand age-related expectations. These sessions are always very well- attended by parents and carers, who often comment about how helpful the workshops have been for them.
Feedback is immediate in lessons, supported by live marking- allowing children the time, space and support to respond and progress within the lesson. Spelling corrections are identified and pupils are provided time to correct and consolidate their work.
Progression of skills:
Lessons are well-planned and resourced, with a focus on repeated and revisited skills, genres and grammatical features to allow for mastery. Students become fluent in writing genres and as they leave year 6, are able to actively discuss common features and use these to inspire their own creations.
Celebrating success:
We love to celebrate the success of all learners and strive to help all children achieve their goals. English is celebrated in classrooms and around school at Great Park, where our bright and colourful displays praise children’s writing, their favourite books and reading reward schemes. In addition, we have monthly spelling champions, stop and share writing assemblies and celebration breakfasts. Students at Great Park enjoy celebrating the achievements of their peers as well as their own and regular discussions with pupils highlight the enjoyment they receive from listening to great writing or watching their classmates receive an award for progress in reading.
Impact
The impact on our children is clear: progress, sustained learning and transferrable skills. By the time they leave Key Stage 2, have had the opportunity to master the extensive range of genres that they have been taught. Teaching focuses on creativity, writer’s craft, sustained writing and manipulation of grammar and punctuation skills, ready to build on further in Key Stage 3.
Termly assessments show that most children at Great Park are achieving in Literacy at age-related expectations. Each year we have children achieving at a greater depth in reading and writing. We hope that all the new literacy initiatives outlined above will further boost children’s learning and progress as we journey through the years.
As all aspects of English are an integral part of the curriculum, cross-curricular writing standards have also improved and skills taught within English lessons are transferred into other subjects; this shows consolidation of skills and a deeper understanding of how and when to use specific grammar, punctuation and spelling objectives.
We hope that as children move on from Key Stage 2, and further their education and learning here at Great Park Academy, that their creativity, passion for English and high aspirations travel with them and continue to grow and develop as they do.