ENGLISH POLICY

The aims of our policy for English are to:

• raise the level of educational achievement of all children and provide consistency of approach by all     staff
• strive for every child to reach high standards in English
• enable all children to be successful and to make progress
• maximise opportunities for children to realise their full potential
• ensure that teachers maintain high expectations of all children
• provide children with a learning environment where English is at the heart of all learning
• enable children to apply their English skills to understand their community, help them feel valued within it and help them make a positive contribution towards it           
   
                                                                  
  Ultimately, to offer an environment and experiences which allow for happiness, success and life-long learning.
   
  English is a core subject in the National Curriculum and has a special place in the curriculum, because all learning takes place through the use of language. It is during a child’s primary education that the foundations of all aspects of English, both spoken and written, are laid. In the literate society in which we live, an ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in written word, and to read a wide range of different types of text is essential if children are to achieve their full potential throughout their school days and into their adult life.

Our school views the acquisition of language and literacy skills to be of the utmost importance and therefore the teaching of all aspects of English will be given a high priority.

Talk For Writing

Talk for Writing is an engaging teaching framework developed by Pie Corbett,  used to support our own medium term planning at Crescent Primary. It is powerful because it is based on the principles of how children learn. It enables children to imitate the language they need for a particular topic orally, before reading and analysing it, and then writing their own version.

In their English books, all children have a ‘Writing Target Checklist’ that contains writing objectives relevant to their current and future Step. In addition to this, children are taught how to develop a  ‘Writing Tookit’ which outlines the expectations for that specific piece of Extended Writing.  The text type, audience, purpose and outcome is explicitly shared with the children and continuously referred back to throughout the unit. Examples of an model text are shared, explored and analysed. Children also have the opportunity to plan their writing by gathering effective vocabulary, observe modelled writing from the teacher and plan the structure of their Extended Write. Children then have the chance to independently apply the skills which have been taught throughout the unit.

Upon completion of their writing, children will then edit and up-level their work either independently or in pairs. Whole class oral feedback is given, enabling the children to reflect and self-assess against their ‘Writing Tookit’ and ‘Target Target Checklist’.

Rainbow Grammar

Rainbow grammar is taught from the summer term in F2 to Year 6, and systematically teaches the children to produce grammatically correct sentences that are punctuated accurately.  Teachers utilise Rainbow Grammar to cover objectives from The National Curriculum. The children are taught that different colours (rainbow colours) correspond with the different parts of a sentence. With this knowledge, children are able to write a variety of sentences, enabling them to improve their grammar knowledge and writing compositions.