English Statement of Intent
Sheringdale’s aim is to ensure all children leave primary school as enthusiastic, confident and fluent speakers, readers and writers of the English language. Sheringdale goes beyond the National Curriculum to provide engaging and high-quality lessons for pupils using an approach based on Pie Corbett's Talk for Writing. This provides breadth, depth and authenticity to the curriculum’s English objectives.
Phonics
Children at Sheringdale are taught to read using the systematic synthetic phonics scheme Jolly Phonics. This is the approach that children in Reception are taught all 42 sounds at a pace of 4-5 sounds per week. This progresses through the rest of KS1 to complete their Phonics understanding. At all times, we look at the needs of individual children and ensure the curriculum coverage is meeting their needs. In Reception, Children will take home reading books that are carefully matched to their current phonic learning at school. Intervention and additional phonics teaching is put in place to help and support children and sometimes stages are retaught and practised more to help the children retain the sound in their long-term memory.
Reading
Sheringdale’s approach to reading is that all children have the skills and ability to tackle a range of genres, unfamiliar vocabulary and different subject matters. The children are exposed to a variety of high-quality texts including poetry and non-fiction, supporting learning across all curriculum subjects. A love of reading is nurtured with welcoming book corners in every class and children are encouraged to become enthusiastic, independent and fluent readers. Children are encouraged to discuss the books they love, sensitively challenge the opinions of others and unpick and recognise the different messages conveyed in narrative text.
Reading underpins the school day in a variety of ways. Reading is embedded into all areas of our curriculum and classes are read to daily by their teacher, with opportunities for other adults to share books they love with each class. They are also given opportunities to enjoy the book corners and read a variety of books independently as well as regular visits to the local library and librarian assemblies in school. From Early Years through to Year 6, teachers prioritise reading comprehension skills through small group work to ensure talk for learning, discussion and reflection opportunities are used effectively. Progression across the year groups is both in terms of difficulty of word decoding in a text and the complexity of character and plot. Importantly, small group discussion enables those with SEND or EAL to access more challenging texts and fulfil their potential as learners.
Writing
To support the development of confident, skilled writers, we have designed a carefully sequenced, genre-based writing curriculum. Each year group is introduced to a range of carefully selected genres, with regular opportunities to revisit and build upon prior learning. This ensures that children develop a scure understanding of different text type while making clear and ambitious progress throughout their journey to Year 6.
Our writing units are built around high-quality, engaging texts that inspire children and provide rich models for writing. The outcome of each unit is carefully considered to ensure that children can apply their own experiences and interests and produce original and independent pieces of writing.
We follow a three- stage writing process, based on an adapted version of Talk for Writing with elements of the Writing for Pleasure approach embedded.
- Stage 1: Imitation of model text and genre
- Stage 2: Implementation of skills and ideas
- Stage 3: Independent application
Throughout every unit, children consider the purpose, audience and purpose of their writing. Each piece is written with a clear publishing outcome in mind, giving writing an authentic purpose and helping to foster enthusiasm, pride and a genuine love of writing.
Oracy
At Sheringdale, we believe spoken language and oracy is a fundamental aspect in supporting the teaching of English. In lessons, we provide, and prioritise, opportunities for talk as well as activities to develop spoken language skills as the fundamental building blocks for reading and writing. These activities could include elements of drama or role-play, performance, echo and choral reading, oral rehearsal before writing, talk partners, paired/collaborative work, giving and receiving instructions, asking and responding to questions, listening to stories and visiting speakers, sharing experiences and ideas, explaining their reasoning, and experimenting with words and vocabulary. We ensure that we enable children to speak with confidence, clarity and fluency, while adapting their use of language for a range of different purposes and audiences, including the use of Standard English.
Reading at Home
Please find the following resources below to support you while reading with your child at home.
- Reading at Home Parent Workshop Powerpoint
- Sheringdale Reading Strategies
- Jolly Phonics Actions
- My Bookshelf (Reading for Pleasure Resource)