Our vision for English at Woodlea

At Woodlea, we want all children to gain excellent linguistic skills which will allow them to achieve to their full potential through our exciting, engaging English curriculum. 

Intent

At Woodlea, we know that English teaching is essential to opening the door to the rest of the curriculum. We are extremely passionate about teaching English at Woodlea as we understand that having solid English skills leads to better outcomes in every subject. We recognise the importance of teaching outstanding writing skills and reading skills and the importance of understanding grammar to ensure our children leave Woodlea with the best knowledge to help them excel in high school and for the rest of their lives.  It is part of the ‘essential knowledge’ (p6 National Curriculum) that is needed in society:

‘Teachers should develop pupil’s spoken language, reading, writing and vocabulary as integral aspects of the teaching of every subject. English is both a subject in its own right and the medium for teaching; for pupils, understanding the language provides access to the whole curriculum. Fluency in the English language is an essential foundation for success in all subjects’ (p10 National Curriculum).

Implementation

We are an inclusive school, we set high expectations and recognise the importance of accurate and regular assessment in order to support individuals at every part of their learning journey and in whatever circumstances. We plan teaching opportunities to help those with learning difficulties outlined in the SEN code of practice. We agree with the statement of the National Curriculum, that ‘pupils…who do not learn to speak, read and write fluently and confidently are effectively disenfranchised’ (p13).

Our plan for the teaching of English at Woodlea can be seen below. Children are given regular opportunities to show off their writing skills across the curriculum with cross-curricular writing opportunities in every subject from geography to RE. 

Our English curriculum can be broken down further into: writing, reading, spelling, handwriting and grammar.

For reading and writing, the majority of learning is done in our daily English lessons, with skills being used across the curriculum (see below). For spelling and handwriting, we follow the 'Spelling Shed' scheme of work and have three spelling and one handwriting lesson per week. For grammar, we have our own overview of KS2 grammar, broken down into lower and upper KS2. We have a daily GPS session within our daily English as well as a Friday grammar lesson.

Impact

Children at Woodlea enjoy English and have regular opportunity to share their thoughts on the subject. Most recently, children's views on reading were gathered through a survey and results collated. As a result of this, we are developing an outdoor reading area on our playground.

In addition to this, children's attainment is assessed regularly in reading, writing and grammar with our results showing that children make excellent progress in English during their time at Woodlea. 

The theme for World Book Day this year was Wonka (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). We celebrated in school on Friday 8th March and the children and staff dressed up as characters from the books or films. Within each phase, there were two STEM based activities, a performing arts based activity and a writing activity. We also enjoyed 'drop everything and read'. Every time a bell rang, everyone stopped what they were doing and read extracts from 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' by Roald Dahl. It was a brilliant day all round! 

The Woodlea Creative Writing Club

As part of our writing development at Woodlea, we offer an extra-curricular creative writing club. The children create short stories and have the opportunity to have their story published in a real book. After two very successful creative writing clubs, we now have two books published. All of the authors made great progress with their writing and their passion was a delight to see. Each child demonstrated boundless creativity and enthusiasm. 

Fantastic Book Awards

The Fantastic Book Awards (FBA) are running again for 2023 - 2024. In school Mrs Rufus is overseeing the programme this year, which is running with our Year 5 and 6 children. Class teachers have chosen a small group of children to take part and it is also open to children who wish to participate in their own time. 
 

All children who take part will also be entered into a raffle to win a signed copy of this and last year’s FBA linked novels!
 

We have been put in Group C this year and our books can be seen in the pictures below! The children (and adults) are very excited to get started and we will keep you updated here and on our Twitter pages!

How can you help your children with their English learning at home?

Regular updates are sent out via SeeSaw with regards to English learning in school. We ask that you read with your child at least four times each week and fill in their reading record, noting down the chapter(s) they have read, any notes and an adult's signature. If your child completes their Reading Plus sessions at home, these can also count towards their four reads per week. When noting down Reading Plus, please put in the percentage your child achieves on the lesson.

In addition, your children will have different spellings which they focus on each week and these will form the basis of their weekly English homework tasks. 

Please take a look at the website below with some tips on supporting your child with their home reading. 

Reading Plus Update - February 2024

Reading Plus resets at the start of each academic year. This allows the programme and stories to be tailored to each child's needs.

Every four weeks, we have an update on the top classes and children. For the top class, we look at home many 'combos' (stories over 80%) each class has got. For the top reader, it is the amount of words read with a comprehension rate over 80%.

Children who have completed all of their reads during the previous four weeks are entered into our raffle to win a lovely book to take home from our book vending machine!

Take a look at our Twitter and class pages on our website to see our winners!

Reading Plus update at the end of February:

Combos:

3G - 53 (winners)

3P - 35

4R - 82 (winners)

4T - 51 

5E - 59

5L - 99 (winners) 

6C - 139 (winners)

6O - 105

Readers:

Arthur (3P) - 4 combos

Finley (3G) - 8 combos

James (4T) - 8 combos

Edward (4R) - 10 combos

Libby (5E) - 12 combos

Callie (5L) - 8 combos

Junior (6C) - 10 combos

Oscar (6O) - 7 combos