St Joseph's School - A Catholic Voluntary Academy

English

3 I'S STATEMENTS

Reading

Intent Statement – Reading

At St Joseph’s, we are readers! Our passion for reading is at the heart of everything we do. Move aside J. K. Rowling and Anthony Horrowitz! We strive to make the next great authors, screen writers and journalists.

Frederick Douglas famously stated, ‘Once you learn to read, you will be forever freed.’ This is a statement we take to heart at St Joseph’s: we understand that the ability to read is vital in allowing our children to flourish in all areas of the curriculum thus enabling them to go forth equipped with the necessary skills required to thrive in life.

Our vocabulary rich learning environment ensures that our children are exposed to a wide range of texts and materials where reading and writing go hand-in-hand. Our aim is to develop readers for life who will have respect for other views and cultures, stand up against injustice and celebrate uniqueness and individuality.

A ‘love of reading’ is promoted through a curriculum that allows our children to experience a wide range of literary genres. At St Joseph’s, we want children to be able to find their favourite genres, choose their own reading books for pleasure and develop a life-long relationship with literature.

Implementation Statement – Reading

At St Joseph’s, Reading is taught on a daily basis from Year 2 to Year 6 alongside continued additional Phonics support for any children who are in need of this provision in Key Stage Two. Reading is also supported through the use of the Lexia and Reading Plus schemes.

Our KS2 Reading curriculum is based around the Reciprocal Reading whole class teaching model. This approach has been adapted to suit the reading needs of the children at St Joseph’s, ensuring they are exposed to reading fluency practise, vocabulary enrichment and comprehension strategies.
Reciprocal Reading takes place for 40 minutes four days a week in KS2, where each class in KS2 follows the same format.
The first day focuses on the reading of the text, allowing fluency strategies to be explored and developed. Through Repeated Reading, Echo Reading, Whole Class Reading and Paired Reading the children at St Joseph’s develop their reading fluency skills. ‘Read Aloud, Think Aloud’ is also used to develop reading for meaning.
After the reading of the text, the second day focuses on unpicking the language used within the section of text that is being focused on. All classes select specific vocabulary to enrich our children’s understanding of the written word. The amount of words chosen increases as the children move into UKS2, allowing for a clear progression of skills.
The other two days of our reading approach focus specifically on literal and inference style questioning. The children are encouraged to adopt reading comprehension strategies and self-assess their own progress.

The strategies that are developed in Reciprocal Reading are also regularly applied to reading material in the wider curriculum so that our children know that the skills they are developing are skills for life.
For at least three times a week, all classes in KS2 have a Reading Plus session for a minimum of 30 minutes. The aim of reading plus is to develop reading fluency, speed and comprehension. There is also a focus on vocabulary development.
Reading for pleasure is promoted throughout the school year at St Joseph’s. The whole school participates in Roald Dahl Day and World Book Day. We also regularly take part in Doncaster Literacy Trust Zoom events to further ensure that reading is at the heart of all we do.
Children in KS2 will have interventions, and support with the LEXIA reading programme to support their phonics and reading skills to ensure they are able to access their class reading sessions.
At St Joseph’s, from Year 2, children are assessed on the Collins KS2 Big Cat Reading Scheme. This is to ensure that all our children have a reading book at their level to practise their reading skills both in school and at home. Reading books are changed by class TAs and a log is kept so that class teachers can ensure books are being changed on a regular basis. Assessments are completed termly to track the progress of our children on the scheme. In addition to their reading book, we also encourage children to take a book of their choice from the class shelf or the library.

Our library is a space that we are proud of at St Joseph’s. It is in regular use for RWI lessons, reading sessions and we open our doors early to hold our library mornings to allow our parents to join in with our love of reading. Lunchtime library sessions are also available for children
Having raised the money to develop an outdoor space, we are now in the process of making this a calm space to ensure further that reading is at the heart of all we do.

 Impact Statement – Reading

The impact of the teaching of reading is assessed throughout the year using independent comprehension activities, allowing children to apply taught skills. In addition to this, summative reading assessments are used to support teachers’ professional judgements on attainment.  Class teachers design their own summative assessment to support their judgements against the year group assessment progression documents.
These assessments and independent comprehension activities are used to inform class teachers, SLT and the Subject Lead to identify any areas of the curriculum or pupils requiring targeted support. They also inform the next steps in teaching.

 All assessments and judgements are reviewed termly through regular book checks, planning checks and learning walks. These judgements are then discussed in termly Pupil Progress Meetings with the class teacher, head teacher and assessment lead.
Through a rigorous assessment system, we will develop independent readers who will have developed the necessary skills needed for secondary school and beyond. At St Joseph’s, we are firmly committed to creating readers for life!
Reading Plus and Lexia offer detailed feedback which is used by staff to implement appropriate intervention where needed.
20 Books to Read
At St Joseph’s, we want our children to read for pleasure. We want them to enjoy reading, to spark their interest and imagination through books and to develop their knowledge of different authors, texts and text types.  
We have put together a list of 20 books to be read by the end of each year, ranging from our nursery class through to Year 6. Each class teacher has researched books that will help to build imagination, develop passion and spark interest in their class. Our class reading passports show the different books that have been chosen for each year group, and over the year we will be encouraging children to read these and to talk about their experiences of books.

Children will have the opportunity to read these books outside of school themselves, or share them with adults at home – depending on their reading stage.  
We aim to develop a passion for reading and to help ensure that all the children at St Joseph’s have a rich reading diet, which will positively affect all of their future learning.

Click here to see our Library sessions

20 Books to Read

At St Joseph’s, we want our children to read for pleasure. We want them to enjoy reading, to spark their interest and imagination through books and to develop their knowledge of different authors, texts and text types.

We have put together a list of 20 books to be read by the end of each year, ranging from our nursery class through to Year 6. Each class teacher has researched books that will help to build imagination, develop passion and spark interest in their class. Our class reading passports show the different books that have been chosen for each year group, and over the year we will be encouraging children to read these and to talk about their experiences of books.

Children will have the opportunity to read these books outside of school themselves, or share them with adults at home – depending on their reading stage.

We aim to develop a passion for reading and to help ensure that all the children at St Joseph’s have a rich reading diet, which will positively affect all of their future learning.

Please click the links below to view the Reading Passport for each class.

Intent Statement – Writing

At St Joseph’s, we are writers! We believe in the power of words and are committed to creating writing experts! We aim to inspire the next generation of authors, journalists, bloggers and teachers.

In the words of Albus Dumbledore (J. K. Rowling), ‘Words are our most inexhaustible source of magic.’ At St Joseph’s, we are dedicated to instilling our pupils with the knowledge and passion they need to be successful writers, who have developed their own style and voice. We want our children to go forth equipped for secondary school and beyond with the literacy skills necessary to thrive in life.

Our high-quality text based writing curriculum provides our children with vocabulary-rich learning and exposes them to a wealth of different authors and styles. We want to inspire every pupil at our school to use words to tell their own stories, express their uniqueness and individuality and stand up for rights and opinions of others.

A passion for writing is encouraged through exposing our children to a wide variety of genres and focusing on the audience and purpose of each text. Our book-centred approach allows our children to practise their written skills, develop their own voice and be inspired by the words of others.

Implementation Statement – Writing

At St Joseph’s, writing is taught on a daily basis from Year 1 to Year 6 alongside extended pieces of written work in the wider curriculum. We use ‘Same Day Interventions’ to ensure that ‘every pupil can achieve.’

Each unit within Mastery English usually lasts around 2-3 weeks, dependent on the writing genre. The children follow a structure which progressively builds their knowledge and skills so that they are able to independently write a piece of extended writing by the end.

Children begin their unit unpicking the key features of a text, discussing the purpose of the writing and identifying the audience of the written genre. They may also begin with a reading comprehension activity based on the text they are studying in class.
Some units may also begin with a ‘hook’ based element including media clips, drama and whole class discussion work.
Once the children have explored the purpose and features of a text, they will then spend 4-5 lessons practising grammatical skills either based around the genre or identified from teacher assessment.
Before the writing stage, children will get the opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of sample written work, or they will plan their independent piece.
After the draft piece is written, through adult feedback, peer feedback and self-assessment, children at St Joseph’s get the opportunity to edit and evaluate the effectiveness of their writing before writing up the final piece in best.

Each English lesson follows the same structure. Lessons begin with an engage activity, which may have a grammar or vocabulary based focus. After this, children complete a quick spell and then move into the new learning. Once they have had the new learning, they move into being able to practise skills through teacher modelling, paired work and independent work. All children then get to deepen their understanding of the learning before completing their independent task. At the end of the lesson, the opportunity to review the learning and share writing is given.
All children complete the same independent activity, but support material is available to ensure that all children can achieve at their level.
In addition to their English lesson, children from Year 1 – 6 have spelling lessons 3 times a week, which explicitly teaches the spelling rules taken from the national curriculum.
A weekly grammar lesson is also taught to practise specific skills, which have been identified from summative and formative assessments.
When marking, teachers highlight WALTs in green to show children have achieved the objective, yellow to show this is partly achieved or NA if the learning has not been achieved. Self-marking can be used, so children receive immediate feedback about their successes in the lesson and can be targeted for additional support. Children make their corrections in purple pen and may do additional ‘Same Day Intervention’ work. Greater Depth work is evidenced with a ‘Going Deeper’ activity and stamp in the child’s book.

Children receive regular ‘practise/deepen’ tasks allowing them to review their learning and complete further challenges around this.
Assessments are used to identify gaps in learning and to subsequently allow for the planning of interventions for children who require this. In particular, children for whom the school receives Pupil Premium funding and children with a related identified SEND in writing or SPAG will complete activities in their purple intervention books.

Impact Statement - Writing

The impact of the teaching of writing is assessed using progressive PAM documents for children’s independent work which are in line with the National Curriculum and outlined for each year group. Children in Upper Key Stage 2 are increasingly aware of these and are able to create their own checklists to support them when self-assessing and editing their independent work.

In addition, spelling and grammar are assessed and tracked termly (with additional weekly spelling tests) which are used alongside writing moderation to help secure accurate judgements of attainment and progress.

All assessments and judgements are reviewed termly through a validation process where data, children’s books and teaching are discussed with the Senior Leadership to ensure accuracy in assessment.

Through a rigorous assessment system, we will foster independent writers who will have developed the necessary skills needed for secondary school and beyond. At St Joseph’s, we are firmly committed to creating writing masters!