English
Writing
Writing Curriculum Intent Statement
At Alderbrook, our writing curriculum is designed first and foremost, to ensure our children leave us with an awareness and a love of writing for a wide range of purposes and audiences. We inspire children to take ownership of their writing and to see themselves as real writers. The purpose for which we write is front and centre of our curriculum. We provide rich model texts and extensive tuition around the different reason why we write and endeavour to ensure they have the knowledge and skills to confidently draw upon when writing for different genres across the curriculum. Our progressive curriculum ensures children’s prior learning is being recognised, utilised and built upon year on year. We consistently reinforce to children that writing is a process over time, and we hope to inspire children to be reflective, motivated and confident writers.
Talk is at the heart if what we do in our writing lessons with children always given the opportunity to unlock their imagination through creative hooks and drama opportunities. We firmly believe that reading and writing go hand in hand, so vocabulary and language patterns are developed through reciting familiar stories and texts before children are given the chance to innovate and invent their own. Skills and stamina are developed through daily short burst writing, before children are given the chance to plan, draft and revise their own texts. Discussion and expert modelling gives children the confidence they need to write whilst our multisensory approach to our writing curriculum fosters a love for the subject.
Teaching of writing at Alderbrook
Across the school, we follow the Pie Corbett scheme of Talk for Writing, in which children follow the process of imitating, innovating and inventing a text, with exposure to a variety of different text types and genres across the year. At the start of every unit, the children use actions and story maps to learn the text from memory which supports children to identify and develop language patterns associated with a particular style of text. Pupils are provided with a range of opportunities to develop their speaking and listening skills through role play, drama, debate and discussion. Before beginning their writing, pupils plan their text carefully and spend time orally rehearsing, ensuring that they are confident with the structure and language they will use. We place huge importance on editing work once finished, and at the end of each cycle, children will be supported by adults and peers to edit and redraft their work. Spelling and Grammar teaching is heavily embedded throughout our T4W sessions through mini activities and shared writing, but our children also benefit from an additional discrete grammar and spelling lesson each week.
Reading
Reading Curriculum Intent Statement
At Alderbrook we believe that reading is an essential life skill, both across the curriculum for education, but also as an integral part of a child’s understanding of themselves and the world around them. We are committed to encouraging our children to become lifelong readers, nurturing within them a love and confidence in reading which will support their opportunities in life. Access to a wide variety of fiction and information texts sparks their imagination and curiosity. This also develops cultural awareness, empathy for others and a broad and rich vocabulary, which they need to effectively express themselves.
Children are supported to be successful in reading across their journey through Primary School. From the foundations in systematic phonics teaching, to developing fluency and confidence in building comprehension. We deliver our own phonics curriculum through high quality teaching, to ensure children are taught to read fluently by the end of Key Stage 1. Our curriculum is systematic and progressive to ensure our children develop key phonics skills. Continuous provision in Early Years and Year 1 provides opportunity to use these skills in a wide range of contexts, giving children purpose and drive to read and write, which in turn develops their independence and tenacity as readers. Once they are fluent and confident readers, our curriculum is designed to provide key comprehension skills. Our progressive curriculum alongside high expectations for our children ensure they can become successful readers for their age and stage.
At the heart of our school is an ethos which fosters a love of reading for pleasure. This is beneficial not only for reading outcomes, but for wider learning enjoyment and children’s mental wellbeing. Through collaborative support at school, home and in the wider community our children can become confident, engaged and inspired readers.
Teaching of reading comprehension at Alderbrook
In years 2-6, Comprehension is taught discretely each day with a 30 minute session. We follow a cycle known as VIPERS, an anagram to aid the recall of the 6 reading domains as part of the national curriculum. Across two weeks, children will study a text extract at depth, first exploring the context at depth before being given the opportunity to practise a different core comprehension skill each day:
V=Vocabulary
I=Inference
P=Prediction
E=Explain
R=Retrieve
S=Summarise
Reading in Early Years and Year 1
Year 1 Reading Skills and Knowledge Map
Year 2 Reading Skills and Knowledge Map
Year 3 Reading Skills and Knowledge Map
Year 4 Reading Skills and Knowledge Map
Year 5 Reading Skills and Knowledge Map
Year 6 Reading Skills and Knowledge Map
At Alderbrook, we encourage a reading for pleasure ethos through daily story time. After lunch, Children have the opportunity to relax and listen to a story, read by their teacher from their class library collection of carefully selected texts.
Instagram