Primary School English

English in the Primary Department:

At Newfield School we believe that Literacy is a fundamental life skill. Staff work had to support pupils in their development and understanding of the spoken and written word. It is our intention to immerse pupils in the wonders of quality texts to instil a love for reading, a passion for discovery and a confidence to explore their imagination through our book-Led curriculum. Teachers plan fun and dynamic lessons in order to support our student’s English development. All pupils are given termly specific targets and intervention is planned for any students who are not making progress.

Reading and writing at Newfield:

This year in Newfield we have subscribed to the Literacy Tree and all classes in lower school are using this to base around their English work. The Literacy Tree provides complete coverage of all National Curriculum expectations for writing, grammar, punctuation and vocabulary, as well as coverage of spelling, phonics and reading comprehension.

Every class has chosen at least one story per term which they read together as a class and then complete the planned scheme of work. Teachers adapt the Literacy Tree planning sequences as appropriate to their classes and differentiate to the particular needs of each child.

Reading these books together as a class not only builds a reading culture throughout the school but our final aim, is that the children have real reasons to write. Reading these books offer the pupils this opportunity to write, whether to explain, persuade, inform or instruct. We intend for pupils’ to be able to plan, revise and evaluate their writing. To be able to do this effectively, pupils’ will understand and apply the fundamental principles of spelling, grammar and punctuation in their writing.

Our curriculum progresses from a love of reading to an understanding that reading allows them to discover new knowledge. We believe that through the book-led approach we have developed here at Newfield, pupils foster a love for reading and an interest in reading for pleasure.

Each class in KS2 now has a dedicated guided reading lesson every week. This now gives these pupils devoted time to build fluency, expand vocabulary knowledge and develop reading comprehension skills. Guided reading helps pupils to develop strategies to improve their reading and helps them to become independent readers. Every pupil in Newfield starts their day reading in class but this year, pupils have to read to an adult at least three times a week in the morning. The class teacher/teaching assistant can now spend some focused time with individual pupils allowing them to see how a pupils reading is progressing and what areas need developing.

Progress in reading assessments

For the first time this year we have also started to use progress in reading assessments. We are going to use these assessments twice in an academic year, at the beginning and the end. These assessments will allow us to closely measure and monitor the progress of each child from year to year. Using these assessments, we will be able to investigate the strengths and weaknesses of each pupil and lets us know their exact reading age. We will also use these assessments to set appropriate and meaningful reading interventions for pupils to maximise progress.

We are now using these standardised assessments for a number of reasons. Using these standardised assessments not only lets us know how our pupils are performing relative to pupils in other schools but they also let us know our school’s overall performance against other schools locally and nationally. The assessments give the pupils a number of scores that help us keep an eye on the pupils’ progress termly.

Standardised score- This is derived from the pupil’s raw score and placed on a scale that makes a comparison with the nationally representative sample of pupils. Standardised scores are useful for comparing the performance of one cohort with another.
Age Standardised score- This allows you to compare the performance of pupils against others of the same age. The benefit is that younger pupils in a class are not disadvantaged by better performance of older pupils in their year group.
Reading age- The reading age can be used as a quick indication of a child’s reading ability. It is useful for monitoring the impact of interventions.
Hodder Scale-The Hodder Scale is a decimal scale ranging from 0 to 6.0, which enables progress to be monitored term-by-term and year-by-year.
Reading Eggs

To help engage and develop a love for reading, we have subscribed to Reading Eggs. Reading Eggs is an educational online world where pupils can play and learn. Reading Eggs works to dramatically improve reading skills or to simply get pupils started with reading. Reading Eggs is more than a highly effective reading program – it's a completely interactive online world where pupils play games and complete fun storylines as they learn to read. Every pupil has their own unique login that tracks their progress and they can access it here in school and at home.

With over 512 games, rewards, and songs in the unique Reading Eggs world, pupils love the delightful stories and lovable characters. Pupils who are accessing Reading Eggs are more confident, motivated and excited about reading.

SUPPORT FOR LEARNING:

To support your learning at home and your overall curriculum, please have a look at the following for this subject. If you need any further support or advice remember you can email newfieldcontact@schools.sefton.gov.uk and staff will reply to you, or phone you, to help you further.

Keep up your good work - we are proud of you and are here to support you.