English

Reading

Reading is embedded in our day-to-day practice at Southwater Junior Academy as it is a fundamental skill that equips pupils for life. Through reading, pupils have the chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. Literature, in particular, plays a key role in such development. Reading also enables pupils to acquire knowledge and build on what they already know.

At SJA, we embed an enjoyment for reading and promote reading for pleasure. We know that it is important that children are given the opportunity to behave as ‘readers’ and they are encouraged and supported to develop positive attitudes towards reading. When pupils join us at SJA, we quickly identify students who require additional support with their decoding through our phonics scheme: Essential Letters and Sounds. These pupils receive specialist interventions whilst all pupils are exposed to opportunities in day-to-day lessons to embed, use and apply their existing phonetical awareness to both reading and writing.

Whole class reading comprehension is delivered throughout the week across the school. These lessons provide pupils with the opportunity to develop their fluency by reading aloud as well as develop their questioning, predicting, summarising, visualising, clarifying and inference skills. At SJA, we use Accelerated Reader which is a highly motivational reading programme used throughout our school, from Year 3 to Year 6. Online Star reading assessments are used as a baseline and termly thereafter to assess and monitor pupil progress. Star assessments provide each child with a personalised selection of books from which they can choose from our well-stocked library. These books are are appropriately supportive and challenging, and they enable children to build on their reading skills. We believe that through reading, pupils will acquire a broader knowledge of vocabulary as well as a better understanding of grammar whilst gaining enjoyment from a range of different text types. We are dedicated to providing children with a range of high quality texts covering broad scope of genres to inspire a life-long love for reading.

Writing

At Southwater Junior Academy, all members of the school community think of themselves as authors, because we know and understand that writing has a prominent place in education and in society.

We aim to equip our learners with the knowledge and skills that enable them to become fluent and confident communicators of language. We provide our pupils with the tools and experiences to express themselves articulately both through spoken and written English. We believe that it is important that children are given the opportunity to behave as ‘writers’ and are encouraged to share, develop and value each other’s ideas and achievements.

We recognise the intrinsic links between reading and writing, and in many cases, writing units are planned around carefully selected, high-quality texts. Other writing units are planned to incorporate topic links, where pupils are able to use their existing knowledge and cultural capital to inspire high quality writing. It is our intent that pupils understand the social functions of writing in order to write for a variety of genres appropriately; therefore, audience, purpose and degree of formality is carefully considered at the start of each writing unit.

At SJA, we provide our pupils with a progressive understanding of grammar conventions, the way in which punctuation aids understanding for the reader, and how to apply spelling rules to further enhance writing outcomes. Opportunities for collaborative learning, classroom talk and oral rehearsal are carefully planned for in order to support all learners to become successful communicators of the English language. We believe that the skills of language are essential to participating fully as a member of society; therefore, through our curriculum offer, we hope to develop children who can effectively and articulately communicate, both verbally and through their writing.

Oracy

Oracy is the ability to articulate ideas, develop understanding and engage with others through spoken language. At SJA we develop oracy through a wide range of approaches such as collaborative learning, dialogic classrooms and oral rehearsal. Oracy skills underpin all areas of the curriculum and it is vital that children learn to communicate verbally, listen to others and respond appropriately. Dialogic approaches encourage the children to build on others' ideas, link thoughts together and agree and disagree in a debate or discussion. A talk-based curriculum supports the optimisation of children's cognitive load, can enhance self-esteem and self-confidence and have particular benefits for those children who have SEND or are from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Spelling

At SJA, we have created a bespoke spelling system, designed to provide the children with the skills and knowledge they require to spell familiar and unfamiliar words. Phonics is at the core of the system, building on the work completed in reception and at KS1. The scheme starts in Year 3 and is deliberately repetitive

Spelling at SJA is not just a homework activity, but instead, it is taught each day through a menu of activities that focus on phonics, spelling rules, morphology and etymology. We utilize low-stakes quizzing and whiteboards as well as combining spelling and handwriting practice. Words in spelling lists are deliberately repeated within and across school year groups to allow children to revisit learning and to explore different sounds within the same words. Throughout the school day, the skills practiced are brought together in our ‘spelling toolkit’, which bridges the gap between spelling, reading and writing. With further links to reading and writing in all subjects, SJA spelling sessions are also a vehicle for daily exposure to high-quality tier 2 vocabulary: words that contain maximum leverage when used across different curriculum areas. The end-of-the-week spelling quiz is a ‘check-in’ on the children’s learning rather than an end in itself as our ultimate goal is for the children to increase their confidence and ability with spelling when writing.

Please click here to view the DfE Statutory Spelling Lists for Years 3 and 4 and Years 5 and 6