English...The Albourne Way
Promoting high standards of language and literacy.
English…The Albourne Way
INTENT
Everything we do at Albourne Church of England School is underpinned by our vision, The Albourne Way – living life to the full. Children in our school will achieve highly because our expectations for pupil outcomes are ambitious.
Our coherently planned and well sequenced curriculum, ‘Write… The Albourne Way’ offers targeted and exciting opportunities to challenge those working at Greater Depth, but is adaptive and flexible. It facilitates high levels of engagement and motivation enabling all children to make excellent progress from their starting points.
It is our belief that every child has the potential to be a writer. We believe that by being given inspiring texts and writing stimulus, the children will develop a genuine love of reading and writing, be able to express themselves articulately and creatively in words, both written and spoken, and be ready to successfully take on the challenges of their next steps in their learning journey; to live their life to the full.
IMPLEMENTATION
Write…The Albourne Way
At Albourne, we follow a skills based writing programme based on I’m a Clever Writer called Write…The Albourne Way.
Each year group has a set of skills they have to master to be a Y? Albourne Writer.
At the start of the week, teachers model a WAGOLL text (What a Good one looks like), which is based on the topic currently being studied. The WAGOLL contains writing skills that the children have learnt and 2 new skills to learn that week. The WAGOLL also contains Golden words, which enables the children to develop richer vocabulary.
During the week, the children master the 2 new skills and at the end of the week, write their own version of the WAGOLL.
During the lessons, adults will ‘live mark’ the children’s work, giving instant feedback for them to improve their writing.
Every term, the children spend a week entering The Albourne Writers’ Awards. This is an opportunity for them to use the writing skills learned in a piece of their own choice, based on their topic.
This gives the more independent children chance to show what they can do independently and the teacher opportunities to work with some focussed groups.
At the end of this 2 children from each class are awarded a special certificate and 1 child from KS2 and KS1 is awarded a trophy. They then keep the trophy for half a term before the next Albourne Writers’ Awards. Their name is then etched on the trophy, culminating in a legacy of Albourne Writers to aspire to.
Read…The Albourne Way
INTENT
Learning to read is one of the most important things a child will learn at school. At Albourne, we recognise that reading is integral to a child’s understanding and appreciation of the world around them. It is therefore necessary that we provide a platform whereby children are given all the tools needed to become a successful reader. They need to be able to see beyond what they know, share cultural experiences and expand their vocabulary in order to express themselves effectively. It is our belief that every child has the potential to be a good reader.
Implementation
At Albourne, we use the Read, Write, Inc. scheme to teach phonics and reading. Please see RWI policy.
In KS2, we use a whole class guided reading approach that follows a structured layout each week. Day 1 is all about learning new vocabulary that will come up in the book that week. Day 2 is a chance for the children to listen to the chapter, which is read to them by an adult who models good pace, expression and intonation. Day 3 and 4 are focused on comprehension based questions. Day 5 is a chance for Year 3 and 4 to go some group reading and Year 5 and 6 to do 1:1 reading.
Phonics…The Albourne Way
INTENT
At Albourne Church of England School we are passionate about empowering all learners to become accomplished and confident readers and writers. We know that the systematic teaching of synthetic phonics provides an essential foundation of knowledge, enabling the children to develop into fluent readers and writers from the very start of their educational journey with us.
We believe that reading is the route to success across the curriculum and we endeavour to instil a passion for reading and enjoyment of storytelling. Our classrooms are literature rich and allow the children to become immersed in the world of stories, as well as being in awe of the natural world and other fascinating history and research, through non-fiction texts.
Our children make a strong start from Reception, through daily phonics sessions, which include elements of reading and writing. Setting high expectations from the offset, highlights the importance of this curriculum area and paves the way for every child to become a great reader. Children who are successful readers and have positive experiences of learning to read, are likely to be successful in other areas of learning and their lives beyond school.
IMPLEMENTATION
We follow the Ruth Miskin’s ‘Read Write Inc Phonics and Early Reading Programme.’ It facilitates high levels of engagement and motivation enabling all children to make excellent progress from their starting points. Following Read Write Inc, the children learn to read accurately and fluently with good comprehension. Throughout the programme, children learn the English alphabetic code: the 150+ graphemes that represent 44 speech sounds. Effective teaching of this programme allows our children to rapidly learn sounds and the letter, or groups of letters that represent them. Our phonics teaching and learning is progressive from EYFS up to Year 2 and is taught systematically and daily. The children are assessed regularly and taught in small, differentiated groups using resources and books closely matched to their individual knowledge of phonics and whole words. This means that right from the beginning, they experience plenty of success and become increasingly fluent and accurate readers.
Our approach is adaptive and flexible to ensure that
Learning Environment for Read Write Inc…
