Literacy - Our Curriculum
At Probus school we offer some subjects discretely and some in a cross –curricular topic themes to help pupils make connections across their learning and create a stimulating collection of experience that give coherence about one main theme. Pupils can locate the learning with a particular project and within this area aspects are explored with depth for progression in skills and knowledge. The curriculum content follows the national curriculum for England as its basis with further development relating to the school drivers.
Each topic has a large emphasis on developing vocabulary and accessing high quality texts. Reading development is embedded throughout the programmes and commences with a high quality phonics programme (Little Wandle) and Wellcom language programme.
Access to the full offer is of paramount importance for all pupils. The experienced SENDCo advises on adaptations for pupils with needs and pupils have individual support plans to enable inclusion.
Our curriculum offer is constantly under review and to that end Probus school has yearly drivers, which all staff consider in the planning stage, and also senior staff embed in wider school experiences. The sequencing of learning and the areas to be covered are always under reflection. Teachers are expected to be responsive in delivery.
English ~ Writing
At Probus our aim is that every child enjoys the writing process. By the end of Year 6, the children should understand that as authors, they are in control and can use subtle edits to have a greater impact on their audience. As well as this, they can write in a manner which is clear, grammatically correct and they can show awareness of their audience (ready for their next journey to secondary school).
As writing is a key life skill, we promote daily writing opportunities so that children can successfully write for a range of audiences and purposes.
Our curriculum planning focuses on writing for 4 main purposes: writing to inform, writing to entertain, writing to persuade and writing to discuss. We believe that focusing on these 4 writing purposes allows the children to focus on the common threads within each area. At the beginning of the year, the children go back to basics and use Grammarsaurus’ Place Value for Punctuation to increase their knowledge of grammar, punctuation and sentence structure before writing to inform. The other purposes have been carefully mapped out for coverage of purposes as well as making links to topic areas where possible.
At Probus, we are aware of a broad and balanced curriculum and cognitive overload. Writing for 4 purposes further supports our commitment for this – during each half term, classes have carefully mapped out their purposes to ensure coverage. If they were writing to inform, the children will be immersed in the purpose before looking at the text type and produce a piece of independent writing. When they come to the second writing opportunity, the purpose will not change so they can discuss which elements from their previous success criteria will be the same and which ones will not be so important. These deep discussions allow all children to become critical-thinking authors.
In KS1, children will be writing to entertain and inform.
In LKS2, children will be writing to entertain, inform and persuade.
In UKS2, children will be writing to entertain, inform, persuade and discuss.
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Writing to inform – information texts are designed to explain ideas. Children will learn through their journey at Probus that images, labels, lists, headings and a glossary can help to create an effective information text.
Writing to entertain means creating stories, poems, or descriptions that are fun and enjoyable to read. The goal is to make the reader smile, laugh, or feel excited – or feel any emotion!
Writing to persuade - Writing to persuade means trying to convince the reader to believe something or to do something. The goal is to change the reader's mind or actions. Children will learn this can be done successfully with a few words, images and slogans or it can be seen in a detailed speech.
Writing to discuss - Writing to discuss means exploring and presenting different ideas and viewpoints about a topic. The goal is to think about and show various sides of an issue, often without taking a firm stance. This type of writing helps the reader understand the different aspects and opinions related to the subject.
By the end of Year 6, children will be able to discuss how some text types can fit into different purposes, e.g. a diary entry could be to entertain as well as to inform. However, the children will have learned that if it was a diary entry in a writing to inform unit, they would need to use some different devices to ensure the diary was informative.
The text types are balanced across the yearly writing programme and progressive over the whole school programme with a clear progression of grammar.
How we Teach Writing
In the Early years we focus on developing mark making skills, pencil grip and letter formation using the Little Wandle scheme. Transcription of phonically decodable sentences begins in reception and develops across key stage one. The “grow the code” resources are used throughout the school to assist independence in writing for spellings, alongside word banks, dictionaries and other writing aids.
At Probus School, we teach writing using a variety of strategies to inspire our children's work. We take principles from the Talk for Writing philosophy, as laid out by Pie Corbett, and combine these with other techniques and ideas. If children can speak their sentence, they are much more likely to be in a position to write well. Children use drama and text-interrogation techniques, as well as spending time unpicking the technical features of the text type and investigating language and structure, using quality written models we call Wagolls (what a good one looks like). Teachers also use Wabolls (what a bad one looks like) to aloe children to successfully find errors. Wabolls tend to be as a result of adaptive teaching – if the class are struggling with commas, the teacher may decide to use fronted adverbials to help aide discussions in class and embed the learning.
At Probus literacy lessons journey has a specific structure
1) Diagnostic task (preferably completed before the beginning of the unit so the teacher can adapt the lessons to support their class.)
2) Text deconstruction. Immerse the children in the purpose and text type. Lots of opportunities to discuss
3) Contextualised construction – Children to imitate/innovate specific features that are required: specific vocabulary (identify words from the year group spelling mats), grammar and punctuation devices.
4) Independent writing – Children to be given another task where they can use the success criteria
5) Editing – Children are always encouraged to edit their ideas
Our children are provided with opportunities to access key vocabulary and context for writing with the selection of relevant VIPERs material and quality texts relevant to the topic of study. This is to provide insight into the context and language required to reduce cognitive overload for writing. Teachers think carefully about the writing opportunities they offer across the curriculum so they reinforce the focus on audience and purpose. What is our context, who are we writing for, for what reason?
Our children are encouraged to edit and redraft their work, using a range of tools to support them.
Assessment is both formative and summative, with children being given a combination of written and verbal feedback to inform their improvements and next steps. Teachers will assess children's writing against the objectives of the National Curriculum and use these to inform their planning for each written topic.
Literacy can't be taught in a vacuum: the children need a variety of texts and contexts to work on and these are drawn from the topic or other curriculum area such as geography or science. In key stage two our topics are primarily history and this reduces cognitive load, immerses pupils in their learning and helps develop a depth of experience and vocabulary.
As history is above all the study of the human condition, it provides us with endless opportunities for fostering children's personal development. In all cross-curricular topics, the history provides an ideal context for extending children's literacy, in speaking and listening, reading and writing.
Language is at the heart of both English and history: both are reading subjects. Speaking and listening, discussion and debate are central to both. Both explore people's feelings, conditions, motives, relationships. Both are concerned with the questioning and interpretation of texts of various kinds, including objects and images.
Research evidence
Intertwining history and literacy teaching also engages and motivates children.
Several research studies (by Guzzetti et al, 1992; Levstik, 1990; Smith, 1993) have found that children are more motivated to learn, and learn better, when their history lessons include literature in the form of historical fiction.
Similarly, Cottingham and Daborn (2000) found that secondary pupils who were taught history integrated with literacy were more successful in their learning. This is because the literacy activities such as writing frames and DARTS (Directed Activities Related to Text) gave them a conceptual model for understanding texts. In primary schools, Nuffield teachers' action research confirms what these studies tell us.
Reducing cognitive load
What’s more, careful selection of high-quality texts in your English teaching to tie in with a particular theme or topic you may be covering in, say, History or Geography can reduce the cognitive load on pupils by allowing them the opportunity to immerse themselves in the world of the text through their English sessions. Knowledge can be mutually reinforcing
Students have more opportunities for interleaved and spaced retrieval practice in cross curricular learning =When retrieving knowledge across subjects and across year groups, it becomes spaced and therefore more powerful. When retrieving it across subjects there are also more opportunities for interleaving, where students are required to more meaningfully choose which knowledge or part of their understanding that they need to deploy (Agarwal and Bain, 2019).
Spelling
Spelling is taught discretely throughout the whole school, and is reinforced in all subjects too. In Foundation Stage and Key Stage One, the children’s spelling lists follow their phonic knowledge to reinforce and embed this. Moving on from Little Wandle phonics, children follow the Jane Constantine programme which allows the children to explore words – morphology. Children become independent learners – tracking parts of the word that they find tricky before thinking of ways to help them remember.
Grammar
We teach Grammar in a variety of ways. In the Autumn term each year group commences with the Place value for grammar element of the Grammarsaurus programme which ensures consistency of approach and a revisiting of the basics in preparation for compositional explorations. Each unit for writing has specific grammar focus which is progressive through out the curriculum.
Handwriting
Mark making and Nursery
Handwriting is part of our daily lives. Time devoted to the teaching and learning of letter formation in the early years is prioritised. We make sure that our children have lots of opportunities to develop their core strength, so supporting the development of gross, then fine, motor skills. The principal aim is that handwriting becomes an automatic process, which frees pupils to focus on the content of their writing.
Our handwriting begins with using Little Wandle formations before we demonstrate joins. Line guides are used to help children with their sizing.
English - Oracy
High-quality classroom talk is essential to pupils’ thinking and learning. It is also linked to improvements in reading and writing, and overall attainment (National Literacy Trust).
At Probus we aim to provide our children with the ability to articulate ideas, develop understanding and engage with others through spoken language. In school, oracy is a powerful tool for learning; by teaching our children to become more effective speakers and listeners we empower them to better understand themselves, each other and the world around them. These oracy opportunities are planned, designed, modelled, scaffolded and structured to enable our children to learn the skills needed to talk and listen effectively.
