'There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they'll take you.'

Beatrix Potter

Curriculum Intent

The Mastery English curriculum at St Joseph’s follows the National Curriculum objectives for Years 1-6 and it’s pedagogy is firmly rooted in the belief that every child can succeed. Our approach to teaching English is based on the use of high quality children’s texts which are expertly used by inspirational, passionate teachers to produce children who can create exciting, technically skilled extended pieces of writing at the end of each unit. Every child has their own copy of the book with class texts being chosen to match the attainment of the most competent readers in the class, ensuring that the texts are engaging to all children. Pupils are encouraged to develop a love of reading through immersion into these high quality texts and reading comprehension skills and grammatical knowledge are taught in context to facilitate deep and meaningful learning. A model text based on a genre linked with the current class book ensures that each child has a model of excellence to work towards. Regular writing opportunities (linked to age appropriate writing skills) are embedded within a unit of work which culminates in an extended piece of writing. This allows class teachers to regularly assess children’s writing abilities and plan accordingly for future writing tasks.

National curriculum objectives and progression in writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation

The programmes of study for writing at key stages 1 and 2 are constructed similarly to those for reading:

• transcription (spelling and handwriting)

• composition (articulating ideas and structuring them in speech and writing)

It is essential that teaching develops pupils’ competence in these 2 dimensions. In addition, pupils should be taught how to plan, revise and evaluate their writing. These aspects of writing have been incorporated into the programmes of study for composition.

Writing down ideas fluently depends on effective transcription: that is, on spelling quickly and accurately through knowing the relationship between sounds and letters (phonics) and understanding the morphology (word structure) and orthography (spelling structure) of words. Effective composition involves articulating and communicating ideas, and then organising them coherently for a reader. This requires clarity, awareness of the audience, purpose and context, and an increasingly wide knowledge of vocabulary and grammar. Writing also depends on fluent, legible and, eventually, speedy handwriting.

Opportunities for teachers to enhance pupils’ vocabulary arise naturally from their reading and writing. As vocabulary increases, teachers should show pupils how to understand the relationships between words, how to understand nuances in meaning, and how to develop their understanding of, and ability to use, figurative language. They should also teach pupils how to work out and clarify the meanings of unknown words and words with more than 1 meaning. References to developing pupils’ vocabulary are also included in the appendices.

Pupils should be taught to control their speaking and writing consciously and to use Standard English. They should be taught to use the elements of spelling, grammar, punctuation and ‘language about language’ listed. This is not intended to constrain or restrict teachers’ creativity, but simply to provide the structure on which they can construct exciting lessons. A non-statutory glossary is provided for teachers.

Throughout the programmes of study, teachers should teach pupils the vocabulary they need to discuss their reading, writing and spoken language. It is important that pupils learn the correct grammatical terms in English and that these terms are integrated within teaching.

Mastery English Implementation:

The Mastery English curriculum at St Joseph’s follows the National Curriculum objectives for Years 1-6 and it’s pedagogy is firmly rooted in the belief that every pupil can succeed. Our approach to teaching English is based on the use of high quality texts, which are expertly used by inspirational, passionate teachers to produce pupils who can create exciting, technically skilled extended pieces of writing at the end of each unit.

Every pupil has their own copy of the book with class texts being chosen to match the attainment of the most competent readers in the class, ensuring that the texts are engaging to all pupils. Typically, a class text will last a term with pupils reading three texts over the course of a year. In KS1, shorter picture and chapter books are used meaning they will cover more than three texts across the year. Pupils are encouraged to develop a love of reading through immersion into these high quality texts and reading comprehension skills and grammatical knowledge are taught in context to facilitate deep and meaningful learning. A model text based on a genre linked with the current class book ensures that each pupil has a model of excellence to work towards. Regular writing opportunities (linked to age appropriate writing skills) are embedded within a unit of work which culminates in an extended piece of writing. This allows class teachers to regularly assess pupils’ writing abilities and plan accordingly for future writing tasks.

Each class text will link to approximately six units of writing. These cover a range of genres suitable to each year group, with progress of skills throughout the years. A typical unit of work is sequenced as so:

Day 1 - 2: Reading comprehension and familiarisation with the text

Day 3: Feature hunt based on model text genre

Day 4-6: Skills lessons linked with the grammatical and punctuation features of the genre type

Day 7: Planning session (optional)

Day 8: Extended writing session

Day 9: Edit and improve session

Day 10: White Gold Learning. This session is completed once per half term. Children write their extended writing (along with any amendments and improvements) in their best handwriting to then be displayed in class.

 Each Mastery English lesson, from Y1 – Y6, is provided in a six-part lesson structure. The Dimensions of Depth underpin the six-part lesson and each part provides opportunities to focus on conceptual understanding, language and communication and applying writing skills to a range of writing tasks.

Engage: This is a quick five-minute task that all pupils can access without any teacher input as an introduction to the English lesson. It will either be focused on the text or a SPAG objective.

New Learning: The New Learning segment introduces the lesson’s main English concepts, whether these are sentence structure, punctuation skills or simply reading a new section of the text.

Consider and Practise: This allows all children the opportunity to practise a new skill from the New Learning part of the lesson, or to have a go at a short reading task if it’s a comprehension lesson

Develop Learning: This segment builds on the New Learning and develops a deeper understanding of the English learning of that lesson. It also addresses misconceptions or inaccuracies discovered during the preceding segment.

Independent Task: The Independent Task provides pupils with the opportunity to practise the learning from that lesson. This work will be linked with the overall genre of the text type being studied and will either involve sentence work, paragraph writing or ‘chunking’ ready to include in an extended writing session.

Plenary: The Plenary segment recaps on the lesson, checking understanding and celebrating success.

The teaching of Handwriting

Here at St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School we are very proud of our pupil’s handwriting and take particular care in our cursive handwriting style. Handwriting is a basic skill that influences the quality of work throughout the curriculum. We aim to make handwriting an automatic process that does not interfere with creative and mental thinking. At the end of Key Stage 2 all pupils should have the ability to produce fluent, legible and, eventually, speedy joined-up handwriting, and to understand the different forms of handwriting used for different purposes. We use Letter-join as the basis of our handwriting policy that covers all the requirements of the 2014 National Curriculum.

Key stage 1 expectations:

• Write legibly using upper and lower case letters with correct joins and entry and exit flicks.

• Ensure that letters sit on the base-line and are consistent in size with ascenders and descenders that are the correct length and formation.

• Leave the correct space between words.

• Form capital letters and use where appropriate.

• Form numerals that are consistent in size and sit on the base-line.

• Begin to form printed letters and understand when they are to be used.

• Improve the speed of writing and begin to write automatically, promoting creativity in independent writing.

Key Stage 2 expectations:

To improve quality, speed and stamina of handwriting:

• Quality: Ensure letters are consistently sized with equal word spacing and that ascenders and descenders are parallel and do not touch words on the lines above and below. Use the joined cursive style appropriately.

• Speed: Improve speed of handwriting to allow creative writing to take precedence over the task of handwriting and be able to take ‘quick notes’ at a faster pace.

• Stamina: Have the strength and mobility to be able to write for longer periods of time without fatigue.