Subjects
Intent
At Barry Primary School, we value reading as a key life skill, and therefore it is our priority to teach every child to read. It is our intention to ensure that by the end of their primary education, all pupils are able to read fluently and with confidence in any subject so that they are prepared for their forthcoming secondary education. We strive for all of our pupils to achieve a love of reading and cultivate independent thinkers who understand more about the world in which they live through the knowledge they gain from texts. Reading is at the heart of our curriculum.
We intend for all of our pupils in KS1 to achieve the expected standard in Phonics. Developing early phonics skills is of high importance to us to ensure that children can decode texts from an early age -learning to read but more importantly reading to learn. We also intend for all of our children across school to achieve the expected standard by teaching reading and comprehension so that they can read with fluency, accuracy and understanding. We feel it is important to inspire an interest in words and what they mean to enable children to develop an increasing oral and written vocabulary.
We foster a home-school partnership, which encourages parents to read at home with their child. We invite parents to regular sessions which provides parents with support on how to get the most out of reading at home with their child.
Implementation
Phonics
We follow the Little Wandle’s Letters and Sounds SSP programme. Daily lessons take place for a duration of 25-30 minutes in the morning from Reception to Year 2. A catch-up session is taught in the afternoon to ensure that sounds are retained and applied to reading. Nursery also implement phase 1 and 2 activities within the setting. In EYFS, there is a focus on sharing stories, rhymes and songs every day. Phonics is used throughout school to support all readers and these skills are reinforced across all areas of the curriculum. Phonics intervention is used to support children across school where deemed necessary.
Phonics lessons follow a four-part whole class teaching sequence: Review, Teach, Practise and Apply. Pure sounds are taught alongside the correct use of vocabulary; phoneme, digraph, segment, blend. Sound talk is used to segment a word and blending enables a word to be read. Sound fingers are used to spell.
We use Big Cat Phonics reading books which follow the Little Wandle’s Letters and Sounds phonics programme. Pupils are given a reading book that is matched to their phonic ability up to Phase 6. This is based on the child’s phonic assessment. In EYFS and KS1 children read to a member of staff twice each week and they have a book change during this time. KS2 children are responsible for changing their Accelerated Reading book on a regular basis and are heard read at least once a fortnight. Children are heard additionally where the need is felt. They are quizzed after each completed book on comprehension based questions. Teachers use these AR assessments to plan lessons and interventions. Interventions are delivered by our Teaching Assistants four times a week.
Reading lessons
At Barry Primary, we teach reading skills in a whole class setting. In EYFS and KS1 this is sometimes as a group or whole class. This is to ensure that all children are challenged, read more regularly and are exposed to quality texts and teacher led discussions. Through this, children have access to a wider range of vocabulary and grammar.
Throughout school, reading skills are modelled, discussed and made explicit to ensure children know that there is more to reading than just decoding words. There is clear progression across school as our 'Book Talk' focus on the National Curriculum expectations which include the VIPERS. Across school, children will have a minimum of three twenty to thirty minute 'Book Talk' sessions each week. Floor books are used to record the children’s responses from EYFS-Year 3. Year 3 to 6 pupils record their work in their English book.
Reading for pleasure
Reading for pleasure is so important at Barry Primary School. Each class has an area that promotes a love of reading and books, children are given time to read and a class story is shared every day. Books are also shared across the curriculum. These pleasure texts are chosen based on topics and children’s interests. Reception and KS1 have Reading Bears and KS2 collect stickers every time they read a book and these equate to prizes.
Reading At Home
As a school we actively promote reading at home. All children are expected to bring in their reading book and reading record every day. Teachers are responsible for checking who is reading regularly at home and acting upon this as appropriate. Children receive a house point and/or sticker for reading at home at least 4 times a week, managed by the class teacher.
Impact
Children enjoy reading and they are confident readers. Children are able to talk about books and make links to every day life. Phonics is assessed regularly and outcomes are shown through the Phonics Screening Check at the end of Year 1 and Year 2. Ongoing teacher assessment and Star Reader is used to assess pupils understanding of texts and vocabulary.
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Intent
At Barry Primary our writing curriculum is designed to teach writing through a range of stimuli, including texts, visual prompts and meaningful real-life and first-hand experiences which will excite and engage the pupils. Our curriculum will:
- Before writing independently, children will immerse themselves in experiences and discussions which will generate rich vocabulary that will be applied in their writing pieces.
- Provide exciting opportunities to develop and apply writing skills across the curriculum, creating inspiring writing pieces in all areas of the curriculum
- Teach spellings in a progressive way allowing children to learn spelling rules, exceptions and irregular spellings and apply this to their writing.
- Teach a handwriting scheme which will develop legibility and fluidity and to encourage all children to take pride in the presentation of their work, regardless of discipline.
- Enable pupils to have ownership of their writing by reflecting to edit and revise.
Implementation
At Barry Primary our writing curriculum is based on the use of high-quality texts. We expose the children to a range of both fiction and non-fiction and immerse them in real life experiences, in order to capture their interests and motivate them to write for a range of purposes.
Our writing opportunities will be meaningful, purposeful and the audience will be clear. High quality texts and visuals offer this opportunity: children have real reasons to write, whether to explain, persuade, inform, instruct and entertain. Where possible, we will link writing to the curriculum focus for that term. During their time at Barry Primary children will read and write a variety of fiction and non-fiction texts, including recounts, news reports, explanation texts, poems, plays and a range of narratives. Through the use of active learning opportunities such as: drama, role-play, storytelling and discussion, we explore rich vocabulary which enables the children to develop sentence level work and creative writing.
We teach English as whole class lessons, using the Chris Quigley Essentials Writing Characteristics to ensure the objectives are age-related and progressive throughout. At Barry Primary we work together to provide support for all pupils to enable them to reach the age-related expectation wherever possible. This will involve the use of high quality modelled and shared writing, word banks and scaffolded support. Pupils are encouraged to reflect on their writing in order to reach their full potential. This is through self and peer-reflection, suggesting ways in which they can edit and improve their work.
Impact
The assessment of writing is ongoing throughout every lesson and cross curricular links provide teachers with opportunities to assess children’s independent writing for a range of purposes. Pupils will make good progress from their own personal starting points. Teachers provide the children with ongoing feedback during the lesson personalised to their learning journey, this should give pupils a clear understanding of their next steps and always encourage them to edit and improve their writing. Teachers and leaders use the writing progression document to inform assessments through a moderation process. In addition, pupil voice is used to enable leaders to assess the impact of writing across all areas of the curriculum.
At the end of their time at Barry Primary children will:
- Be provided with the skills necessary to become confident and motivated writers as they move onto their next learning journey.
- Be equipped with a broad range of vocabulary, a firm understanding of grammar and be able to spell new words by effectively applying the spelling patterns and rules.
- Write clearly and coherently across a range of genres applying skills that they have been taught, keeping in consideration the audience and purpose of the writing piece.
- Take pride in their presentation and develop a clear, legible and cursive handwriting style.
Handwriting
At Barry Primary School presentation and handwriting are given a high priority. It is an expectation that all children should have high aspirations when writing and this should be present in books and on displays.
We use the Twinkl font in EYFS and KS1 and the Twinkl unlooped cursive in KS2. The children follow the formation of these fonts and begin joining in KS2. This scheme provides a consistent approach to handwriting for the whole school and offers clear progression from KS1 through to KS2. Handwriting is taught a minimum of three times a week at the beginning of English lessons and teachers follow the Barry Primary Expectations document which details how handwriting should be taught and ensures progression. Lessons follow the same structure, a warm up, clear modelling by the teacher, an opportunity to practice the letters or join and apply it to words or in sentences as appropriate.
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Intent
When teaching Mathematics at Barry Primary School, we intend to provide a curriculum which caters for the needs of all individuals and sets them up with the necessary skills and knowledge for them to become successful in their future adventures. We aim to prepare them for a positive working life. We incorporate sustained levels of challenge through varied and high-quality activities with a focus on fluency, reasoning and problem solving.
We intend for our children to explore Maths in depth, using mathematical vocabulary to reason and explain their workings as well as stem sentence to broaden their understanding. Our expectation is for them to explain their choice of methods and develop their mathematical reasoning skills. We encourage resilience, adaptability and acceptance that struggle is often a necessary step in learning. At Barry, the curriculum allows children to better make sense of the world around them relating the pattern between mathematics and everyday life.
Implementation
At Barry Primary School, we use White Rose to implement our curriculum through the CPA (Concrete, Pictorial, Abstract) approach. Children have the opportunity to use concrete resources and are taught to apply these methods to pictorial and abstract problems. We follow a Teaching for Mastery curriculum and believe that high expectations are crucial – teachers believe that all children can achieve regardless of ability. This involves carefully planned, small, coherent steps that are achievable.
We differentiate through depth rather than accelerating through content, encouraging our pupils to access challenges at their level when working independently, as well as when being supported in order to achieve their full potential. Our children are required to reason mathematically and are offered opportunities to work on key ideas and learning that encourages intelligent practice. This is fostered by drawing children’s attention to important features and structures of Mathematics and by making connections through lessons that incorporate procedural variation (by varying numbers or unknowns, strategies or problems) and conceptual variation (by varying the representations given to support children’s understanding).
Impact
Children become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication. Outcomes in books, Seesaw and the working wall evidence a opportunities for mathematical thinking in a fun and engaging way. Maths is assessed through a combination of Star assessments, teacher judgements and Whiterose end of unit assessment.
Creativity
Maths allows our learners to prompt investigations and problem-solving skills through patterns. Our curriculum provides opportunities for mathematical thinking through all four aspects of mathematical learning.
Aspiration
Maths will inform children about the world in which they live and concepts they will see and apply throughout everyday life. Our ambition is to inspire our pupils to become strong, mathematical thinkers.
Respect
Understanding the wider world will allow children to gain respect for the value of the concept of number including: money, time and units of measurement.
Enjoyment
Enjoyment is found in Maths through perseverance and growth in confidence enabling you to finally solve a problem which initially seemed impossible, keeping learning exciting. The challenge in Maths is unexpected and something children can look forward to.
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