1. English at Amesbury archer
Our Learning Café – Holly Hawkins and Claire Murphy

2. What will you find out ABOUT today?
The importance of reading
Phonics
Writing at Amesbury Archer
Spelling progression
SEN provision
SATs

3. The Importance of Reading
We believe that reading is the foundation to all learning. First of all, children learn to read and then they can begin to read to learn. It is vital for enabling children to progress with their writing, maths and all foundation subjects.
Just think, if children learn 10 words a day, that’s 3650 a year and 25,550 over their time at primary school. Lots of these will come from discussions about books (whether it’s a picture book in reception or a novel in year 6) so please read as often as possible at home, if not daily.

4. Benchmarking Reading
At school, we benchmark children’s reading to help provide targeted reading books. Sometimes children sound fluent but their comprehension does not match – always talk to children and ask questions about their reading.
We also appreciate the importance of reading for pleasure and love to hear about any other reading you do!

5. Guided Reading
We teach whole class Guided Reading, which is based on a quality text that is read in class.
Teaching follows a similar style in all class with the same symbols and similar (but progressive) questioning across the school.
This develops children’s ability to find facts within the text, make inferences and further develop their vocabulary.
Further up the school, children need to begin providing ‘reasoned justification’ for their views – can they explain what they think with evidence from the text?

6. Phonics
Children are taught to read through the use of Systematic Synthetic Phonics
This is a progressive system where children begin learning the basic letters (graphemes) and sounds (phonemes) – beginning s, a, t, p, i, n
It moves on to cover all the digraphs (two-letter sounds e.g. ch or sh), trigraphs (three-letters e.g. igh) and various sounds for each letter combination (e.g. oo/oo)
You don’t need to know all the technical terms; just looking at the spelling patterns and talking about what you notice can be really helpful

7. Writing at Amesbury Archer
We are now a Talk for Writing school 
This is a style of writing where children imitate, innovate and then invent writing based on a short model text
Imitation – children learn a text with the help of a story map and actions as well as drama and discussion linked to the theme. The text is pulled apart to identify themes and features (both text and linguistic) and toolkits are created. Lessons focus on developing key skills through short burst writing.

8. Writing at Amesbury Archer
Innovation – children rewrite their own version of the model text in a similar style to the one they have learned, with further teaching and support in lessons
Invention – children are given the freedom to invent their own texts and show off everything they have learned!
We bookend these units with cold and hot (invention) tasks to help us target planning and to enable us and the children to see the great progress they have made.
Fiction and non-fiction genres are covered with an aim to teach two per term and cover a full range of text types over children’s primary education

9. Spelling Progression
We use No Nonsense to support teaching of spelling
This is a progressive system, which covers all the spelling patterns listed in the National Curriculum
There are also statutory words for each Key Stage
We try to link homework to the lessons taught in class and to differentiate where appropriate
Barrington Stoke or ACE dictionaries can also be used to support children in class
We encourage joined handwriting to help children’s muscle memory in learning to spell. It is also a requirement at the expected level for the end of year 6

10. SEN Provision
We do our best to support all children’s needs through the use of:
Differentiated adult support in class
Targeted homework
Class Provision maps
GRSS documents
Use of Clicker
Coloured overlays or paper
Interventions
Additional reading opportunities
Barrington Stoke/ACE dictionaries

11. KS1 SATs
KS1 SATs are called ‘Pick ‘n’ Mix’ in Key Stage 1 to limit the pressure children feel
They can be undertaken throughout the month of May in small groups, whole class or 1:1 situations
There are two tests for reading of increasing difficulty
There is an optional Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling test, which we choose to use as a benchmark where possible

12. KS2 SATs - GPS
Key Stage 2 SATs take place each year on specific dates in early May.
The Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling test consists of two papers: one 45-minute paper of 50 questions assessing children’s understanding of grammar and punctuation and another 20-question spelling paper.
The GPS paper is mostly multiple choice and covers a range of punctuation skills taught over the whole of KS2
The spelling paper focuses on the spelling patterns children should learn (as dictated by the National Curriculum)
38/70 was expected in 2018 and 56/70 greater depth

13. KS2 SATs - Reading This is a one hour test worth 50 marks.
Children have three texts to read and answer questions to demonstrate their inference skills, ability to retrieve facts and understanding of the meaning of words.
They may also be asked to summarise part of a text, order events, identify facts or opinion and explain their thoughts or impressions.
Results are given as a raw score and a scaled score with 100 being the expected level. Last year, a score of 28/50 was expected and 40/50 demonstrated a greater depth of understanding.

14. Thank You Thank you very much for coming!
We hope this has been useful and informative 
Around the room, you can find stalls covering each of the areas we have discussed along with examples, resources that may support learning and examples of work.
Please feel free to have a browse and ask any questions if you would like further clarification or advice.