Our intent is that, at whichever point children are when they arrive in our classrooms, they are given the support they need to achieve the communication goals necessary to be successful.

Through an Oracy approach, we aim to have all children speaking their thoughts in respectful, reasoned arguments, with enthusiasm and intelligence to strengthen their beliefs or opinions.

Through Grammar, we aim to give our children the inside knowledge of the words they are using, so that they can make informed choices about how they can use them in the most effective way.

Through Spelling and Phonics, we intend to give our children as much automaticity in their writing as possible, and so they can make clever choices based on etymology and phonics when they are not sure. It is important to us at Bluecoats that a child’s love of writing is not injured by criticism of mistakes. We teach the children to fix mistakes after they have written what they want to say.

Through Reading, our intention is that children develop their vocabulary as much as possible by exposure to  varied and stimulating texts, through scaffolded independent reading, free choice independent reading and from being read to. Our children will learn from this vocab and have a wider range to choose from when they are using their own voice, written or spoken.

Through Writing, children will be able to express themselves and share information in a confident way because they have received a wealth of shared writing in their daily lessons.

Through Handwriting, our aim is that all children will be proud of their writing as they follow the Bluecoat script, and express their individuality after they have learnt the correct formation of the letters.

Oracy  - Teachers use the Oracy Project assessment document to determine whether there are any children in the class who are working above or below the expectations for the year group.

Grammar - teachers to work from the National Curriculum Appendix (G App) and build it into their ‘in the moment’ teaching on a daily basis so that the children become automatic with their use of the  word terminology.

Phonics - Children learn through Floppy’s Phonics.

Spelling - Children learn through the No Nonsense Spelling programme.

Reading -Children follow the Floppy’s Phonic schemes until they reach the end of the programme.

When they have finished, children will receive a transitional time of reading with an adult in a group, and when they are ready, will move on to Accelerated Reader. This ensures a smooth transition from Phonics to independent reading.

Children are able to express themselves in writing, through a range of genres and topics, with a vocabulary that has been heightened and inspired by the shared writing in daily English sessions. This is monitored through the Devon County Writing EGGs and success criteria established during the Writing block.

Children are able to make attempts through phonics and spelling rules to enable their writing to be easily read and understood by the reader. This is also monitored through teacher’s formative assessment, through phonics assessments, through No Nonsense spelling assessment lessons and through the Writing EGGs.

Children are able to read a book at identified level successfully, and make good progress to the age expected level through daily reading and close teacher formative assessment. Benchmarking using the PM assessment is used to move children up book bands for daily reading. Accelerated Reader is used to move children towards books that match their individual levels based on their knowledge and understanding of vocabulary, as well as their ability to apply vocabulary strategies.

Children are able to demonstrate their natural enthusiasm for reading by discussing the books they have read/shared/listened to in the past.

Children are able to discuss many of the grammatical features for their age group, and why those features would be useful in reading and writing. These are monitored by teachers using the Appendix 2 of the National framework.

English Lead, Team Leaders SLT monitor lessons and books. Colleagues also get the opportunity to watch each other teach, whilst having regular opportunities to examine each other’s books.