Broadfield Primary School

Through oracy we intend to develop children's speaking and listening skills, to make sure that they develop a rich and varied vocabulary, learn to listen attentively and speak clearly and confidently.

The aim is to improve children's levels of oracy so that they can express themselves clearly and be able to communicate effectively and confidently in front of any type of audience. We intend for oracy to be part of the school's pedagogy, not a discrete lesson but a thread running through the daily school life.

We know language development is an area of key importance for our children, which has an impact on all wider subjects. A key part of oracy is for children to think carefully about the language they’re using and tailor it to their subject, purpose and audience. We believe oracy to be fundamental in achieving success. Purposeful talk is used to drive forward learning, through talk in the classroom, which has been planned, designed, modelled, scaffolded and structured to enable all learners to develop the skills needed to talk effectively.

Implementation - How We Will Do This

We promote classrooms rich in talk, in which questions are planned, peer conversations are modelled and scaffolded and the teacher uses talk skilfully to develop thinking.

From EYFS to Year 6, children are given opportunities to develop their oracy skills and build their confidence in talk for formal and informal situations, both in and outside the classroom.

Our Oracy curriculum ensures that the children have an opportunity to practise a variety of types of talk and practise the skills needed for different oracy outcomes:

There are opportunities for children to develop their oracy skills outside the curriculum.

A range of purposeful opportunities are used to encourage learning through talk and learning to talk, including:

Children are immersed in a talk rich environment, this is evident in the displays around each classroom.

Our talk rich classrooms display: differentiated sentence stems, year group specific discussion guidelines, and an age appropriate progression document. Teachers maximise oracy opportunities in every lesson by using:discussion, grouping, oracy sequence, talk for stories, performance and many other strategies. As oracy is part of the daily life in school children know what to do, the culture of respect within our dialogic classrooms and are fully involved.

Progression statements from the Oracy Progression Map are used to monitor progress and attainment. Each year group has identified oracy objectives which build on and extend from the previous year ensuring progression as the children move through the school.

Impact

Children are able to speak fluently, with confidence and clarity, including talking in full sentences, in front of an audience. They use standard English.

Children express ideas through talk, speak clearly (using formal language, varying expression, tone and volume), listen carefully, contribute to discussion, respond to questions and comments and use a wide range of vocabulary.

Phonics

Intent - Our Aims

Our intent is to provide opportunities for children to develop as confident, articulate and well-rounded children who can succeed as individuals and contribute to their community and the wider world.

Early reading is identified as a key priority on our school improvement plan. Leaders monitor the provision of reading through learning walks in Literacy and Phonics session and the impact of this provision through the analysis of end of year cohort data (Phonics screening check and end of KS1 reading and individual pupil progress throughout the year (on going assessments).

We believe that for all our children to become fluent readers and writers, phonics must be taught through a systematic and structured phonics programme. Therefore, we have implemented the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised to plan and provide daily engaging phonics lessons. In phonics, we teach children that the letters of the alphabet represent a different sound, that these can be used in a variety of combinations and are put together to make words.

Using this programme, we are confident that:

grapheme/phoneme (letter/sound) correspondences are taught a clearly defined, incremental sequence;
we introduce children very early on to a defined initial group of consonants and vowels, enabling them to read and spell as soon as possible many simple CVC words;
children are taught the highly important skill of blending phonemes, in order, all through a word to read it;
children are taught to apply the skills of segmenting words into their constituent phonemes to spell; blending and segmenting are reversible processes.

As a result, all our children are able to tackle any unfamiliar words that they might discover. We also model these strategies in shared reading and writing both inside and outside of the phonics lesson and across the curriculum. We have a strong focus on the development of language skills for our children because we know that speaking and listening are crucial skills for reading and writing in all subjects.

Implementation - How We Will Do This

In the nursery, children follow Phase 1 foundations for phonics
In reception and Y1, children follow the progression within Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme. Phonics is taught daily and there is a review session on a Friday.
By the end of reception, children will have been taught up to the end of phase 4.
By the end of year 1, children will have been taught up to the end of phase 5.
In Autumn 2022 all children in Year 2 will access Year 1 Summer term teaching progression as a result of lost learning time throughout COVID.
In Y2-Y3 there are planned phonic sessions following a set model to address specific reading/writing gaps, that may have been caused by loss of learning in 2020-21.
Children continue to be assessed at phonics until they have met the Y1 expectations.

Reading practice sessions

Children in reception, year 1, year 2 (and beyond if appropriate) apply their phonics knowledge by reading a fully matched decodable book in a small group reading practice session.

These sessions are 30 minutes long and take place three times a week. There are approximately 6 children in a group.

The sessions follow the model set out in Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised. The children also have a fully matched decodable book, which they can take home to read. We encourage parents to read this book, more than once to support comprehension. New books are sent home, whenever a child has read. To increase the love for reading children also take home a ‘Sharing book’ which is not matched to their reading level but is a book adults can share with children at home. Children have access to their classroom library and the school library to change their sharing book weekly.

Impact

In reception and year 1, at the end of each week there is a review session which recaps the learning. There are also whole review weeks (pre-planned and bespoke review weeks to address gaps identified by the class teacher’s ongoing formative assessment).

Children identified in reception and Y1 as in danger of falling behind are provided with ‘keep up’ sessions which follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme.

In reception and year 1, the children are assessed at the end of every half term.
The children in Y1 sit the Phonics Screening Check in the summer term
Children who do not pass the Phonics Screening Check in Y1, will re-sit this in Y2.
Children who are in Y2-Y3 and have not achieved the expected level in phonics, receive phonics sessions and are assessed through teacher’s ongoing formative assessment as well as half termly summative assessments they receive regular keep up sessions following the Little Wandle programme.

Through the teaching of systematic phonics, our aim is for children to become fluent readers by the end of Key Stage One. This way, children can focus on developing their fluency and comprehension as they move through KS2

Reading

Intent - Our Aims

The intent of our reading curriculum is to equip children with strong reading skills, enabling them to comprehend, analyse, and interpret a wide range of texts, whilst cultivating a love for reading.

We strive to foster a lifelong passion for reading, enabling our pupils to become confident, fluent, and critical readers who can use reading to expand their horizons, develop empathy, and access information across a variety of subjects.

In order for children to access all areas of the curriculum we aim to do the following:

Children with specific reading, speech and language or hearing difficulties will be identified and supported through intervention programmes in school and external help will be sought where necessary.

Implementation - How We Will Do This

At Broadfield Primary School, we have developed a reading curriculum that incorporates the following key elements:

We carefully select a diverse range of high-quality texts, of increasing complexity, including factual texts, poetry, and digital resources. These texts represent a variety of cultures and experiences, promoting inclusivity and a broad understanding of the world.

We provide systematic and synthetic phonics instruction in line with the Department for Education accredited 'Little Wandle, Letters and Sounds’. This ensures our pupils develop strong phonics skills, enabling them to decode unfamiliar words and enhance their reading fluency and accuracy.

We explicitly teach vocabulary to expand our pupils' language repertoire and comprehension skills. We embed vocabulary instruction across the curriculum, using context, word mapping, and word games to improve word knowledge and application.

We dedicate regular time for whole-class and small-group reading activities that focus on explicit teaching of comprehension strategies such as prediction, inference, summarising, and questioning techniques. Pupils engage in rich discussions about texts, enabling them to deepen their understanding and develop their critical thinking skills.

We foster a love for independent reading by providing a well-stocked and inviting library, supplemented by a range of reading books. Pupils engage in regular independent reading sessions, allowing them to explore their reading preferences, discover new authors, and engage with a variety of genres.

Teachers provide targeted, responsive, and regular support to meet the individual needs of all pupils. This includes interventions and keep ups as well as additional challenge opportunities for more advanced readers, ensuring every child makes progress.

Regular formative and summative assessments, including standardised tests, half termly phonics assessments and teacher assessments, provide us with valuable insight into pupils' reading progress. Teachers provide timely and constructive feedback to help pupils improve their reading skills and boost their confidence.

Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

Children in Acorns focus on foundations for phonics through environmental sounds, instrumental sounds and body percussion.

In Nursery, children access phonics by using the Little Wandle Foundations for Phonics Programme. They explore books with adults to develop good book behaviours before starting Reception.

Children with SEND in the EYFS receive adapted lessons following the Little Wandle SEND pathway.

Key Stage 1

Key Stage 2

Where required, children in Key Stage 2 access the ‘Rapid Catch Up’ part of the Little Wandle programme. They read in small groups using a book matched closely to their decodable ability. Children complete a fluency assessment and move on to age appropriate texts from the Big Cat Collins Scheme when appropriate.

In Year 3 reading is taught using the principles of the Little wandle programme using texts from the Big Cat Collins Scheme.

In Years 4 and 5, reading is taught through Shared and Guided Reading sessions and includes:

In Year 6, we focus on teaching comprehension strategies including using SATs style questions. A variety of challenging texts are used, including extracts from the class novel or Vocabulary Ninja (using VIPERS question prompts), or practice SATs reading materials.

Impact

Our approach to Reading has a significant impact on our pupils, both academically and personally. Through our commitment to high-quality teaching and our intention to develop a lifelong passion for reading, children at Broadfield:

Writing

Intent - Our Aims

At Broadfield Primary School, we place a high importance on our children developing a love of writing and strive to provide a rich and inspiring English curriculum for this to be achieved. We believe it is vital that they develop the skills and knowledge to become confident and effective communicators in the outside world. We actively seek ways to provide our children with immersive experiences, trips, visits from outside providers, in order to widen their opportunities to write from first hand experiences.

Our aims for the teaching and learning of writing are that children will be able to:

Implementation - How We Will Do This

EYFS

At Broadfield Primary School, emergent writing in EYFS is encouraged through carefully planned learning opportunities using:

Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2

At Broadfield Primary School, writing is taught through a structured and engaging approach that nurtures creativity, accuracy, and independence. We use the Broadfield writing process to ensure consistency and progression from Year 1 through to Year 6.

Teachers use AFL (Assessment for Learning) to ensure that planning builds upon children’s previous learning and existing knowledge. A range of formative assessment and feedback methods are used which include:

Summative Assessment

Children complete a minimum of three independent writing pieces each half term—two linked to topics and one shorter, experience-based task. Writing is assessed using the Teacher Assessment Framework in Year 6 and Assertive Mentoring Grids in Years 1–5, aligned with the National Curriculum. These inform writing targets and ensure consistency, especially at key transition points. Moderation takes place half-termly within school and annually with local partners, with occasional external moderation for Year 6

Handwriting

Handwriting is taught through a consistent whole-school programme, mainly in stand-alone lessons focusing on letter formation and joins. In EYFS and KS1, children use tracing and line guides to support correct size and orientation. As pupils progress, book lines become narrower to promote precision. Joining begins in Year 1, with consistent joining expected by Year 3. Support and adaptations, such as coloured backgrounds and magnified texts, are provided for children with additional needs.

Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPaG)

SPaG is taught in context through writing units, with grammar supported by Grammasaurus resources. Spelling begins with phonics in EYFS and Year 1 using Little Wandle, continuing in Year 2 with the Little Wandle Spelling scheme. From Year 3 onwards, Spelling Shed is used to teach spelling rules and patterns. Spellings are reinforced through morning work, homework, and online platforms like Purple Mash and Spelling Shed.