English

All pupils are assessed on arrival using the Ruth Miskin scheme Read, Write, Inc assessment. They are then grouped accordingly and access RWI either in small groups or on a 1-1 basis to develop early reading and writing skills. Daily lessons consist of learning new sounds and practising previously learnt sounds before learning to ‘Fred talk’ words to blend and read them. Pupils will also be taught to form the letters correctly and sound out the words to segment to speed them before learning to hold a sentence in their head to write it.

Pupils that can read accurately and fluently will access a 15 minute interactive daily RWI Spelling lesson which teaches spelling rules systematically.

Pupils still learning phonics through RWI access daily reading as part of the phonics lesson from a book matched to the sounds that they know. This ensures that the reading is at an accessible level for pupils to practise and apply the skills learnt in their phonics lessons. Pupils will also have access to a book banded reading scheme to select from as they wish encouraging reading for pleasure and breadth of comprehension skills.

Pupils that are fluent readers will access daily reading through the book banded reading scheme at a level determined by a combination of teacher assessment, pupil engagement and resilience.  These pupils will also access daily guided reading lessons in which they will have access to texts which are beyond what they could access independently to allow development of comprehension skills. These are taught with particular skills in mind each week for example inference or retrieval of evidence from the text which is then followed up in daily individual reading.

Pupils access daily English lessons which are planned mainly using the Power of Reading scheme at a level appropriate for each class. These lessons cover the national curriculum for English over the course of the year. Other opportunities for writing with a purpose are built into the curriculum in a cross curricular way. This can be using trips and visits as a stimulus or linking the English into activities run by our forest school’s practitioner.

Speaking and listening is an integral part of our curriculum and activities to promote this are threaded throughout the day.  Pupils participate in breakfast assembly, snack time and lunch time with a focus on conversational skills and such communication is consistently modelled by staff.   Many pupils access personalised intervention in this area of need whilst they are with us at Engage.

In addition to this, this year we are taking part in a programme run by Voice 21 called Get Talking in PRUs.  The programme focuses on the importance of oracy and will support us to create a whole school ethos of oracy enabling staff, pupils and parents to understand the value, and impact of, a talk rich approach on pupils’ social and emotional development.