Curriculum

The national curriculum for writing aims to ensure that all pupils:

• acquire a wide range of vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for writing
• write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences

In Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 there are two dimensions for writing:

• transcription (spelling and handwriting)
• composition (articulating ideas and structuring them in speech and writing)

Additionally, pupils will be taught how to plan, revise and evaluate their writing. Pupils will learn how to spell quickly and accurately through knowing the relationship between sounds and letters (phonics) and understanding the morphology (word structure) and orthography (spelling structure) of words. Pupils will also be taught that effective composition involves forming, articulating and communicating ideas, and then organising them coherently for a reader. This requires clarity, awareness of the audience, purpose and context, and an increasingly wide knowledge of vocabulary and grammar. Writing also depends on fluent, legible and, eventually, speedy handwriting.

INTENT

At Bamford Academy, we want all children to enjoy becoming writers. The writing curriculum is designed to provide a broad and balanced education that meets the needs of all children. It provides opportunities for children to develop as independent, confident and successful writers, with high aspirations, who know how to make a positive contribution to their community and the wider society.

Our intent is for all pupils – irrespective of their needs, abilities or background – to learn to write fluently, developing their own writer’s voice. The quality of language that pupils hear and speak is vital for developing their vocabulary and grammar and their understanding writing.  We believe that children need to develop a secure knowledge-base in Literacy, which follows a clear pathway of progression as they advance through the primary curriculum. We believe that a secure basis in literacy skills is crucial to a high quality education.

We strive to foster a love of writing and communicating through vocabulary rich and high quality literature, using Ready Steady Write by Literacy Counts. We recognise the importance of nurturing a culture where children take pride in their writing; can write clearly and accurately and adapt their language and style for a range of contexts.

IMPLEMENTATION

Ready Steady Write uses engaging, vocabulary-rich texts to create a wealth of writing opportunities within and across the curriculum. The books provide a wealth of opportunities:

• to develop grammar and punctuation knowledge and understanding to use and apply across the wider curriculum, through sentence accuracy sessions;
• explore the writing structure and features of different genres, identifying the purpose and audience;
• plan and write an initial piece of writing with a clear context and purpose before evaluating the effectiveness of writing by editing and redrafting.

Building on this foundation, we teach literacy using a range of strategies which include:

• Modelled writing – Teachers model writing and editing to demonstrate the high expectations they have. They verbally ‘think aloud’ in order to make the writing process explicit and provide a rich and varied vocabulary for the children to utilise in their own work. This happens daily, through sentence accuracy.
• Shared writing – Teachers use the ideas from the children to create shared pieces of writing. This enables the children to see the writing process in action as well as having pride and ownership over the finished piece.
• Scaffolding - To develop writing ideas and language acquisition.
• Editing - Using sentence checkers and modelling how to edit writing.

IMPACT

The innovative practice across the school provides a strong foundation and opportunities for children to collaborate and develop their written skills. This curriculum design ensures that the needs of individual children can be met within the environment of quality first teaching, through the use of modelling, scaffolding and independence. Developing children's independence and motivation as learners is at the heart of all our teaching and learning. As a result, we strive to have a community of enthusiastic writers who enjoy showcasing their developing literacy knowledge and skills. They are confident to take risks in their writing, and love to discuss and share their ideas.

Assessment

Teachers draw upon observations and continuous assessment to ensure children are stretched and challenged and to identify those children who may need additional support. Formative assessment of writing is completed through teachers’ daily feedback to inform future planning. Teachers use the children’s everyday writing and adapt models and input to meet their current needs. Daily sentence accuracy work is carefully monitored to ensure children are constructing sentences both coherently and accurately.  Staff development meetings allow for whole school moderation of writing to deepen understanding of standards.

At Bamford Academy we work hard to ensure children are capable in all areas of Mathematics. We are focusing more and more on the strength of mental understanding and recall. Alongside knowing multiplication and division facts. We track and test children's progress through from simple number bonds to division with remainders and beyond.

We complete all these steps because they provide us with the skills to perform higher level tasks further on in school.

By helping your child at home with these targets they will grow significantly in confidence. They will also gain understanding of future more complex tasks as they are broken down.

We have adopted a published scheme for the teaching and learning of Maths from Reception to Year 6. Power Maths is a whole-class mastery programme, created in partnership with White Rose Maths, and recommended by the DfE. Using this resource ensures consistency within our maths teaching all through school, and is designed to spark curiosity and excitement and help nurture confidence in maths. 

At Bamford Academy, we also use Numbots which is an online Maths learning platform that helps children learn how to add and subtract, improving their fluency and recall in basic mental maths, and equipping them with maths confidence and Times Tables Rock Stars which is a Maths learning platform where children can practice their times tables through games.

For more information about Numbots and Times Tables Rockstars see the parent guides using the links below or visit their websites:

Numbots Parent Guide and Parentletters-parentletter.docx

https://numbots.com/ and https://ttrockstars.com/

Through Science, all children at Bamford Academy will become confident explorers and investigators. We promote excitement and curiosity so that they can ask questions and explore the world around them with confidence.

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Our History curriculum aims for children to gain a coherent chronological understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world, to develop a community of respect and understanding for the future. Our History curriculum will inspire curiosity to know about the past and its relevance to the present and future through enquiry based learning.

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How We Teach Phonics at Bamford Academy

At Bamford Academy Phonics is taught though a highly structured programme of daily lessons across FS/KS1 using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised phonics programme. This programme sets out a detailed and systematic programme for teaching phonic skills. 

How we teach 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.
• Phonics starts in Reception in week 2 to ensure the children make a strong start.
• 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.
• Reception lessons start at 10 minutes, with daily additional oral blending – increasing to 30 minutes as soon as possible.
• Y1 lessons are 30 minutes long.
• In R-Y1 there are planned phonic ‘keep-up’ sessions following a set model to address specific reading/writing gaps. These are short, sharp sessions lasting 10 minutes in length and taking place at least three times a week.
• In Y2 we begin the year with a 5 week block of phonics teaching to review phase 5. We then follow this up with reading sessions that use a range of Little Wandle Fluency books to embed their phonics learning.
• In Y2-Y6 there are 'Rapid Catch up' sessions use with children in Year 2 and above who need more support with mastering the phonic code and becoming fluent readers.

Reading practice sessions

• Children across Reception, Year 1, Year 2 (and beyond if appropriate) apply their phonics knowledge by using a full matched decodable reader in a small group reading practice session.
• These sessions are up to 30 minutes long and happen three times a week. There are approximately 8 children in a group.
• The sessions follow the model set out in Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised.
• The children then take the same book home the following week to ensure success is shared with the family.

How do we assess phonic knowledge?

• 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 immediately identified and daily ‘keep up’ sessions are put in place – sessions 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 using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessment tracker.
• 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-Y6 and need ‘Rapid Catch up’ sessions are assessed through teacher’s ongoing formative assessment as well as half termly summative assessments.