Team

In KS3 our English team consists of 6 teachers plus specialist support staff in each session. The students have 4 hours of English per week. In addition to this there is an allocated session at the beginning of the day for phonics, this focuses on sounds, blending and reading.  After lunchtime is allocated for accelerated reading.

Achievement and Progress

On entry students are assessed so that planning is supportive of the individual student needs.  Student progress is then closely monitored throughout the school year to ensure that targets are met and interventions can be introduced as required.

Curriculum Overview

English at Oaklands is based upon a spiral curriculum, whereby the curriculum focuses on key skills within English, which are then developed through a range of genres. Due to the nature of differing levels of ability our students have different starting points. Key skills may be introduced at different points during Key Stage 3. This is beneficial for our students as it allows us to pitch the curriculum personalised to their learning.

The Scheme of Work has been remodelled to comply with the 2014 National Curriculum and has been specially devised for our learners, it is based upon the ‘Read, Write, Inc. Fresh Start Scheme.  This is a nationally recognised programme aimed at older students with difficulties in English.  All sessions follow a specific pattern encompassing the three strands of reading, writing and speaking and listening. Sessions are carefully planned to support and extend as required with differentiation being a key factor to success.    The Scheme of work includes variations for all ranges of ability covering the key areas of study.  These include; oral language and comprehension, handwriting, basic letter formation, encoding and sound practice.   The extended Key Stage 3 curriculum promotes high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written word and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment. This scheme will teach pupils to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others and through their reading and listening, others can communicate with them.

We use our half termly assessments to find the students’ challenge point. The document below shows how the challenge point progresses as students move through the Fresh start programme.

We pitch our teaching to ensure that individual needs are met as all of our students start learning at different points.

This programme of study is based on phonics.  Further information about the Fresh Start scheme can be found at www.ruthmiskintraining.com/fresh-start/index.html

 

"Year 9 quote and drawing from the famous Dr Seuss novel"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Students enjoyed an exciting performance of ‘A Midsummer Nights Dream’ by the Storyhouse theatre in Chester :

 

We have introduced the Accelerated Reader programme which is designed to encourage independent reading and enjoyment of books.  This programme helps to develop a wider range of vocabulary choices and understanding of texts read.  Our library is continually updated with new and exciting age appropriate reading books.

Overview of the learning programme

The Read Write Inc. Fresh Start approach – Students are taught to read accurately and fluently with good comprehension. They learn to spell correctly and compose their ideas for writing.

All of Set 1 Sounds Focus: sound blending consonant-vowel-consonant words. Questions to talk about,  read story with expression.

Stretchy and bouncy vowel sounds, explore word meanings to increase vocabulary choices, to read short decodable stories and passages.

Vowel diagraphs and trigraphs, read the sound, read the word, spell the word. Summary of writing stories. To extend ideas in sentences through the use of connectives

Set 3 sounds, read the sound, read the word, spell the word. summary of story, report, events of newspaper report, biography. Develop a more complex sentence structure. Understand and use a wider range of punctuation technique.

Diagraphs, trigraphs and spilt diagraphs, read the sound, read the word, spell the word. Summary of writing recipe and explanation.

Alternative vowel sounds, read the sound, read the word, spell the word. Summary of writing letter, recipe, advice, diary entry, story, article, web-based text, complaint, summary. Grammar practice – questions, commas, apostrophe (omission), nouns, verbs, past tense, adjectives, conjunctions, adverbs, commands, statements.

Alternative suffixes, read the sound, read the word, spell the word. Summary of writing explanation, story, series of events, account, report, interview, questions for quiz, letter. Grammar practice – capital letters, apostrophe (possession), punctuation of direct speech, pronouns, verb inflections, present and past progressive, noun phases, past tense.

Beyond Fresh Start - strong command of the spoken and written word, develop love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment. Speak and write fluently, generate ideas and emotions. Summary of writing linked to variety of genres and texts. Proof read extended pieces of writing. Evaluate own progress and discuss KS4 pathway.

 

Although the students follow a curriculum overview this is not prescriptive and the curriculum is delivered depending on the ability of the student.