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ENGLISH
At Dulwich Hamlet, we plan our Literacy curriculum around rich, aspirational texts that provide a stimulating starting point for our children. Within each year group, we aim to teach a broad range of books, for example classic texts that will expose the children to archaic language, picture books which promote thoughtful inference and non-fiction. We also incorporate digital media into our planning and this year, we are developing more regular opportunities for creative writing within our Literacy units. Where possible we link our core texts to our Humanities topics but we only promote this link if it is meaningful and not at the cost of high quality literature.
Writing
This academic year, our whole school focus is on writing. We are developing the teaching of writing to ensure that teachers use small steps to teach new grammatical terms and that we give children ample opportunity to practise using them through mid-range writing tasks before applying them to a range of genres. In addition to this, we are securing the progression of genres between year groups to extend pupils’ depth of understanding and demonstrate pupils’ grammatical, composition and transcription skills. We aim to build on the structural and technical knowledge, alongside fostering a genuine, lifelong passion for writing as a lifelong means for communication.
As part of our ‘Year of Writing’, we have conducted parent workshops based around the knowledge of spelling, punctuation and grammar (SPaG). Please find the presentations for these sessions below.
We have created knowledge organisers for children to use in class to recall key grammatical knowledge for their key stage (lower key stage 2 and upper key stage 2). The knowledge organisers are designed in a way that can aid children’s independent revision of grammatical terms and children are encouraged to self-test to revise prior learning.
Year 3 and 4 SPaG knowledge organiser
Year 5 and 6 SPaG knowledge organiser
Spelling and Handwriting
We take an interwoven approach to the teaching of spelling and handwriting at Dulwich Hamlet. Every child has a 30 minute discrete spelling lesson once a week to explore the spelling rule or pattern listed on the spelling letters sent home half termly. Throughout the week, class teachers ensure that the spelling words are interspersed in a variety of lessons to embed the rule. Teachers use recall activities to rehearse spelling rules and patterns learnt the previous week, term and year.
Where children lack the solid foundations of phonics to support their spelling, specialist interventions are put in place to accelerate the children’s phonic knowledge and close the gap.
Handwriting sessions are taught at least twice weekly at Dulwich Hamlet, with some pupils receiving more specialist support. We use the Letter Join programme to support the teaching of handwriting and hold high expectations of handwriting across the curriculum from all children. Children are given opportunities to publish their writing with a focus on handwriting which is then displayed across the school and celebrated.
We have created knowledge organisers for children to use in class to recall key grammatical knowledge for their key stage (lower key stage 2 and upper key stage 2). The knowledge organisers are designed in a way that can aid children’s independent revision of grammatical terms and children are encouraged to self-test to revise prior learning.
Year 3 and 4 SPaG knowledge organiser
Year 5 and 6 SPaG knowledge organiser
Spelling and Handwriting
We take an interwoven approach to the teaching of spelling and handwriting at Dulwich Hamlet. Every child has a 30 minute discrete spelling lesson once a week to explore the spelling rule or pattern listed on the spelling letters sent home half termly. Throughout the week, class teachers ensure that the spelling words are interspersed in a variety of lessons to embed the rule. Teachers use recall activities to rehearse spelling rules and patterns learnt the previous week, term and year.
Where children lack the solid foundations of phonics to support their spelling, specialist interventions are put in place to accelerate the children’s phonic knowledge and close the gap.
Handwriting sessions are taught at least twice weekly at Dulwich Hamlet, with some pupils receiving more specialist support. We use the Letter Join programme to support the teaching of handwriting and hold high expectations of handwriting across the curriculum from all children. Children are given opportunities to publish their writing with a focus on handwriting which is then displayed across the school and celebrated.
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Reading
Last academic year, our whole school focus was on reading and vocabulary. We continue to build on the progress that we made in these areas and ensure that our reading lessons are carefully planned to ensure our questioning demands a thorough and sustained analysis of specific passages. You can see examples of the question stems below. Opportunities to promote more extended and detailed written responses to texts also continue to be explored and teachers have high expectations of the responses pupils record. KS2 Reading question stems |
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We promote a love of reading for all pupils. Children are given time in the school day to read for pleasure, either in the classroom or in the school library, which is open for all pupils to borrow books each lunch time. We understand the benefit of reading aloud to children so all classes have a class text that is enjoyable yet ambitious read aloud by an adult, exposing all children to challenging texts. Below is a recommended reading list for upper and lower school for parents to refer to when seeking new texts for their child to read.
Year 3 and 4 recommended reading list Year 5 and 6 recommended reading list |
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Vocabulary
As a school, we have grounded our approach in the research into vocabulary teaching. We recognise that vocabulary acquisition is tightly linked to reading comprehension and in turn, both reading and writing progress. This year we are continuing to embed strategies to extend pupils’ vocabulary breadth and depth of understanding across all subjects.
As a school, we have grounded our approach in the research into vocabulary teaching. We recognise that vocabulary acquisition is tightly linked to reading comprehension and in turn, both reading and writing progress. This year we are continuing to embed strategies to extend pupils’ vocabulary breadth and depth of understanding across all subjects.
As a school, we are committed to continually developing our teaching so as to maximize progress for all children, whatever their starting point when they join the Hamlet.