The overarching aim for English in the National Curriculum is to promote 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.

Writing

At Beaufort we aim to develop fluent, creative and confident writers, who write clearly and accurately for a range of purposes. Writing is taught daily and planning is aligned to the 2014 English National Curriculum and mapped out for each year group in a long term plan (see LTPs on 'Curriculum' home page). Knowledge and skills from the National Curriculum are planned into every writing sequence of learning. Staff follow a clear writing process (see Beaufort Writing process below), to ensure progression. Children have the opportunity to showcase that they can independently apply skills learned during the writing process into their own piece of independent 'Golden Writing'. Teachers plan to ensure coverage of skills throughout the year ensuring that these are revisited across many genres and text types (see 'Writing Genre Progression' document). To ensure grammar skills are revisited, staff plan daily grammar revisits into each writing lesson (see 'Daily Grammar Revisit' document below). 

Our writing planning is inspired by a quality text that often links to the children's half termly topic, providing stimulus for their writing. 

Key Writing Documents

Reading 

At Beaufort we are committed to developing fluent readers who have a good understanding of what they read. We have a wide range of reading materials on offer to develop a love of reading for all our pupils. Each class gets to visit the School Library every week and chose a Library Book to enjoy alongside their reading scheme book. We use Accelerated Reader from Years 2-6 as our reading scheme. This scheme exposes children to a variety of text checking not only their fluency, but also their comprehension skills. Our children complete AR quizzes after each text they have read and complete an AR assessment half termly.

We encourage parents to read with their children at home and encourage pupils to change their reading books as often as possible. Home reading diaries should be signed three times a week and are part of our homework expectations (from Reception to Year 6). We praise and reward both home and school reading through our ''Reading Stars'' initiative; the children receive stars every time they achieve 100% on their AR quizzes. They show these in assembly and then get placed on our reading celebration display. At the end of each half term, all stars get placed in a box and winners are picked out to chose a book of their choice to keep. Teachers also pick a weekly star reader who receives a special certificate in our BRAVE Star assembly. 

We follow the VIPERS acronym across the school to ensure we are covering all the reading content domains in a progressive form (see VIPERS Questions Stems and Skills Documents below). Planning is also guided by the national curriculum to ensure complete coverage of the statutory requirements. 

Each year group has a reading spine; this is a collection of texts for each half term, linked to (where possible) our topic based curriculum. Each class enjoys a daily 15 minute story before home time. The teacher explicitly models the skills of a proficient reader including reading with fluency and expression. 

Key Reading Documents

Reading VIPERS Question Stems KS1 Reading VIPERS Question Stems KS2 Year 1 Vipers Reading Skills (Whole Class Teacher Use) Year 2 Vipers Reading Skills Year 3 Vipers Reading Skills Year 4 Vipers Reading Skills Year 5 Vipers Reading Skills Year 6 Vipers Reading Skills 

Spelling and Handwriting

At Beaufort we encourage our children to think and write creatively, use a wide range of vocabulary, and to write with a clear purpose and for pleasure. To achieve this, it is essential that our children learn to spell accurately. Children who can spell feel more confident and enjoy writing for pleasure. 

Year 2 use the ELS Spelling program as an overview to set weekly spellings. This scheme links directly to the ELS Phonics program that children are taught in Year 1 for Reading (see progression document below). Years 3-6 use EdShed as an overview to set weekly progressive spellings and for national curriculum coverage (document coming soon). Years 2-6 send home weekly spellings for children to learn and then be quizzed on each Friday. Spelling patterns are explored in class and through spelling activities sent home. 

Spelling

ELS Spelling Year 2 KS2 Spelling Shed LTP

Handwriting

When taught effectively, handwriting is when children will see the biggest change and fastest improvement in their work; and progress they can see, feel and enjoy. We believe that good handwriting children's self esteem and motivation levels raise, influencing children's attitudes towards learning not only in English but in other subjects. We aim to make handwriting an automatics process which does not interfere with creative and mental thinking. We hold a high regard to the high presentation here at Beaufort and this is something we are currently prioritising. However, we also recognise that many children face barriers when trying to write neatly, we provide opportunities in the day for these children to support their fine motor skills. We follow a systematic handwriting program that is clear and simplistic. Handwriting is taught often throughout the school week; we believe that little and often is the key to success.