Whole school quality texts
At Our Lady Immaculate, our aim is to promote high standards of English throughout the school through stimulating and engaging literacy lessons.
The 2014 National Curriculum aims to ensure that all pupils:
- Read easily, fluently and with good understanding
- Develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information
- Acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language
- Appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage
- Write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences
- Use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas
- Are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate.
We put good quality children’s literature at the heart of English teaching, through a highly regarded approach using quality texts . This approach promotes a high standard 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, in turn, helps build a rich curriculum where intent and implementation leads to the impact and improved outcomes for children.
Research
There is a wealth of research to show that one of the most effective ways to become a good writer is to be an avid reader; to unpick language from books and use this as a model for quality writing.
This approach is founded by ‘The Centre for Language in Primary Education’ which has supported schools in raising engagement and attainment in reading and writing for all pupils for thirteen years and more recent research from the EEF ( Educational Endowment Foundation) , Improving Literacy in key stage 1 and Key stage 2. The Book Trust ‘The Write Book’ research project found that ‘Using high quality books to inspire and emulate writing encourages children to think of themselves as writers’.
The latest guidance from Ofsted recognises the importance of young children being introduced to good quality literature as an essential way of enabling them to build a wide and rich vocabulary
‘The active encouragement of reading for pleasure should be a core part of every child’s curriculum entitlement because extensive reading and exposure to a wide range of texts make a huge contribution to students’ educational achievement.’ All-Party Parliamentary Group for Education, 2018
Many authors cite reading widely and enthusiastically as their number one writing tip.
Across School
From our Nursery classes up to year 6 , books have been carefully chosen to fit within a broad and balanced curriculum. We use high quality texts for each year group to study and teachers develop a rich reading curriculum that enhances reading comprehension and provides meaningful contexts and purposes for writing.
This involves planning an engaging English curriculum using a wide range of high-quality texts for each year group every half-term. We have designed an English curriculum that is centered around both classic and long-standing much-loved books and novels as well as new and upcoming authors and texts and books with no text . We have invested in bringing in a range of quality texts, including buying some of the whole class sets of books and novels that each class are studying.
Part of our whole-school approach will be to provide a ‘Hook’ to engage and excite the children about their new text. Then immerse them in their class texts, exploring the way the author uses language and to explore this to develop our children as writers.
You’ll see us promote our whole school texts and class activities via our website and Twitter.
We’ll send newsletters about the books that each class are studying and texts that we are excited about, with recommendations for reading at home.
These are the books each year group will encounter as a focus to linking writing through reading :
Nursery :
| You Choose
Pippa Goodheart You Choose Your Dreams Pippa Goodheart |
The Foggy, Foggy Forest
Nick Sharratt Shh, We Have a Plan Colin Haughton |
Billy’s Bucket
Kes Gray How to Catch a Star Oliver Jeffers |
Little Red Hen
The Enormous Turnip
|
The Lion Who Wanted to Love
Giles Andreae Giraffes Can’t Dance Giles Andreae
|
Dear Zoo
Rod Campbell |
Reception :
| Zog
Julia Donaldson |
Supertato
Sue Hendra |
Lost and Found
Oliver Jeffers |
Sam’s Sandwich
David Pelhan
|
On Sudden Hill
Linda Sarah |
All Aboard for the Bobo Road
Stephen Davies |
Year 1 :
| The Naughty Bus
Jan Oke Traction Man Mini Grey |
Major Glad, Major Dizzy
Jan Oke Stick Man Jacqueline Wilson |
Little Red Riding Hood
Ed Bryan The Three Little Pigs Ed Bryan |
The Way Back Home
Oliver Jeffers Stuck Oliver Jeffers |
I Want My Hat Back
Jon Klassen The Great Paper Caper Oliver Jeffers |
‘Here We Are’
Oliver Jeffers ‘We’re all Wonders’ R.J. Palacio |
Year 2 :
| Polar The Titanic Bear
Daisy Corning Stone Spedden |
The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs (RR)
John Sciezka Jim and the Beanstalk Raymond Briggs |
Fantastic Mr Fox
Roald Dahl |
The Hunter
Paul Geraghty
|
The Bog Baby
Jeannie Willis |
The Lion and the Unicorn
Shirley Hughes |
Year 3/4 :
| Cycle A | |||||
| The Iron Man
Ted Hughes |
The Inventions of Hugo Cabret
Brian Selznick |
Hetty Feather
Jacqueline Wilson |
The Orchard Book of First Greek Myths
Saviour Pirotta
|
Escape from Pompeii
Christina Balit |
Voices in the Park
Anthony Browne |
| Cycle B | |||||
| Ratburger
David Walliams |
The Firework Maker’s Daughter
Philip Pullman |
The Angel of Nitshill Road (RR)
Anne Fine |
Beowulf
Rob Lloyd Jones |
Charlotte’s Web
EB White |
Turtle Bay
Saviour Pirotta |
Year 5 :
| Egyptology
Emily Sands |
Tom’s Midnight Garden
Phillipa Pearce |
Kick
Mitch Johnson |
Wonder
RJ Palacio |
Boy in the Tower
Polly Ho Yen
|
The Greenling
Levi Pinfold |
Year 6:
| The Silver Sword
Ian Serrallier |
The Diary of a Young Girl
Anne Frank |
Boy
Roald Dahl |
The Arrival
Shaun Tan
|
Holes
Louis Sachar |
Outlaw
Michael Morpurgo |
For more information about this project and the thinking behind it, see below
https://clpe.org.uk/powerofpictures/research
It was reported that children thought their creative writing had improved since they did the project (88 per cent in the first year of the project and 87 per cent in the second year) ·
They also said that they liked creative writing more as a result of the project (79 per cent in the first year of the project and 78 per cent in the second year) ·
They enjoyed having time to read a whole book as a class and time to write individually.
Teachers said that it improved the technical elements of their writing such as vocabulary, descriptive writing skills and sentence structure ·
It also developed more interest in and enthusiasm for books and writing in that they wrote voluntarily at home and in free time at school, often when they had never done so before.