English at Cotsford
Our school has adopted Pie Corbett’s Talk for Writing as a model to improve achievement in writing. There are three stages in ‘Talk for writing’ – imitate, innovate, invent. Movement from imitation to innovation to independent application can be adapted to suit needs of learners of any stage. The approach moves from dependence towards independence, with the teacher using shared and guided teaching to develop the ability in children to write creatively and powerfully.
Oracy
At Cotsford, we believe oracy is a powerful tool for learning; by teaching students to become more effective speakers and listeners we empower them to better understand themselves, each other and the world around them. It is also a route to social mobility, empowering all students, not just some, to find their voice to succeed in school and life. We have adopted a whole school approach where we created discussion gudielines that we use to encourage positive talk throughout school.
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- We listen.
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- We use our voices.
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- We ask questions and talk about what people have said.
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- We take turns.
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- We can agree and disagree with others.
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- We praise and celebrate oracy.
We’re on a mission to transform the learning and life chances of young people through talk.
Please click the link for English National Curriculum Information
English at Cotsford
Spring 2
Reading workshop
Year 1 parents were invited into school to look at the Phonics Screening Check and how they could help at home. They watched a little tutorial to develop their understanding of terminology that we use. Mrs Page then modelled how they could use sound cards at home and then parents practised with their own children.
It was very successful and feedback from parents was incredibly complimentary:
“The workshop was interesting and gave me lots of top tips.”
“I was amazed by how well my boy did.”
“Thank you so much, I can really see how this will help at home.”
World Book Day
The children had a fantastic time celebrating World Book Day. They got dressed up as their favourite character and spent the day enjoying books. Every child had the opportunity to choose a book that they liked to take home and enjoy.
National Poetry Day
To celebrate National Poetry Day, the children across the school focused on different poems. They focused on performance poetry and recorded themselves to share with the rest of the school.
Summer 2
The children have had a fab half term in English. Here is a snapshot of some of the learning across the school…
EYFS – The Rainbow Fish – Marcus Pfister
Year 1 – Paddington – Michael Bond
Year 2 – The Tale of the Toothbrush – M Leo
Year 3 – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
Year 4 – Journey of the Pearl – Adam Bushnell
Awaiting content
Year 5 – Oranges in No Man’s Land – Elizabeth Laird
Year 6 – The Jamie Drake Equation – Christopher Edge
Summer 1
Here is a snapshot of some of the learning across the school…
EYFS – The Very Hungry Caterpillar – Eric Carle
TBA
Year 1 – Supertato by Sue Hendry
Year 2 – The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch & Michael Martchenko
Year 3 – The kings of Ancient Greece by Adam Bushnell
TBA
Year 4 – Giant by Kate Scott
Year 5 – Street Child by Berlie Doherty
Year 6 – Compilation of short texts
TBA
Spring 2
EYFS
Reception had lots of fun exploring the story of The Enormous Turnip. They acted out the story in class which was so funny as they all had to tumble to the floor at the end! They made their own stories with enormous fish, bones, meat, and sweets to replace a turnip.
Then they planted swede seeds and wrote some fantastic instructions.
The children made some fantastic attempts of writing labels and sentences on their drawings in the areas.
Year 1
Year 1 have had lots of fun focusing on the story, ‘Jack and the beanstalk’. They looked at lots of alternative versions of the story including ‘Jack and the Jellybean Stalk’, ‘Jack and the Incredibly Mean Stalk’ and ‘Trust Me, Jack’s Beanstalk Stinks!’ and voted on which version they liked the most. They looked at the fact that the monster in each story was different and then used them as inspiration to write their own versions.
They also created some fantastic shape poetry by focusing on different plants that they have looked at in their Science lessons.
Year 2
Year 2 have enjoyed learning the Kapok Tree story with actions. As Year 2 love drama, they relished taking on the character roles and being placed in the hot seat. They found, being a kind animal, fun – especially when they had to be persuasive. They had lots of discussions based around the Amazon rainforest and how they could try and protect it. The children created several story maps that they used to help them retell their own losing tale story, emphasising story language. The children created their own information text about a mysterious object from golden lizards to flying pigs.
Year 3
English has been jam-packed with exciting opportunities this half term. Year 3 have worked on their reading skills through VIPERS using Scribble Boy and shared some of their favourite books in class. They also used the book ‘The Tin Forest’ as their model text and this helped improve vocabulary.
Year 4
The focus text in Year 4 has been The Iron Man by Ted Hughes and the children have loved it. They have loved wondering what his next move was going to be and enjoyed figuring out what the farmers were going to do next.
The children have also enjoyed basing their English work on a story called Nail Soup. They loved how the story repeated throughout, which made it easier to remember. They then created their own versions of the story, which included lots of opportunities for direct speech. The stories definitely involved some questionable ingredients, such as feathers, metal and even gunpowder!
Year 5
Year 5 would definitely recommend the short film, Alma https://youtu.be/Aw0uORumRts. They watched, eagerly anticipating what was going to happen next. After watching and enjoying the film, the children created emotion graphs, describing Alma’s thoughts and feelings. Then they linked this film to their core text, The Spiderwick Chronicles and read the information text, ‘Everything You Need to Know About a Cloud Goblin’. The children used this model text to write an information text about a new doll which they invented to sit in the same shop as Alma.
Year 6
Year 6 have been working on developing all of their skills when writing both fiction and non-fiction. They wrote a brilliant portal story, using objects to transport their characters to new environments! They went to other worlds; Argentina, London and to different times! and Carl Linnaeus.
Spring 1
EYFS
The children have loved learning about traditional tales including the Three Billy Goats Gruff and created a fantastic story map. They focused on story characters and then created a wanted poster for the big bad wolf. They then innovated the story with their own ideas.
Author, Adam Bushell visited too this term and the children had an amazing day telling lots of troll stories!
Year 1
What a fantastic half term – Year 1 have thoroughly enjoyed learning the story of The Three Little Pigs and alternative versions of the story such as ‘The Real Story of the Three Little Pigs’ By Jon Scieszka https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF0h7NqpJQc
The children also loved their visit from author Adam Bushnell where they created some fantastic traps to capture beasts.
Year 2
Wow! Year 2 have had an amazing half term! They really enjoyed imagining their dream world and creating their own story based on ‘The Place of the Moon and the Stars’. The children created story maps that they used to help them retell a story, emphasising a journey. They were all enthusiastic about creating their own space diary after being inspired by the famous author Adam Bushnell. They designed a spacecraft to take them into space and created an amazing first invention to make their rocket unique. Their space writing continued by creating a diary entry for an astronaut. Everyone enjoyed the film unit, ‘The Way Back Home’ inspired by Oliver Jeffers – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YdUGxhJfK0 .
The children also enjoyed a trip to the Hancock Museum and wrote a recount.
Year 3
The children whizzed back in time this half term! They have enjoyed learning about time-slip stories and have written some fantastic stories. They have loved reading ‘There’s a Pharaoh in our Bath’ and have used the story during guided reading with VIPERS.
The children also loved working with author Adam Bushnell.
Year 4
This half term, the children have enjoyed reading ‘The Firework Marker’s Daughter’, by Philip Pullman. They have loved the journey element of the story and have enjoyed figuring out what the mischievous pirates would do next!
The children were lucky enough to work with the author Adam Bushnell, who helped them to create a discussion text, all about whether pirates are evil, or just misunderstood.
The children have also enjoyed using the text ‘Lila and the Pirate’, which was based on their class novel. They have focussed on descriptive language to create eerie settings and mysterious characters. They loved being able to be creative with their spooky characters – there were ghosts, robots, ninjas and trolls!
Year 5
Year 5 have been focussing on finding tales and the model text, ‘Adventure at Sandy Cove’. The children started with a fantastic retelling of the story before moving on to looking at what makes a good finding tale with elements of suspense. As you can see in the pictures below, the children practised, ‘show don’t tell’:
You can enjoy reading Year 5’s stories below.
As part of the children’s work on the Mayans, Year 5 watched the film, ‘Dia De Los Muertos’, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCQnUuq-TEE. After which they described the setting and characters and wrote a diary by imagining that they were at the ‘Day of the Dead’ festival.
What a fantastic morning Year 5 had with the author, Adam Bushnell! He gave the children a lot of ideas for Mayan myths. The children watched, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMlKeT0J27Y and described a rainforest by using their five senses. The children used lots of different sentence starters to create a short passage of description. Then, Year 5 thoroughly enjoyed creating clues for their own animal transmogrification for their partners to guess.
Year 6
This term, the children have really enjoyed writing! They started off using the writing of a class favourite author, Michael Morpurgo. You may have heard of his book War Horse. They have been working on combining all the techniques they have learned to create amazing descriptive passages and evoking tense atmospheres. Colons and semicolons are now staple parts of the children’s writing, both fiction and non-fiction. Have a look at some of their great work below.
Their most recent work was inspired by a brilliant session with the author Adam Bushnell. He helped the children to push their writing to the next level and really inspired them to use their imaginations when writing about World War 1. They also loved creating their own mini shelters outside in their ‘units’.
Autumn 2
EYFS
In Early Years this term he children have explored the story of the Gingerbread Man. They loved completing the actions, especially the action for the fox. They listened to lots of stories including Owl Babies, One Snowy Night, Six Dinner Sid and Leaf Man during their ‘Talk about texts’ sessions. They completed some natured-based learning and made their own leaf man and labelled him. They have also completed some letter spotting outside for some of the letters that they struggle to remember, it was so much fun!
They made some gingerbread people and created their own instructions, it was a little messy but so much fun. The children also had a visit from Santa’s elf called Sam and completed lots of tasks including writing the recipe for making a gingerbread person.
Year 1
What a magical half term – the children were visited by a lost penguin called Ping.
This inspired the children to complete some fab writing which developed their vocabulary.
The children also enjoyed researching animals and creating non- chronological reports.
Year 2
Year 2 have loved learning about Pirate Tom and his adventure! They empathised with Tom by role playing different parts of his story from his saddest of days to his thoughts when he found treasure. They designed their own pirate or other characters to go on a fabulous adventure. Some went to space, whilst others travelled to the depths of the oceans.
Their information text this half term was a fact file about dolphins. The children enjoyed finding interesting facts about a range of animals. They cleverly used the ipads to research their chosen animal. They then created a box up and finished with their fact file. I wonder what animal they will research next?
Year 3
English this half term has been so exciting. The children started learning a warning story called ‘The Canal’. First they learned the story off by heart and drew a story map. Then they focused on improving their sentences using verbs and adjectives.
For non-fiction they created their very own fact-files using expanded noun phrases to describe a river otter. Their favourite though was the guided reading activities they did based around the cartoon version of The Wind in the Willows. They made predictions and inferences about the characters and even began to sequence the story.
Year 4
Year 4 loved their class story Wolf Brother and used it to inspire their writing where they created their own descriptive stories. They also researched different famous rivers around the world.
Year 5
For the first time, Year 5 have explored flashback stories. They used the model text, Kidnapped, to focus on endings and even used some Alan Peat sentence structures in order to improve their writing.
You can read some of the children’s successful stories below.
Year 5 enjoyed the challenge of writing a senryus poem. They used the film, ‘Pandora’, which you can enjoy here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBGDmin_38E, to get some inspiration. Senryus poems are typically about humans and it has the same structure as a Haiku so they did a lot of work on syllables. You can enjoy some of the poems below.
Year 6
Year 6 have had a fantastic half term focusing on the wonderful poem ‘The Highwayman’ by Alfred Noyes. As this was the basis for both of their fiction and non-fiction writing units, they were able to look at many techniques from the poem which has increased the quality of their writing. First, they retold the poem as a 5-part narrative, with each part being told by a different character. They developed their use of figurative language, using metaphors, similes, personification, onomatopoeia, alliteration and repetition. They also worked on writing in the 1st person and developing the voice or each character through the vocabulary and grammar used.
In their guided reading sessions, they analysed the poem and a range of other short texts to help them to develop speedy retrieval skills as well as answering inference questions effectively. They have read about space, rollercoasters, the water cycle and Christmas cookery! They also studied the meaning of the poems ‘In Flanders Fields’ by John McCrae and ‘For the Fallen’ by Robert Binyon.
Autumn 1
EYFS
In Early Years this term the children have listened to a range of stories and talked about their family, likes and dislikes and their friends. They have completed an action story of Mr Wiggle and Mr Waggle and enjoyed telling the story to their friends. They have listened to Perfectly Norman, The Pirate House and Shhhhhh to name but a few! The children have started to recognise and write some letters and practised writing their names. Mrs Laverick is very proud of how well they are doing!
Year 1
What an amazing half term the children have had learning about one of their favourite dragons, Zog, and his adventures in dragon school. They also focused on the model text ‘The Somethingsaur’ where they practised writing simple sentences including capital letters and full stops.
Here are some fab examples of their sentence work:
Year 2
Year 2 have used their imagination and empathy this half term! The children really enjoyed the story of The Smartest Giant in Town and loved the way he was selfless and always put other characters needs first. The children created their own story by changing the characters and their needs. They met some wonderful and weird creatures that needed a variety of support but luckily enough everyone had a happy ending. The children explored the persuasion to ‘Get Rid of Giants’. The children strongly disagreed with this due to the kind nature of the giant in the story. Their challenge was to create their own persuasion to get rid of someone or something. Unfortunately, many animals were chosen to get rid of! I wonder who will be next …
They finished the half term with The Clocktower film unit made them think about the town stopping and how they would solve the girl’s problem. They used these ideas and created an acrostic poem.
Year 3
The children have had a really exciting half term describing settings and characters. They have improved their understanding of adjectives and can identify these in various texts. Alongside this they have learned the features of a warning story and have based some writing around the model text, ‘The Ground Gives Way’.
They have really enjoyed reading ‘Billy and the Minpins by Roald Dahl’ this half-term and have used this text to develop their comprehension skills where they can confidently make predictions throughout the text and can retrieve information from reading.
Year 4
Tave enjoyed writing a meeting tale, which was based on their model text ‘A New Gladiator’. The children enjoyed the plot and created their own version, using different people from the Roman times. The children have also enjoyed reading their core text, Queen of Darkness by Tony Bradman. Although they found some of the vocabulary tricky (particularly the Roman names), it has enabled them to develop a deeper understanding of the Roman Era.
The children have also looked at information texts and have enjoyed learning about the Roman Gladiators. They then took part in their own research and from this, created their own information text around an aspect of Roman life.
Year 5
The children in Year 5 thoroughly enjoyed this half terms story, ‘How Odin Created the World’. They were able to link their work in History about the Vikings to the journey stories they have been writing. The focus of their stories was ‘what makes a good setting?’ so they looked at lots of different images and films to inspire their writing. The children’s favourite film was ‘The Saga of Bjorn’. You can enjoy it here too, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV5w262XvCU. Do you think he deserved to go to Valhalla? Year 5 decided against letting him in because he threw the dwarf off the cliff. The children also worked on including different openers and interesting vocabulary.
You can enjoy reading some of their journey stories below.
Year 6
Year 6 have had a great time in English this half term. Their class text – Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz – has been thrilling; full of suspense and intrigue. The children have based their writing around being a spy and this has allowed their imaginations to run wild. They created sequels about the spy twins Polly and Pete (who are totally just normal, boring twins!) and then developed information adverts to promote a range of spy gadgets. While writing, they have learned a great deal about adverbial phrases and how to correctly punctuate a bullet point list. They have worked on their understanding of word classes and understand how to identify the subject and object in a sentence. What a fabulous half term!
