Language & Literacy
We follow an evidence-based approach to the teaching of Literacy, making use of expert guidance from the Education Endowment Foundation wherever possible in order to provide the best possible teaching and learning
Book Spine
Crowcroft Park Book Spine
At Crowcroft Park, a key focus of learning is on developing language and communication. Effective spoken and written communication are essential for future success in education and life itself. We do many different things to develop children’s receptive and expressive language, as well as their reading and writing skills; most of our approaches are directly linked to high-quality texts. Beautiful, exciting, ‘real’ books – both classic and modern – inspire a love of reading and provide a model of Standard English.
We are in the process of developing a ‘book spine’; a list of all the books that our children will be formally introduced to through their language and literacy lessons.
EYFS
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4 
Year 5 
Year 6
Spoken Language
Reading
In Early Years and Year 1, the children hear the book of the week from the book spine, four times each day for a week. This enables them to memorise and internalise the language structures that we have specifically chosen to focus on. The children begin to 'talk like a book'. This is especially important due to the very high numbers of EAL children that we have (90%+). The majority of our children do not hear models of standard spoken English in the home, or from their peers in school - it is essential that they hear it from adults. 'Four A Day Story' is just one way that we provide this language model.
Each book has been carefully chosen to provide opportunities to explore age-appropriate WellComm objectives. These have been labelled in each book to support teachers and TAs to read the books aloud effectively.
Each book is brought to life with a selection of enhancements - images or objects that children can use to support them to retell and act out their favourite stories for weeks to come.
The teacher also videos themselves reading the Four A Day Story and puts it on a QR code in each child's reading diary so that they can listen to it again and again at home.
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How will my child be taught to read? We start by teaching phonics to the children in the Reception class. This means that they learn how to ‘read’ the sounds in words and how those sounds can be written down. This is essential for reading, but it also helps children learn to spell well. We teach the children simple ways of remembering these sounds and letters.
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At Crowcroft Park, we use Read Write Inc Phonics (RWI) to give your child the best possible start with their Literacy development. Mrs Mottram is our Read Write Inc lead, so if you have questions about RWI, contact school who can refer you to her.
Whole Class Comprehension - Reading to learn...
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Writing
At Crowcroft Park, we have recently re-developed our curriculum and have chosen to use the Read to Write scheme for Y2 – Y6. For EYFS and Year 1 we have developed a bespoke writing scheme based on our four-a-day stories. The academic year of 2023/2024 will be the first full year of their use. Using these schemes means that children are building their knowledge and skills with progression and continuity.
These schemes empower teachers to provide high-quality teaching of writing through children’s high-quality literature. The units of work centre on engaging, vocabulary-rich texts, with a wealth of writing opportunities. Read to Write is an evidence-based scheme for the teaching of writing and the units have been carefully mapped out so the statutory curriculum for writing is covered for each year group. To ensure all our requirements for spelling are taught we use Spelling Shed resources and scheme to support our planning and teaching.
Modern Foreign Languages - French
If you would like to know more about The Language & Literacy Curriculum, please visit one of the websites below or alternatively, speak to Mrs Nunn or Mrs Mottram.