Meet Mrs van B: English Subject Lead
Hello, my name is Mrs van B and I am thrilled to be the English lead at Bardfield Academy.
Why I love English
I have an innate passion for leading and teaching English, and am highly ambitious for all our pupils, (knowing that a deeply embedded knowledge of the English language is essential for our future generation to thrive). Prior to teaching at Bardfield, I taught GCSE Literature and English as a Foreign Language for many years, so I have an acute insight into where children need to get to and how to foster a lifelong love of learning.
My ambition for our school
I am laser-focused and highly driven. At Bardfield, we will ensure that our children have a rich, diverse exposure when learning English. They will experience a wide range of high quality literature from a range of diverse authors, experience writing for a range of purposes using our Talk 4 Writing approach and will focus on developing strong transcriptional skills from Early years in order to ensure the best possible outcome when they leave us in Year 6 to move on into their Secondary school. For me, there are no barriers or glass ceilings; we will strive for excellence for all our children “empowering growth together.”
Mrs van B- English Lead
English at Bardfield Academy
Our vision: For Bardfield Academy’s children to have a rich, deeply embedded knowledge of the English language, applying substantive knowledge such as transcription- spelling, grammar, punctuation and handwriting effectively and enthusiastically to their learning. Simultaneously, we aim for our pupils to have strong disciplinary knowledge of how to approach and analyse reading comprehension texts, for pupils to have an authentic author’s voice when writing across a range of purposes, and for children to communicate powerfully when speaking, writing or performing.
Our Approach: English at Bardfield Academy takes a tailored multifaceted, highly researched approach that enables our pupils to succeed. In Early years we focus on building strong foundations in letter formation, pencil grip and phonic recognition through daily handwriting and discrete phonics sessions. In EYFS and KS1, pupils learn to read using the Read Write Inc scheme, a systematic phonics approach, which gives children the tools to access the world primarily through reading. Once children have progressed through the phonics scheme, they then move onto our Accelerated Reader scheme, which enables pupils to conduct concise weekly AR comprehension quizzes. As children transition from Year 2 to Year 3, they are introduced to Talk for Writing. In Talk for Writing, children learn a high quality text thoroughly – often acting it out and exploring it’s carefully planned grammatical structures- developing their oracy through talking about it, The children then use this model text to write their own version of it, using the same key features.
Daily Whole Class Reading sessions enable every child to access ambitious texts, ensuring that children are exposed to a diverse range of texts across Whole Class Reading and in Protected Reading Time, (where adults read to pupils, modelling the prosody – rhythm, stress and intonation).Furthermore, pupils have explicit teaching of reading comprehension at least once a week, enabling children to decode author’s intentions, what is inferred and how vocabulary and language choices build an overall picture.
Additionally, handwriting and spellings are explicitly modelled and taught in short bursts throughout the week using the Nelson and Twinkl schemes respectively. As a school we have high expectations for presentation and have a agreed presentation expectations for all children in their books.
Our purpose: To ensure that every child can facilitate English as a platform for their expression, embodying the English language so that they are able to communicate effectively now and in the future, no matter the context. We aim for our pupils to progress to KS3 with their heads held high and the toolkit to communicate through speech, language, reading and writing at the highest capacity. We intend for children to thrive with this aim at the back of their minds so that no child is left behind. English is a journey that we are embarking upon knowing that our pupils deserve the very best.
Our Reading Curriculum – Bardfield Academy literature spine
Our Literature Spine has been thoughtfully designed by the staff in our school with the intention of ensuring that all children at Bardfield Academy are exposed to the very best fiction that has been written.
Books have a power to create a living library inside a child’s mind. It is a store of classics and essential reads that help children engage at a deeper level and enter the world of the story, enabling them to experience the intrinsic sense of pleasure that reading can bring as well as developing their knowledge of the world. When we select books we are looking at whether these books are ‘windows or mirrors’.
Mirrors are books that contain storylines, characters, and experiences you can see yourself in. You can make personal connections to these books. You feel seen and heard after reading a book that is a mirror.
A book that is a window helps you see into the life or experience of someone else. You may not be able to relate, but you can learn and grow from that storyline or the book’s characters. We like to have a good balance of windows and mirrors.
The titles have been carefully selected for their quality as stories or poems and in terms of how they can support the children’s understanding of the subjects covered in the school’s curriculum. They also reflect the diverse society in which we live in today, and explore themes around protected characteristics.
Our aim is that children will use it as a launch pad for their own journeys as life-long readers.
View a sample of our Literature Spine- click below:
