English Intent Statement
At Archbishop Benson, we believe that speaking and listening, reading and writing are essential life skills. We aim to nurture a love for reading, writing and discussion, equipping our pupils with the knowledge and skills needed to become life-long readers and authors. Reading and writing weave their way through our CHAIN curriculum, binding skills together for a richer learning experience.
Spelling at Archbishop Benson C of E Primary School
At Archbishop Benson Primary School, we follow the The Read Write Inc (RWI) Spelling Programme with the aim of getting every child to spell effortlessly. It is a stand-alone programme for children in Year 2 to Year 6 and has been specially created to meet the demands of the National Curriculum. Each member of staff has received training, rated outstanding by Ofsted, to ensure consistent practice across the whole school.
RWI Spelling embeds impressive skills quickly and effectively filling the gaps in children’s knowledge. To keep children engaged, aliens introduce spelling rules on an exciting online spelling planet and children complete quick-fire activities in their spelling logs. Progress is accurately recorded using practice tests and teachers learn how to move children on quickly.
RWI Spelling is a daily 15-minute interactive programme of 5 sessions which use a variety of resources and activities to engage and to enthuse the children in their learning. It helps children to learn spellings with common patterns and uses rules in order to help them recall spellings as well as teaching exceptions to these rules. Individual workbooks allow children to practise their spellings and the teaching naturally follows on from the Spell Review part of the RWI Phonics Programme. Log books give children ownership of their spellings and allow for further consolidation.
Session 1 introduces the children to the new spelling pattern for the week using a video which takes the children to the ‘Spelling Zone’.
Session 2 engages the children in a quick recap of the previous learning and then the children complete in a word changing activity.
Session 3 focuses the children on identifying words they need to learn and writing them in their log books in order for them to practise throughout the week.
Session 4 encourages the children to work in pairs to peer assess each other's work, focusing on choosing a correct word from a given set in order to complete a sentence.
Session 5 allows the children time to unpick a choice of difficult words and an opportunity to spell them correctly.