"Developing spoken language, including vocabulary, is essential for the academic progress of all children."
From “Telling the Story: the English Education Subject Report.”
Ofsted (March 2024)

From the very beginning of a child’s learning journey with us, spoken language forms a crucial part of everyday life at Combs Ford Primary School.

In Early Years, the children are encouraged from their first day to speak in sentences, with the correct use of language being modelled back to the children. Adults build children’s vocabulary by commenting on what the children are doing and then echoing back what they say with the new vocabulary added. Children are supported in whole class learning to talk collaboratively and articulately. Collaborative learning and clear modelling are continued throughout the school in all curriculum areas and there is a high expectation for the children to convey themselves appropriately.

In Early Years and Year 1, through Drawing Club and The Curious Quests, speaking and listening skills are developed as the children are encouraged to build and rehearse full sentences before writing, talking about their ideas and listening to the ideas of others. They also have the opportunity to listen to modelled sentences daily where positive speaking and writing skills are developed and promoted. The children are encouraged to listen to others' views during collaborative work and share ideas and opinions. The children are also given the opportunity to role play and discuss regularly, building their skills further.

Encouraging the children to speak in full sentences does not stop at the end of Year 1. Children throughout the school are encouraged to answer the register and questions with a full sentence rather than one-word answers and a range of lessons are planned across the school to give the children opportunities to practise speaking. Role play, debates, collaborative work, reasoning, class discussion, school council and play performances are some examples of activities used to teach and promote successful speaking and listening skills here at Combs Ford Primary.

Vocabulary

In EYFS and Year 1, the children are introduced to Buzz Words weekly to go with the book of the week. These Buzz Words are carefully selected words that increase the children’s vocabulary. The meaning of the words are explained to the children and then actions are decided upon as a class to help the words become concrete in the children’s memories. These words are then used in sentences throughout the week and the children are encouraged to use these in their sentences both orally and written. These words are displayed on working walls for reference.

Throughout the school new vocabulary is introduced in every lesson. These new words are dual coded to help children remember them. The words are added to working walls and referred to regularly to help embed them in the children’s memories. The children are encouraged to use these words within their speaking and writing across the curriculum. We aim to keep new words to a minimum during individual lessons so we do not overload the children. In reading lessons, the new vocabulary is chosen from the text, dual coded and then the dictionary definition is added. Finally, the passage from the text is added so that the children see and hear it in context before reading the text. Children also have the opportunity to look at the morphology and etymology of words in more detail when learning new vocabulary.

Although we have a lot of positive opportunities for speaking and listening across the school, this continues to be an area of the curriculum that is being developed so that we ensure success for all our children.

Page reviewed on 12/10/24 by JA and KJD