Intent
At Hollymount, we believe in the importance of speaking and listening skills across the curriculum: the development of oral communication skills is highly valued. Hollymount children have the opportunity to build up their public speaking skills throughout their time at school so that they speak with clear intonation and in a manner suited to the purpose. They are also active listeners, who treat others opinions with respect. They are willing to take part in debates and can respond to what other people have said appropriately and fairly.
By the time children leave Hollymount School, they have a wide and varied vocabularly. This includes the ‘Language of Education’; key subject specific vocabularly; and a range of descriptive language – which they know how to use effectively. Children are able to use this vocabularly to successful navigate the wider world that exists outside school.
Implementation
The Pedagogy of Language Handbook outlines how the teaching of language is implemented across Hollymount School. This is done in two keys ways: through explicit daily teaching and a variety of drip feed strategies.
Explicit Teaching: Childen are explicitly taught certain language in a structured, systematic way three times a week, however, the length of time spent explicitly teaching varies depending on the key stage. EYFS and KS1 teach the language in three blocks of 10 minutes, where as in KS2, they teach the language in three blocks of 15 minutes. The language to be taught focus on concept words (nursery and reception only); The Language of Education; key English vocabularly; and key Maths vocabulary.
Drip Feed Teaching: At the start of each foundation subject, children are taught one new word using the word wizard approach (as well as revisiting the new word taught in the previous lesson). This will be a topic specific word which is going to be used within the lesson. At the end of lesson, children will have the opportunity to review the word after it has put into context. At the end of each foundation unit, teachers facilitate the opportunity for children to draw all their learning together in order to assess their understanding of (and connections between) the new vocabulary learnt.