There has been a large amount of research carried out in recent years surrounding vocabulary with some very troubling outcomes.

  • 65% of young offenders have been found to have unidentified speech, language and communication needs.
  • The quality and quantity of children’s vocabulary at age five is a strong predictor of how well they will be doing aged 30.
  • Children with larger vocabularies achieve more academically and display better behaviour.
  • Children with a wider range of vocabulary allows them to better share something of themselves – their feelings, ideas and experiences.

Home Reading:

We want our children to have a hunger for words, new words and finding out what new words mean. One of the half-termly home reading activities focuses on this. Every time the children read, they are asked to pick out one word that is new, challenging and interesting. Teacher’s then discuss these in class and consider ways these words can be used.

Foundation Subjects:

In each foundation subject, the leaders have designed vocabulary-rich, spiral curriculums. These intentionally chosen words are explicitly taught to the children and not left to chance. Each year’s vocabulary builds on the words of the previous year.

Stem Sentences:

Stem Sentences are a proven method to help improve pupils’ language proficiency, in turn, improving their communication and writing. They improve fundamental language skills as well as higher-level thinking skills, familiarising students with sentence structure, linguistic ability and lesson content all at once. Every subject in the curriculum has their own stem sentences.

  • Maths example: There are one hundred tens in one thousand.
  • Art example: Tone means light and dark.
  • Music example: A crotchet lasts for one beat

Tiered Words:
All vocabulary can be placed into three tiers; these tiers are based on frequency, complexity and meaning. As teachers, we know that a robust vocabulary supports reading comprehension and reinforces understanding of new and difficult texts.
Being mindful of tiered vocabulary during vocabulary instruction assists the development of language acquisition and promotes a strong foundation for literacy across content areas.


• Tier 1 Words: Basic words that are commonly used in spoken language.
• Tier 2 Words: Academic Vocabulary appearing frequently across content areas.
• Tier 3 Words: Low frequency words that occur within specific domains.


Our language rich displays around school show tier 2 and tier 3 words.

Pathways:

Alongside key writing disciplinary knowledge, Pathways to Write also builds in extensive opportunities to develop and apply vocabulary. Vocabulary boxes are in every unit and give guidance on the tiered vocabulary that is developed within that unit – as well as which statutory words are appropriate for that unit.
We have taken these words, combined them with the statutory spelling words for that unit as well as the Mastery and Feature keys to create Knowledge Organisers to guide both pupils and teachers.


• Y4 teacher version: https://wsap.academy/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Y4-Summer-2-Full.pdf
• Y4 pupil version: https://wsap.academy/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Y4-Summer-2-Children.pdf

Comprehension:

Each of the six sessions in each Pathways to Read unit has a Clarify Vocabulary focus which is either A reading strategy e.g. visualisation, reading aloud, working out unknown words or vocabulary needed for the section of text will be discussed.
Pathways uses glossaries, dictionaries, images and various other support strategies to help children understand an unknown word. Running alongside this, children at St. Alban’s are taught the following five strategies to understand a word when they don’t have access to any support: