English

Language within education is the main tool of learning and the way in which children’s understanding is assessed across the curriculum.  At the same time it is a subject within its own right.

The English curriculum in school is based on the four interrelated areas of language – speaking, listening, reading and writing.

Talk (i.e. speaking and listening) is encouraged and developed.  It is the means by which children form relationships, interact and collaborate, generate ideas, question, express opinions and develop their powers of thinking.  The ability to communicate through talk is important for learning in the classroom and social development.

Reading is a skill that enables children to expand their knowledge of the world. Through reading and responding to imaginative fiction, poetry, drama and a wide range of non-fiction, children both gain pleasure and develop a competence in written language.

We start by teaching phonics to the children in the foundation class. They learn to read using a systematic synthetics phonics programme called Read, Write, Inc. This means that they learn how to ‘read’ the sounds in words and how those sounds can be written down. This is essential for reading but it also helps children learn to spell too. We teach the children simple ways of remembering these sounds and letters.

Once children have completed the Read, Write, Inc. programme, they move onto the second phase of our Reading Pathway. This is the transition stage after Read, Write, Inc. before they move to independent reading. The children read book banded books, also in colours, regularly in groups at school to further develop their fluency and stamina. The book banded books become more challenging as the colour changes.

In Year 2, those children who have completed Read, Write, Inc. also have whole class reading sessions. Therefore, by the end of Year 2, children should be able to read aloud books that are at the right level for their age.

Once they have completed the book banded books, the children move onto independent reading which is monitored by the teachers through a programme called Accelerated Reader for their personal reading.

They also have whole class reading sessions . In these lessons, the children read extracts from a wide range of books each day with their class teacher in a variety of ways to develop their reading skills such as fluency, stamina, expression (prosody), ability to predict and summarise, infer and comprehend.

This whole class method ensures progression and breadth in the key texts being used to teach reading across the school and being shared with the children to develop their love of reading. The children are really enjoying sharing these books together and are frequently asking to read the books for themselves. Extra copies have been purchased to provide copies in the classrooms for the children to read the whole book should they wish and this is proving very popular.

To further promote enjoyment of books, teachers read daily to the children too so the children get to know all sorts of stories, poetry and information books. They learn many more words this way and it also helps their writing.

Throughout their time at school, the children will also bring home another book. This is their library book which is their ‘reading for pleasure’ book. This book is to be shared or read to them, or they can read it independently if they feel they can. This book is NOT necessarily matched to their reading level. We hope this will give them a variety of books to read and help develop their love of reading.

Writing is a skill which develops from the young child’s first marks to the mature writer’s control in making and communicating meaning. In school, children write for many reasons across the whole curriculum.  Children are encouraged to write from the time they enter school in different styles for different purposes.  Sometimes they are given opportunities to draft work.  The draft is then edited; that means spellings, grammar and punctuation are checked and possibly text reshaped before a final copy is produced by the child. Grammar, vocabulary, punctuation and spelling are explicitly and progressively taught in line with the National Curriculum for English. In addition, the school has introduced a cursive handwriting policy which begins in Year 1 to promote a fluid, joined style and further support  spelling.