English

Reading

Children learn to read through a phonics-based approach and modelling of high-quality texts. From Foundation Stage we follow the Letters and Sounds teaching, which is supplemented by other resources. The children are matched to a phonic book matched to their level of reading in Early Years and progress through our Early Reading scheme.

We use bench marking and teacher assessment to ensure each child is matched with an appropriate book for their phonic level and understanding. Home-school readers are completed by parents and teachers to monitor reading.

During Years 2 and 3 the children move on to our Accelerated Reader programme where they have access to a wide range of books that are banded for their ability. They complete little quizzes to check their understanding of the book and key assessments twice a year, in addition to their termly reading assessments.

Teachers model reading and understanding through the reading phase of their teaching sequence and also in other subjects, where children read widely for knowledge and understanding.

Guided Reading sessions take place during the week, where the teacher will work with a focus group of children and the other children will work on their reading skills.

Reading for pleasure is encouraged and celebrated across the school and children can read at lunchtimes, breaktimes and at other points in the week.  There are whole school days such as World Book Day, and the Book Fayre visits twice a year.

Writing

Writing is taught through a belief that children can write when they can articulate what they want to say. We use modelling, talk for writing and a range of resources such as talk buttons to support the teaching. Teachers inspire children to want to write, with writing linked to high quality texts and knowledge. Children are taught a range of sentence stems and sentence types so that they can apply them to their writing. Writing is modelled for children and on display to support them with their writing.

The children learn their initial letters with the flicks and joins to make joined up writing easier as they move through the school. They have handwriting practice times so they can embed this.

Spelling is taught through discrete lessons and is there is a clear progression for ages and for abilities. Key spellings are taught from Foundation and practised with the children. As the children move through the phonic phases, they are taught the spelling rules and their exceptions.

Grammar is a key part of learning to write and the children are taught through discrete lessons and through their English lessons.

Children are taught to edit their writing with purple polishing pens.

Knowledge Organisers

Year 1

Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar

Year 2

Spelling,Punctuation and Grammar

Year 3

Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar

Year 4

Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar

Year 5

Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar

Year 6

Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar

Growing Together