English

Reading

Children are taught to decode text and read for meaning through a number of opportunities during their day to day life at school. From Reception to Year 1 all children learn to decode text through phonics. From Year 2, children are able to hone their comprehension and inference skills through daily skills lessons. 

Children should read at home for fifteen to twenty minutes a day. Children's reading at home should be recorded on their 'Read the Rainbow' bookmark. Certificates and prizes are awarded for children's completion of their bookmarks. Children on the phonics programme are allocated (and take home) colour banded books of different reading skills levels as they work through the school. One of these colour banded books is the one studied in phonics lessons and the second is a linked text with similar content/characters. When children finish the phonics programme, they can choose from a wide range of age appropriate books to take home and read, this is further supplemented by a levelled text for children who understand phonics. Children are also encouraged to read for pleasure and access a wider range of age appropriate books from their year group's selection. 

Writing

Writing is taught through an adaptive approach where children are immersed in a shared text and then innovate and develop their writing stemming from this. Each year group has a list of core texts, taken from Pie Corbett's reading lists, which are used to support children's writing. When children are on the phonics programme, spelling is taught in phonics lessons. Following this, children have specific spelling lessons appropriate for their level. All children are taught grammar lessons as part of their English and writing coverage. Vocabulary forms a vital part of developing children's writing and reading ability. Children are praised for developing their vocabulary and adults support this through their teaching alongside age appropriate word of the day coverage and word banks in lessons.

Handwriting

We teach letter formation in Reception and Year 1, and introduce cursive handwriting from Year 2. Handwriting is taught discretely and applied during phonics and all other curriculum subjects. For more information about the handwriting scheme we follow go to:www.letter-join.co.uk and www.ruthmiskin.com Parents are provided with a log in for the Letter Join website to further practise at home.

Interventions

For children that require targeted support in English, we have a variety of interventions.  Support staff are given extra training to ensure that interventions are of a high quality.  Extra phonics interventions take place daily, children are given extra 1:1 reading support and we also deliver targeted support through the use of PiXL resources.