We follow the content of the English National Curriculum as detailed in the links below.
English National Curriculum 2014
English_Appendix_2_-_Vocabulary_grammar_and_punctuation
Reading
When children are first starting to read, they progress through our early reading and phonics scheme called ‘Little Wandle – Letters and Sounds’. These books help the children to secure the initial phonics that they need to be able to tackle harder words that they will come across later on. Once they reach phase 5 in phonics (mid Year 1 for most children), they can then choose a book from our wider reading scheme to read alongside their ‘Bug Club’ book. Our wider reading scheme contains a range of books that are grouped into colour bands according to the level of difficulty. Children progress through these colour bands. The class teacher will decide, based on their assessments, how long a child needs to spend on the colour band before moving upto the next band.
We aim for children to develop a love of reading and the pleasure that it brings. We have a well-stocked library and children can choose books from here as well as their ‘book band’ book. Every class has a time each day when children are read to. This is using a picture book for younger children or the class novel for older children.
Reading at Home
We encourage children to read at home daily, not just to build up their reading fluency but also to just enjoy reading and books.
Reading aloud with children is a far richer experience than watching storytimes online or on TV, however brilliantly read by actors! These simple steps remind us that there is no right way to do this, but that turning the TV off, snuggling down and encouraging children to look closely and engage with the text is vital. This is a special time together for adults and children – a daily space to relax, read, connect and enjoy.
The following links may be useful to help you support and enjoy reading with your child at home:
Book Chat
This resource comprises three short films and support materials to help parents, families and carers read books conversationally and creatively to children.
Links to Books Read Aloud Online
Writing
Throughout our school, from Playgroup to Upper Key Stage 2, we are developing our writing skills through an approach called “Talk For Writing.”
Talk for Writing is an approach to teaching writing that emphasizes three teaching methods: ‘imitation’ (where pupils learn texts by heart, so they can discuss and dissect them), ‘innovation’ (where pupils adapt stories to create their own versions), and ‘invention’ (where teachers help pupils to create original stories). These tasks aim to improve writing ability by giving pupils an understanding of the structure and elements of written language.
We believe that Talk for Writing allows a consistent approach to the teaching of writing, and is extremely beneficial to help develop oral language skills in children, which then leads to improved writing.
This year we are also focusing on training children to edit and improve their own work as they write, as this is a vital skill in improving the quality of written work
Spelling
We teach the children to use a range of different strategies to help them to learn spellings. Why not help your child to try some of the strategies in this leaflet and find out which one they like best?
Ways to Help Your Child with Spelling
