Reading and Writing
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English plays a key role in pupils’ social, emotional, cultural and spiritual development. We teach our pupils to speak and write fluently, encouraging them to communicate their ideas and emotions.
Through reading and listening others can communicate to them, enabling our pupils to become informed confident members of society. Our aim as a trust is to introduce our children to our rich and varied literary heritage, help them to become fluent and confident readers and to move on to the next stage of their education with the key skills they need.
In our schools, we place reading at the very heart of our curriculum. We use “Core Stories" as a vehicle to draw links and motivate the children to apply their skills and knowledge to all areas of the curriculum. Each phase has their learning built around a "core story" (a key text); these are typically studied for half-a-term, however, as the children progress and study longer texts this can be extended to a term. These core stories are chosen for their diversity, their wide and ambitious vocabulary, their ability to engage our children and their themes. This allows us to provide a rich, broad and balanced curriculum that creates experiences which build upon and extends the children's cultural capital. We use a teaching resource called “The Power of Reading” to support our reading and writing lessons in school. This scheme, created by the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education uses research-based approaches to promote the use of high-quality texts to achieve the best outcomes for children.
Our children begin their journey into literacy in our Early Year Foundation Stage (EYFS.) In our Nursery, they are immersed in high quality stories and rhymes, songs and poems to enrich their vocabulary and start their love of reading. Activities to develop speaking and listening and phonemic awareness are built into learning through play. Turn taking and chat are part of everyday interactions between children and adults. Building up the children's fine motor skills is an essential part of their daily experience, enabling the children to develop the pre-requisite skills they need for mark-making.
As children move through the EYFS into Reception and Year One they have daily, rigorous high quality phonic sessions. Our school follows the DfE recommended scheme, Super Sonic Phonic Friends. As children move through the scheme, their learning is organised in 'Basics', which become increasingly complex as children move through the scheme. All of the letters and sounds children are introduced to during these sessions allow them to become emergent readers and writers. As part of these sessions, children are taught correct letter formation, pure sounds, blending and segmenting for both reading and writing.
If you would like to find out more about Super Sonic Phonic Friends, please see the 'Super Sonic Phonic Friends Parent Workshop' document attached by clicking below.
Below you will also find links to videos which demonstrate the correct pronunciation for each sound your child will learn. Their videos are organised into phases. If you are unsure which phase your child is currently working within, please speak to you child’s class teacher.
Phase 2 pronunciation - https://vimeo.com/753929025/5eaa45c0aa
Phase 3 pronunciation - https://vimeo.com/753931102/b9a2f8194f
Phase 5 pronunciation - https://vimeo.com/753933192/43104a30e0
As children move into Key Stage One, we build on the skills we have encouraged through the EYFS. Children practise their reading skills at home and in school using our phonetically decodable reading scheme books, which foster independence and confidence because they are so closely matched to the phonics learning children do in school. Any children who need extra support and help with their phonics learning are given interventions to help them catch up. At the end of Year One, children take the Phonics Screening Check; they blend and read 40 real and nonsense words using the phonics knowledge. Structured handwriting sessions continue at this stage, focusing on more consistent sizing. Children are encouraged to use their phonics knowledge to make phonically-plausible spellings attempts.
In Year 2 and beyond, the expectation is that children become more and more fluent and confident readers. Children have daily spellings and handwriting sessions, focusing on developing a fluent, consistent, cursive writing style and learning the common spelling patterns which will enable them to spell with increasing accuracy as they progress. In writing lessons, children are exposed to the four purposes of writing (Michael Tidd) and given regular opportunities to emulate these writing styles. During the term, the children are taught the specific skills which can be used to enhance the genre of writing they are focusing on. At least once per term, children complete a 'Big write/Extended write' in which they are able to showcase all of the skills they have learned; enabling the teacher to see their confidence and mastery of these skills.
As the children move through the school, our skilled teachers assess to see if they are on track to meet the expected standard for their year group. Support is put in place for any children who need it through our programme of interventions and if required, our SEND team. Parents are welcome to talk to their child’s teacher at any time to ask questions or to check their child’s progress.
Home and school working in partnership produce the best outcomes for our learners. Parents are welcomed into our schools to volunteer to hear readers and to take part in reading cafes linked to our core stories where they can hear a text read and take part in activities linked to it. We hold parent curriculum information sessions throughout the year on phonics, reading, grammar and assessment to help parents support their children at home.
The children get to visit our well stocked school library weekly. Our books are sorted into fiction and non-fiction; non fiction books are organised by subject and children are supported in using the key to begin to find them books that will interest them. Our books have been chosen to engage the children in reading the learning based on their interests, passions and popular high-quality children's authors. The bright displays celebrate reading achievements in class.
Speaking and Listening skills are developed across every day and every lesson. Children are given opportunities to ‘Turn, talk and tell’ or use their ‘Talk partners’ to discuss their understanding and ideas. Drama activities are undertaken when their use will support the children’s understanding, vocabulary and engagement in the core story. Across the schools, children are regularly given opportunities to recite poems by a variety of poets and perform them to an audience. During each phase of their education, children have the opportunity to participate in a performance that showcases their speaking and listening skills, these plays are presented to parents.
We are proud of the rich, rigorous English curriculum we provide for our children.
