English
English is an essential part of children’s learning. It enables children to understand, to express ideas and convey information effectively, both in spoken and written forms. The widening of children’s understanding of language and communications supports empowering children, exciting their imagination, and widening their worlds.
The teaching of English includes: spoken language, reading and writing.
Reading
Children at Reedings are encouraged to think of themselves as readers through an ambitious and engaging curriculum which aims to ignite in the children a passion for reading and help them to develop a life-long love of reading which is a part of their everyday life.
Our Reading curriculum gives children the opportunity to:
- Become a fluent reader through frequent practice so they rehearse the key skills gaining accuracy, speed and prosody (expression).
- Acquire a wide vocabulary and develop their understanding of how meaning can be enhanced through specific word choice.
- Develop the skills of retrieval, inference, summarising, prediction and comparison.
- Experience a wide range of authors and genres and different points of view and appreciate our rich and varied literacy heritage
- Communicate, elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas about a text or character.
- Develop their character, including resilience, perseverance and independence.
Reading feeds pupils’ imagination and opens up a treasure-house of wonder and joy for curious young minds.
Reedings is committed to improving our children’s literacy and understands the importance of reading for pleasure. It is essential that, by the end of their primary education, all pupils are able to read fluently, and with confidence, in any subject in their forthcoming secondary education. The document below outlines the end of year expectations for each year group.
End of Year Age Related Reading Expectations
Reading is taught discretely through ‘teach reading’ sessions, where children are taught the key skills of reading. The programmes of study for reading consists of two dimensions:
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word reading
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comprehension (both listening and reading).
The key skills of comprehension are:
- to give/explain the meaning of words in context and to identify/explain how meaning is enhanced through choice of words and phrases (vocabulary)
- to retrieve and record information/identify key details from fiction and non-fiction (retrieval)
- to summarise main ideas from more than one paragraph (summarise)
- to make inferences from the text/explain and justify inferences with evidence from the text (inference)
- to predict what might happen from details stated and implied (predict)
- to identify/explain how information/narrative content is related and contributes to meaning as a whole (justify)
- to make comparisons within the text (compare)
Love of Reading
There is good evidence to suggest that children who read for pleasure daily perform better in reading tests than those who never do. We aim to encourage children to enjoy reading and to read a wide range of good quality literature.
There is strong evidence linking reading for pleasure and educational outcomes, but the benefits go beyond this and stretch throughout a person’s life. The National Curriculum states that reading feeds pupils’ imagination and opens up a treasure-house of wonder and joy for curious young minds. The outcomes of reading will occur more often and more strongly if reading is enjoyable in the first instance. This is why the 'for pleasure' element of reading for pleasure is so important.
Reading is not something that children should just do in school; it needs to be an everyday part of our lives, something we choose to do at all ages. At Reedings, we aim to build a culture of reading for enjoyment that will develop a lifelong love of reading which could benefit children in so many ways. We recognise that reading for pleasure will encourage children to succeed both academically and socially.
At Reedings, each class has their own class library which contains a range of high quality literature which is constantly being added to, allowing the children to choose their own books. Our ‘wishing well’ gives children the opportunity to request books which interest them for their library. Teachers share their love of readi
ng through class stories and discussions. Our themed class libraries give children an exciting place to read and enjoy books. Our comfy reading chairs give adults and children a relaxing place to share books.
Useful websites
Building independence (Ages 7-9)
https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/reading/building-independence-as-a-reader-ages-7-9/
Encouraging reading (Ages 9-11)
https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/reading/building-independence-as-a-reader-ages-7-9/
Reading At Home
Each class has their own class library which contains a range of high quality literature. In Year 3, the books are banded to support children’s choice and ensure they are reading books which are appropriate for their reading age. In Years 5 and 6, the books are separated into genres and children are supported to make appropriate choices and encouraged to read a wide range of authors and genres. In Year 4, there are both banded books and genre ordered books. This supports children's to choose a reading book which is appropriate for their level, and also supports them to transition into a genre organised library.
For children needing further support with phonics, we use the Read Write Inc Phonics Fast Track catch-up programme.
Phonics
Our Phonics Reading curriculum gives children the opportunity to:
- Become a fluent reader through frequent practice of phonetic knowledge
- Apply their phonetic knowledge to a range of words and texts using a government-backed synthetic phonics scheme (Read Write Inc)
- Have secure phonetic knowledge, understanding and skills so that they can decode words confidently and apply this across the curriculum.
Reading with Read Write Inc Phonics:
To visit the parent pages on the Ruth Miskin Training website go to: https://ruthmiskin.com/en/find-out-more/parents/
If you would like any support at home with phonics please contact our 'Reading Champion', Mrs Paula Walton, via the school office. Mrs Walton is always happy to answer any questions and offer her support wherever needed.
Writing
Children at Reedings are encouraged to work as writers through an ambitious and engaging curriculum which aims to ignite in the children a passion for writing and help them to develop their ability to communicate and to develop their own writing style.
Our Writing curriculum gives children the opportunity to:
- Become a fluent writer through frequent practice so they rehearse the key skills for transcription: spelling and handwriting
- Develop their knowledge of spelling through knowing the relationship between sounds and letters (phonics) and understanding the morphology (word structure) and orthography (spelling structure) of words.
- Develop fluent, legible and speedy handwriting.
- Develop their knowledge of the different areas of grammar.
- Acquire a wide vocabulary and develop their understanding of how meaning can be enhanced through specific word choice.
- Practice writing for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences and adapting their language and style as appropriate.
- Develop effective composition by forming, articulating and communicating ideas, and then organising them coherently for a reader.
- Develop their character, including resilience, perseverance and independence.
The teaching of writing consists of two dimensions:
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transcription (spelling and handwriting)
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composition (articulating ideas and structuring them in speech and writing).
Throughout the children’s time at Reedings, they are introduced and taught a wide variety of genres and texts. The document below outlines the genres and main texts taught each year.
End of Year Age Related Writing Expectations
Spelling
To teach spelling, we use the highly successful Spelling Shed programme. This programme has been created to meet the more demanding spelling requirements of the 2014 National Curriculum. It goes through the different spelling patterns and the statutory spelling lists for the end of lower KS2 and upper KS2.
Spelling with Spelling Shed:
Spelling Shed's approach to spelling involves the relationship between sounds and written symbols as well as using morphology to help spell through meaning.
Based on phonics, morphology and etymology, it includes main teaching inputs, which are then followed up with additional activities that can be carried out throughout the week in order to consolidate the learning further. Spellings are also set on the online games for the children to practise at home. It is essential that children practise regularly to ensure the spelling rules or patterns are remembered.
The carefully selected word lists and engaging activities provide opportunities to incorporate phonics and meaning to strengthen spelling skills and build vocabulary acquisition.
Below in an overview of the spelling taught in each year group.
Supporting Children With Their Spelling At Home
Handwriting
At Reedings, we teach children to write in a joined, fluent script. By the end of Year 3, the majority of children are writing in a fluent joined style. In Year 3 and 4, children use pencils for their writing. In Year 5, they practice using pen, and in Year 6 the majority of children should be writing in pen consistently. The national expectation is that all children leave primary school being able to maintain legibility in joined handwriting when writing at speed.
Grammar
The government has placed great emphasis on grammar, punctuation and spelling skills and has introduced a set programme to be taught throughout primary school. At the end of Key Stage 2, children are tested on whether they can spell, punctuate sentences properly and use grammar correctly. Grammar teaching is embedded within the English lessons which gives children the opportunity to practice key skills and apply their knowledge to their independent writing. The documents below explain when the grammar skills are introduced and taught.