English
In our school, we believe all children deserve to attain a high standard of English. Children are explicitly taught the skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening. English lessons are timetabled each day throughout Key Stages 1 and 2 with skills being transferred to all other areas of the curriculum.
To view the objectives in the new curriculum, please click on the links below:
Year 1 Objectives
Year 2 Objectives
Year 3 & Year 4 Objectives
Year 5 & Year 6 Objectives
To view the objectives in the new curriculum, please click on the links below:
Year 1 Objectives
Year 2 Objectives
Year 3 & Year 4 Objectives
Year 5 & Year 6 Objectives
Reading & Phonics
Reading
As a school, we believe that creating a culture of reading is a vital tool in ensuring our children are given the best possible life chances. We ensure that all our pupils are provided with a rich and varied learning experience that aims to develop them as lifelong readers. Cultivating readers with a passion for a wide range of materials will ensure that children’s love of reading extends far beyond the classroom and allows them to build on their skills independently through a real curiosity for literature and thirst for knowledge.
As a school, we believe that creating a culture of reading is a vital tool in ensuring our children are given the best possible life chances. We ensure that all our pupils are provided with a rich and varied learning experience that aims to develop them as lifelong readers. Cultivating readers with a passion for a wide range of materials will ensure that children’s love of reading extends far beyond the classroom and allows them to build on their skills independently through a real curiosity for literature and thirst for knowledge.
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Phonics
In order to develop the secure decoding skills and phonic knowledge required for reading, our EYFS and Key Stage 1 children receive a daily phonics lesson. We use the Rocket Planet Synthetic Phonics programme to deliver our phonics curriculum. It sets out a detailed and systematic programme for teaching phonics for infant aged pupils, with the aim of children becoming fluent decoders by the age of seven. Please see our Phonics Guide for Parents below for more information. In Year 1 the children complete the statutory Year 1 Phonics Screening Check. This is a short 1:1 assessment which confirms whether individual children have acquired the necessary phonic decoding skills to an appropriate standard. It also identifies those children who need extra support to improve their reading decoding skills. These children will then be able to retake the check in Year 2. Please see our Phonics Screening Guide below for more information. |
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Reading Skills
At Marsh Gibbon, we aim to develop children's word reading and reading comprehension skills in tandem through the explicit teaching of reading skills. Children need to be aware of the reading skills they are using in order to give them a greater understanding of what makes a well-rounded reader. At Marsh Gibbon, these skills are known as VIPERS. Vocabulary Inference Predict Explain Retrieve Sequence or summarise |
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Key Stage 1 National Assessments in Reading [SATS]
At the end of Key Stage 1, in Year 2, teachers assess children's reading against national criteria. By the end of Year 2, most children will be reading with a high degree of fluency. The reading assessment focuses on children's reading comprehension skills, and understanding of what they read.
Reading in Key Stage 2 [Years 3 to 6]
By Key Stage 2, most children have acquired the fluency to access a wider variety of reading material. Throughout Key Stage 2 children will have the opportunity to take home a "reading skills" book from our reading scheme, and a colour banded "reading choice" book from the library. The library is well stocked with a varied range of high quality fiction from renowned children's authors as well as wide variety of non fiction texts. The literature has been banded to reflect the complexity of the text and the maturity required from the reader. A child who is a good decoder, with a large sight vocabulary is not necessarily a good well rounded reader. It is vital that parents engage in discussion with their children to ensure they have a true understanding of the text.
Many children in Key Stage 2 will be able to read independently. However, they are still encouraged to read regularly to staff in school and adults at home. This reading continues to be recorded in the child's reading diary. Children are also invited to record in their own reading diaries.
In Key Stage 2, group guided reading sessions are replaced by whole class guided reading lessons. This enables teachers to explicitly teach higher order reading comprehension skills and pupils to closely analyse texts for meaning, using their VIPERS skills. Lessons focus on examining chapters and passages from class texts as well as shorter excerpts from a range of genres.
Children in Key Stage 2, still requiring support with decoding and reading fluency, will receive additional 1:1 and small group work to develop these vital skills.
Throughout the school, reading is embedded across the curriculum and children are given the opportunity to read widely across different subjects. We make opportunities to read to the children so that they can appreciate and enjoy literature together.
