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
In our school, reading is taught as a basic skill in its own right and is practised throughout all areas of the curriculum. In the early stages of reading, reading is taught as a discrete subject and is later practised and enhanced as a lifelong strategy and pleasure.
Phonics is taught following Letters and Sounds, a phonics resource published by the Department for Education and Skills in 2007.
Letters and Sounds aims to build children's speaking and listening skills in their own right as well as to prepare children for learning to read by developing their phonic knowledge and skills. It sets out a detailed and systematic programme for teaching phonic skills for children starting by the age of five, with the aim of them becoming fluent readers by age seven.
In Year 1 the children have to complete the statutory Year 1 phonics screening check. This is a short, light-touch assessment to confirm whether individual children have learnt phonic decoding to an appropriate standard. It will identify the children who need extra help so they are given support by the school to improve their reading skills. They will then be able to retake the check so that we can track pupils until they are able to decode.
Children read daily in school. In Foundation and Key Stage One they read books using the phonics they have learnt as part of their discrete phonic teaching. In addition, teachers hear children read in groups in all years. The group reading books are carefully matched to the children’s reading ability to develop fluency, comprehension and enjoyment of books. Children read widely across different subjects.
Parents are encouraged to support reading at home and children are expected to read daily. The school has a wide range of graded colour coded reading scheme books. Continuity is ensured by the colour progression and each child works at an individual pace. Each child has an individual diary where reading is recorded and tracked and is a means of communicating development to the child, parent and teacher. Children are also encouraged to take books home from the library.
Phonics is taught following Letters and Sounds, a phonics resource published by the Department for Education and Skills in 2007.
Letters and Sounds aims to build children's speaking and listening skills in their own right as well as to prepare children for learning to read by developing their phonic knowledge and skills. It sets out a detailed and systematic programme for teaching phonic skills for children starting by the age of five, with the aim of them becoming fluent readers by age seven.
In Year 1 the children have to complete the statutory Year 1 phonics screening check. This is a short, light-touch assessment to confirm whether individual children have learnt phonic decoding to an appropriate standard. It will identify the children who need extra help so they are given support by the school to improve their reading skills. They will then be able to retake the check so that we can track pupils until they are able to decode.
Children read daily in school. In Foundation and Key Stage One they read books using the phonics they have learnt as part of their discrete phonic teaching. In addition, teachers hear children read in groups in all years. The group reading books are carefully matched to the children’s reading ability to develop fluency, comprehension and enjoyment of books. Children read widely across different subjects.
Parents are encouraged to support reading at home and children are expected to read daily. The school has a wide range of graded colour coded reading scheme books. Continuity is ensured by the colour progression and each child works at an individual pace. Each child has an individual diary where reading is recorded and tracked and is a means of communicating development to the child, parent and teacher. Children are also encouraged to take books home from the library.
Writing
In our school, writing is promoted as a thinking tool, not just as a medium for sharing information. Children are encouraged to write at length across a range of subjects, not just in their English lessons, where nothing less than their best is good enough. The children partake in a weekly 'Big Write' and prepare themselves for this with a 'Big Talk' which is undertaken at home beforehand.
