English
English programmes of study follow the National Curriculum. All children are taught English skills directly and then apply these skills across a range of cross-curricular contexts. A link to the National Curriculum can be found here.
Phonics
In Early Years and Key Stage 1 we have a rigorous approach to Phonics Teaching. Children work in small groups with precisely targeted support. We have chosen Rising Stars Rocket Phonics as our systematic, synthetic phonics scheme from 2021. This was chosen to match with our already purchases, tried and tested reading scheme- Rising Stars Reading Planets.
Reading
We develop reading at every stage. We recognise the importance of early reading and how interested, motivated reader often become the best writers. We listen to readers in school and support parents to read at home too. We develop a love of reading by by sharing books they will enjoy within our whole class reading lessons, class novels and recommendations from peers and staff. It is important to recognise that once children can decode the words confidently, the focus switches to comprehension, ensuring that children have fully understood what they have read. We use the VIPERS skills to develop comprehension skills.
V- Vocabulary
I- Infer
P- Predict
E- Explain
R- Retrieve
S- Summarise
In class we choose books which are challenging, carefully checking children have understood the text before moving on. We find this is a valuable way to extend vocabulary and introduce new literary concepts.
In November 2019, we replaced the phonics and early reading scheme, to ensure the books were current, engaging and fully phonically decodable. At the same time we invested heavily in beautiful books to encourage a love of reading amongst all children in school. Below are some resources to help parents and pupils choose books they will love. There are suggestions of different types of books for each year group, progression in different story types from KS1 to KS2 and beyond, a 'tube map' of suggested books based on popular topics (KS1) and authors (KS2) as well as an inclusive selection which address issues from bereavement to asylum seekers to autism to different family structures. We aim to have all these books in school and available to borrow. Please let us know if you find them useful.
Writing
The children told us they were most motivated to write when they cared about the subject of their writing and could see the purpose. As such, we try to make sure that writing tasks are 'real life'. For example, if we are writing letters, we send them to real people and await the response. If we are writing a persuasive arguement, we might send this to the parish council or our MP. This has had real benefits in terms of motivation to write. The links to our topic for each term means that children are confident in the content of their writing and can focus on the quality of what they include.
Within writing lessons, we follow a three week unit plan, 'I do, We do, You do'.
In the 'I Do' week, the teacher shares the WAGOll (what a good one looks like) which is always teacher written. The children spend the lesson unpicking the text, looking for vocabulary, grammar, text features and other WOW pieces. The following sequence of lessons are teacher led and involve gathering and collecting good examples of vocabulary, information for their independent writin and beginning to learn the grammar, punctuation and spelling required for their independent writing.
The 'We Do' week is much more child led. They begin to apply their new found skills with their peers and share sentences, structures and information, working together to achieve a common goal. The children delve into the text further and enjoy sharinng and collaborating with one another. This sharing is crucial within a mixed age class as it creates a excellent working relationship between older and younger pupils, in turn fostering our 5 core values.
Within the 'You Do' week, children become much more independent, refining the skills they've learnt. Children begin planning and drafting their independent piece of work and towards the end of the week, edit and publish their final pieces. Children are proud of what they've produced and share this with pride with all staff and pupils in school.