Purpose of study

English teaches children to communicate their ideas and emotions. Children must be able to speak and write fluently for a range of purposes and audiences. They must also be inspired to communicate by real experiences, literature and the factual information they acquire about our world. Our English curriculum is centred around children experiencing and immersing themselves in high quality Literature. Reading fluently for knowledge and for pleasure is the highest prize for our children to achieve. Children are taught explicitly the skills of both decoding and comprehension with an expectation that this is applied every day in all that they learn and do.

Aims

The over arching aim for English in the national curriculum is to promote high standards of language and literacy be equipping children with a strong command of the spoken and written word, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment. The national curriculum for English aims to ensure that all children:

• read easily, fluently and with good understanding
• develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information
• acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language
• appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage
• write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences
• use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas
• are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate.

Writing

Our English curriculum is driven by carefully chosen books or narratives that are mapped out in our long term overviews. High quality texts help to inspire and motivate our children to write for different purposes, in different styles and for different audiences. Writing lessons are organised in units that normally last between two to three weeks. Lessons are sequenced in phases following guidance from the Hampshire local authority English team. Children learn composition and effect, sentence structure, grammar and punctuation and vocabulary through a blend of lesson activities. Children conclude every unit of writing with an independent or published piece of writing.

Reading

Reading is taught daily. Lessons are focused on a class or group text each week. The children enjoy a rich and diverse range of narratives, poetry and non-fiction texts. Children are taught to develop their fluency and appreciation of narrative. In addition to this, they learn prompts and skills to help evaluate, analyse and articulate answers to comprehension questions. The skills they learn are linked to what we call VIPERS. These are the VIPERS skills:

Vocabulary

Infer

Predict

Explain

Retrieve

Summarise

Reading Recovery

Children who are not yet fluent at Reading are comprehensively assessed when they start in Year 3 to pinpoint any weak areas and gaps within their phonic understanding. Children are then targeted with daily phonics teaching at the relevant stage of their development.

We follow the Read, Write Inc programme. This is also used at Wootey Infant School so many of our children can seamlessly continue their phonics journey with familiar resources and teaching approaches. Children learning phonics all receive a Read, Write Inc book carefully matched to the sound they are learning. Parents are encouraged to support reading at home by reading the book four times with a different purpose for each session. 

When children have a robust grasp of phonics they leave the Read, Write Inc scheme and read books carefully matched to the sounds and reading domains they need practice with. The school uses the Star Reading assessment tool to accurately identify children's Reading targets. This helps to build children's confidence to develop fluency and comprehension with books that are appropriately challenging and interesting for junior readers.

Independent Reading

We encourage all our children to read every day and to record their reading in their reading journals. This is monitored by the teacher each week and celebrated in our Friday assembly when children achieve a significant milestone e.g. 25 days. Children who read over 300 days in a year are taken to Waterstones and are presented with a brand new book for their efforts.

Throughout the year we also encourage children to love books through our Love Library events, library competitions, visiting authors and World Book day celebrations.

Reading Ambassadors

Children at Wootey are proud of their Reading and we have a group of children who are called Reading Ambassadors who celebrate books. They spend time in the library every week looking for great books and stories to share with other children. They also make regular book recommendations in assembly.

Spelling

We teach children to spell daily using the Read, Write Inc Spelling Programme. This is a structured approach used in primary schools to help children become confident and accurate spellers. It builds on the phonics knowledge children develop in early reading and teaches them how to apply this understanding to spelling, grammar and vocabulary.

In the programme, children learn spelling through short, focused lessons that take place several times each week. Each unit focuses on a specific spelling pattern or rule, such as common letter strings, prefixes and suffixes, or words with unusual spellings. Children are taught strategies to help them remember and apply these patterns when writing.

Lessons are interactive and involve a variety of activities including word building, partner discussion, quick-fire practice and writing tasks. Children learn to:

• recognise and practise common spelling patterns
• understand how words are constructed
• spot and correct spelling errors
• apply their spelling knowledge in their own writing

Children are also taught ways to remember tricky words, explore the meaning of new vocabulary and understand how grammar works within sentences.

The programme is organised into progressive units so that skills build gradually as children move through the school. Regular review and practice help children to embed what they have learned and apply it confidently in their reading and writing.

Overall, Read Write Inc. Spelling supports children to develop accurate spelling, a wider vocabulary and a stronger understanding of how the English language works.

Handwriting

At Wootey, we believe that a modern handwriting technique is integral to the fluency and legibility of the children's written work. As a school we have developed our Handwriting Policy in conjunction with Wootey Infant School. This a joint policy as both schools are aiming to align our teaching approaches to ensure smooth transition and understanding for children. 

Your child's teacher will always be happy to supply additional support, guidance and practise materials.

Speaking and Listening

Speaking and Listening are at the heart of all language development. They are foundational for Reading and Writing whilst proving essential for thinking and communication. As a school we have been involved for the past two years in the Hampshire Local Authority Oracy project where we have been developing the way we teach children to become effective listeners and how they can use exploratory and presentational talk. In every classroom, we have Listening Ladders and Sentence stems that are taught to help structure children's talk. Children engage regularly in 'talk tasks' in groupings to facilitate conversation such as pairs, trios and traverse. Children are also taught about rules for respectful talk and how to disagree with each other and build on what has been said.