Fun, Creativity and Achievement

Fun, Creativity and Achievement

Fun, Creativity and Achievement

Fun, Creativity and Achievement

Fun, Creativity and Achievement

Fun, Creativity and Achievement

Fun, Creativity and Achievement

Fun, Creativity and Achievement

Fun, Creativity and Achievement

Fun, Creativity and Achievement

Fun, Creativity and Achievement

Fun, Creativity and Achievement

Fun, Creativity and Achievement

Fun, Creativity and Achievement

Fun, Creativity and Achievement

Fun, Creativity and Achievement

Fun, Creativity and Achievement

Fun, Creativity and Achievement

Fun, Creativity and Achievement

Fun, Creativity and Achievement

Fun, Creativity and Achievement

Fun, Creativity and Achievement

English

Ambition in English

Our ambition for every child, is to ensure that each and every pupil reaches their full potential. We want to ensure that every child has a positive view of literature and builds solid foundation in reading and writing to be able to access the wider curriculum. To achieve this, we strive to ensure that pupils secure their key skills in English through exciting and engaging learning opportunities.

Implementation

As a school, we celebrate and provide rich reading experiences at every available opportunity, so that all our children develop a love of the written word. Through the school’s promotion of reading, pupils are able to confidently explore and discuss texts in detail.

In the Early Years, pupils begin by exploring books with their peers and their teachers, using their understanding of phonics to begin the early stages of reading. Like all our classrooms, our Reception class is a language rich environment, and pupils are able to select from a range of exciting texts and engage in learning opportunities to further deepen their understanding. Parents are a hugely important part of a child’s reading journey and therefore the staff work in partnership with families from the outset to support their child’s learning at home.

The strong foundations established in the Early Years are built on, as the children move into Key Stage One. In these year groups, teachers deepen pupil’s learning and enjoyment of texts, by using a variety of questions to focus their understanding of the themes and characters presented. A range of rich texts are used, so that pupils use of vocabulary and enjoyment of reading is heightened. The breadth of our curriculum ensures that pupils have access to a wide range of poetry, fiction and non-fiction.

Reading Experiences at Pineham Barns

At our school, we use a variety of strategies to support the teaching of reading, as all learners are individual and therefore can require different approaches to secure their skills. In recognition of this, teachers use a variety of decoding skills such as phonics and picture cues to ensure all pupils become competent and confident readers who enjoy the written word. Furthermore, parent workshops which focus on the different strategies used ensure that families are able to actively support their child’s learning needs at home.

Independent reading books support children at an individual level and are carefully chosen by teachers to aid and challenge our pupils. We use a variety of different materials and stimulus to enable our children to develop a love of reading. Our independent reading stage books are from the Oxford Tree Reading Scheme, and provide pupils with opportunities to engage with both fiction, poetry and non-fiction materials. In addition to independent reading, and from the end of the Early Years, all pupils have the opportunity to work in small groups with a member of staff to participate in Guided Reading. This provides pupils with further opportunities to explore challenging texts, discussing their themes to deepen their understanding.

Phonics

Our Phonic teaching happens on a daily basis and is taught in small groups, so that it is reactive to the changing needs of learners. Our Phonics programme begins in the Early Years, as soon as the children are settled and ready. Phonics teaching then continues into Key Stage One, when the children have to complete the statutory assessment at the end of Year One.

At Pineham Barns, we use the Letters & Sounds programme to ensure the progressive development of skills, so that pupils can decode effectively. In their Literacy learning; pupils are provided with the opportunity to develop and embed these key skills.

Comprehension

Sessions occur weekly in Years 2-6 on a two week cycle. In week 1 children work with their teacher and peers to study a short text and to answer related questions. Week 2 enables the children to undertake a small twenty minute comprehension, before working through and editing their responses with their teachers. In Year 1, children work with their teacher and peers to study a short text and answer related questions in Guided Reading sessions. They then begin to work more formally in the Summer Term to help aid transition into Year 2.

 Writing

As a school we recognise that reading is fundamental to the writing process, as children can only write successfully if they have a full understanding of the features of specific genres. Therefore, there is a strong emphasis on using children’s knowledge of texts type and language to promote good writing skills. Through exciting contexts and stimulating experiences, children are actively encouraged to develop their own style of writing. Throughout the school, visual stimulus and drama are used to inspire children’s imaginations to write. In addition to support the writing process, teachers model examples of effective writing, so children can be successful in their own endeavours to become highly skilled writers. The effective use of good vocabulary is highly encouraged and the children have opportunities to apply these skills throughout the curriculum.

Our pupils understanding of sentence structure and grammar is an important feature of the children’s learning in English. In recognition of this, it is taught discretely and embedded into every aspect of the children’s learning, so that they have every opportunity to refine and enhance their skill in this area.

Weekly Spelling and Handwriting

Weekly spellings are progressive throughout the school and focus on the spelling strategies that are required for each year group. A look, cover, write, check approach is used and actively promoted to parents to secure pupil’s understanding of the spelling strategy. At our school, we strive to ensure that all our pupil’s books reflect the highest of outcomes and we recognise that neat presentation is an important skill. Therefore, we have a whole school approach to handwriting, which is the cursive script. Support is provided for parents, so that they can actively encourage their child with this at home.

SPAG

A fifteen minute Punctuation and Grammar session takes place during the morning. During these sessions, the children learn key objectives and skills in relation to this area through pacey, interactive sessions. Our children are then provided with further opportunities during their wider curriculum to embed their new learning.

Year One & Two Spag Curriculum

Key Stage Two Spag Coverage.docx

For more information about the English Curriculum, please speak to your child’s class teacher or Mrs Stewart.