English is at the core of our teaching at Wheatfields. Reading and writing are essential life skills and are developed throughout a child’s time at the school. While Reading and Writing are taught discretely, they are also woven through all of the curriculum and help to equip the children to become lifelong learners.
AIMS
The aims of teaching English are:
- to enable children to speak clearly and audibly, and to take account of their listeners;
- to teach children effective communication, both verbal and non-verbal;
- to help them become confident, enthusiastic and independent readers, through an appropriate focus on word-, sentence- and text-level knowledge;
- to foster the enjoyment of writing, and a recognition of its value;
- to encourage accurate and meaningful writing, be it narrative or non-fiction;
- to enable the children to use the correct spelling, grammar and punctuation;
- to help children develop a fluent, joined style of handwriting.
SPEAKING AND LISTENING
We recognise the importance of spoken language in pupils’ development across the whole curriculum - spoken language underpins the development of reading and writing. Children are encouraged to develop effective communication skills in readiness for later life.
Opportunities to develop these skills include; an annual public speaking competition, class assemblies, talk partners, drama and performances. Speaking and listening skills are taught in English, across the curriculum and during extra-curricular activities too.
READING
Reading is the gateway to all learning and is at the heart of our learning here at Wheatfields. We want all children to develop the skills to enable them to read fluently and with understanding. We also provide texts, experiences and learning which promote a love of reading.
We use ELS to deliver daily discrete phonics lessons in FS and KS1, enabling children to decode efficiently. This is continued into KS2 where necessary.
Teachers model reading strategies during shared reading sessions with groups or the whole class. Children have the opportunity to develop reading strategies and to discuss texts in detail during guided reading sessions. These may be taught as a whole class or in smaller groups. Children are given time to read for pleasure. In every classroom there is a reading area and a range of books to enjoy.
Reading with a partner
Across years 2 to 6 we use Accelerated Reader to help the children develop their reading skills and their enthusiasm for reading. Accelerated Reader is a system that enables the children to develop their love of reading. Every time they finish a book, they complete a quiz to assess their comprehension of what they have read and if passed, are awarded the number of words that are in the book. Our children are proud of their personal word count as well as their class totals.
Many exciting and rewarding activities are arranged in school to promote the pleasure and knowledge that can be gained from books, i.e. Book Fair, World Book Day, Stay and Read sessions and visiting authors.
We recognise the value of adults (both in school and at home) reading aloud to children, in order to improve their grasp of story language, enthuse them with a love of books and inspire them as writers. We have regular Stay and Read sessions in school where we invite parents to come into school and read with their children. We also acknowledge how important reading at home is for their learning. Asking that parents/carers track home reading through the use of 'Learning with Parents'. Children receive house/Dojo points every time they've recorded their reading at home.-
Stay and Read session
WRITING
We aim to develop the children’s ability to produce well-structured, detailed writing in which the meaning is made clear and which engages the interest of the reader. Attention is paid throughout the school to the formal structures of English, grammatical detail, punctuation and spelling. Our approach to teaching writing covers the ‘transcription’ and ‘composition’ requirements of The National Curriculum (2013).
Children are encouraged to take pride in their writing and strive to do their best at all times. We believe that the children learn best when they are writing for a purpose. This purpose is at the core of the unit of work and gives the children a focus. We also have an audience for our final piece of writing in a unit. The children encourage a range of text types and genres across the school (see the attached English Overview table at the bottom of the page).
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Independent writing
GRAMMAR AND SPELLING
The teaching of Grammar and Spelling is in line with the requirements of The National Curriculum (2013). Grammar is usually taught as part of the English lesson but is reinforced across the curriculum. Children are taught grammatical rules and given time to practise these and embed them.
To be able to spell correctly is a life skill. When spelling becomes automatic, pupils are able to concentrate on the content of their writing. From Year 2, when the children move on from their phonics lessons, we follow a specific spelling programme up to Year 6. We believe that this enables the children to develop their understanding of spelling patterns and rules.
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Supported writing
HANDWRITING
We follow the Wheatfield's Handwriting Policy (see below) which outlines the expectations for handwriting in each year group.
ENGLISH OVERVIEW - Currently being updated and will be published soon