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School Life
English
In this Section: English overviews/Reading/Phonics/Writing/SPaG/Policies
Characteristics of Learners
English planning overviews 2021-2022
Milestone 1
Milestone 2
Milestone 3
Non-negotiables
English
Our Reading Vision
We are striving to create a passionate reading community. We believe that every child should
be given the tools to develop into an enthusiastic confident reader.
Every child is taught a range of strategies to support their development to become a confident,
independent reader. Children are encouraged to draw on all these strategies from the outset to make sense of a
text.
Enjoying books with an adult is an essential tool of learning to read so adults will aim to ensure
that the child feel positive about themselves as readers each time they share a book.
Children become confident to take risks and have a go at reading. They become fluent,
expressive readers. They enjoy reading and discussing books, empathising with characters and
giving opinions.
Teachers nurture a love of books by introducing books with enthusiasm and enjoyment,
promoting a sense of wonder and expectation as the book is explored. Teachers use quality
texts in all aspects of their teaching across the curriculum and provide opportunities that
extend and enrich the children’s learning.
Reading at home is an essential part of learning to read. Children are encouraged to read
regularly at home and discuss texts with parents/carers. Our Rufford Reading Pathway document is designed to support reading at home and 1:1 reading in school.
Children have access to a wide variety of high quality texts in
book corners and in the school library.
Supporting Reading at home
Our home reading pathway - guidance for parents/carers
Individual reading record sheets
Supporting reading at home
Reading at home is an essential part of learning to read.
Children are encouraged to read regularly at home and
discuss texts with parents/carers.
Each child from Year 1 to Year 6 has been given a bookmark that contains
examples of questions that can be asked by parents/carers as the children are
reading at home.
Reading tips for parents to encourage children to read at home.
Stay and Read
Each term, we invite parents to come in and spend time reading books with their
children in our school library.
Our Reading Challenge has been launched again for this year. Click on the link
below to see the entry requirements.
We use Little Wandle to teach phonics.
Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised is a complete systematic synthetic phonics programme (SSP) developed for schools by schools. Based on the original Letters and Sounds, but extensively revised to provide a complete teaching programme meeting all the expectations of the National Curriculum.
Reading (Phonics)
Love to read
Mobile Library - Every Monday 3.30pm
After school every Monday (in the playground) there is a mobile library.
Children are able to borrow books to take home and read.
Lye Library
Children in Years 2 to 6 attend Lye Library once a term as part of the English curriculum. They also attend history sessions in relation to the wider curriculum. The school works in partnership with staff at the library to develop opportunities and experiences for enjoyment of reading and learning.
Thank you once again, to the staff at Lye Library for making us feel welcome for our half termly class visits. The children enjoy listening to stories and selecting a book to bring back to school with them. Children in Years 2-6 are all members through a school account. The library is fantastic and is a free resource that everyone can access.
Melvyn (the library assistant) is always keen to encourage children and families to visit the library and listen to ideas to try and make visits more enjoyable and valuable.
Thank you to parents/carers who have already encouraged your children to become members outside of school.
Children in Years 5 and 6 have also visited the library to hear local history talks from historians.
Kinetic Letters
All staff have recently received training on the teaching of Kinetic Letters. We have now adopted the Kinetic Letter programme for the teaching of handwriting from Nursery to Year 6.
Kinetic Letters® is a handwriting programme for use in primary and secondary schools.
Four main threads of:
• Making bodies stronger,
• Holding the pencil,
• Learning the letters, and
• Flow and fluency
It enables children to develop legible handwriting that is produced quickly and automatically. With the development of automaticity, handwriting becomes a valuable
tool and not a hindrance to learning.
The Kinetic Letters® font covers all the letters in the alphabet and is based on a set of rules that have been made as simple as possible to enable fast learning. The order in
which letters are taught recognizes the cognitive development of children.
The programme can be used with any reading programme including phonics. Initially reading and writing are taught separately (as recommended by phonics programmes);
later on, reading and writing are combined.
Strength: Writing is a fine finger operation; children must have core body and arm strength to be able to control their fingers precisely.
Pencil hold: The pencil/pen grip must be comfortable to allow writing for long periods (eg exams often last for hours). Pens and pencils with a triangular cross-section assist
in developing the correct hold.
Letter formation: The movements to form the letters begin with whole body movements and progress through writing in sand trays to writing on whiteboards and finally writing on paper. In Kinetic
Letters®, all the letters and numbers are formed by one of two monkeys, a brave one (Bounce) who goes to the top branch of the tree, and a scared one (Skip) who goes to the lower branch.
Flow and fluency: Letter movements are minimized to help a fast writing style to develop. There are no lead-in strokes (a waste of time and effort).