English

Reading

Phonics is used as a basis for teaching children to read.  All children in Pre-School, Reception and Key Stage 1 participate in a daily phonics session.  We follow the Floppy’s Phonics Scheme and all our Teachers and Teaching Assistants are trained to use Floppy’s Phonics to ensure consistency across these settings.
 
Children are given the opportunity to read to their class teacher or teaching assistant and to each other on a regular basis.  Children also read to a member of a different class during Reading Buddies on Monday afternoons. Our books are book banded across the school so progress can be tracked and celebrated.
 
Reading comprehension skills are taught in guided reading groups in Reception and Key Stage 1 and as a whole class in Key Stage 2.  Examples of reading comprehension skills include the children being able: to Predict what will happen next in the story; to Summarise a paragraph or chapter of a book; to understand ambitious words to add to their Vocabulary and to Retrieve specific information from a text.

Writing

Opportunities to write are sought through our topics.  In this way the writing has a real purpose and audience.  We have a whole school overview of writing from Reception to Year 6 which includes the different genres of writing to be covered in each year group linked to rich children’s literature.  For example, Year 6 are currently linking their writing to The Explorer by Katherine Rundell.”