Intent

At Eling Infant school, English and the teaching of English is the foundation of our curriculum. Our staff believe that the teaching of English is a skill for life in which children use and apply their literacy skills. Knowledge and skills must be understood confidently and competently, allowing them to then apply in every day contexts and through other areas of the curriculum.

 

We plan to inspire children, equipping them with a strong command of written and spoken word and develop a love of the literature through widespread reading for enjoyment.

 

Our children will develop skills in speaking, listening, reading and writing (including phonics) which enables them to express themselves creatively and imaginatively and to communicate with each other effectively.

 

We encourage all children to become enthusiastic and critical readers of stories, poetry and drama as well as non-fiction texts. Using this knowledge, they can choose and adopt what they say and write in different situations. We believe that it is essential to enable each child to convey their own ideas and opinions clearly, and respond creatively and critically to a wide range of information and ideas across all aspects of the curriculum.

 

English at Eling will not be a discrete, daily lesson, but will be the cornerstone of the entire curriculum. It will be embedded within all our lessons and we strive for a high level of English for all. High quality texts will immerse children in new vocabulary to help the children reach curriculum expectations. By exposing children to a language heavy, creative and continuous curriculum, children will become primary literate, but will also develop a love of reading, become creative writers and will have improved speaking and listening skills.

 

Ultimately, we intend to develop our children’s creativity, giving them the independent skills to tackle problems. Children will learn new skills in a fun and engaging way. We will build and layer their learning, giving them a solid foundation of literacy skills that will set them up for the rest of their education.

 

 

Implementation

At Eling, children will be taught skills progressively from nursery, up until they leave our school. Constant assessment will allow misconceptions to be addressed and for learning journeys to be clear. This will be evidenced through book journeys, pupil conferencing, moderation and planning.

 

Reading

To help develop this, we have changed our timetable so that more children are reading daily. Children are constantly assessed phonetically, placing them into the correct group to boost their learning. We have created a 45 minute phonics slot that precedes a literacy lesson. In this session, all children will be taught their phonics or spelling programmes, but will then be taught reading skills, looking at building up their fluency and then developing their comprehension. With this in mind, all children will read daily, either on their own, or in phonics sessions. Year 2 children, who have passed the phonics test, move onto a spelling programme.

 

There are many opportunities to read across the learning day and we use a range of books through many different sources to engage children to read: - this is linked to topics, events and interests.

The specific teaching of reading is through:

• Guided reading
• Shared reading
• Independent reading
• Reading one to one with an adult
• Reading with other children
• Daily phonics teaching
• Wider reading – including library books
  The teaching of phonics helps children to read and write. We will test all children on a half termly basis to see what sounds they have learnt, and what they need to do next. Groups are fluid, and children will move when necessary. We approach the teaching of phonics on a daily basis through the 'Read Write Inc.' program. Children will undertake a national screening phonics test in the summer of Year One.

 

Vulnerable groups across the school have been highlighted and have been paired up with support staff, teachers and even the head teacher. Paired reading schemes will target these children so that they continue to work towards reaching the required standards by the end of Year Two. We run a fast track tutoring scheme where children are identified through assessments to ensure they keep up instead of catch up, they will spend 5 minutes during the day with a 1:1 phonics tutor.

 

We also work closely with our parents to help build our reaching culture. Our new reading diaries allow for parents and teachers to comment and track the child’s reading which is celebrated during our shining assemblies. This has, and will continue to, emphasis how important reading is across the whole school! Please download our reading newsletter below.  

 

The Read Write Inc. Phonics Programme

At Eling we teach reading using the Read Write Inc. phonics programme. 

We start teaching phonics in nursery after Spring 2 (the Easter break) where children start being introduced to the structure of a phonics lesson as well as Fred the frog who introduces the sounds the children are learning.

 

We continue teaching phonics to the children in the Reception class. This means that they learn how to ‘read’ the sounds in words and how those sounds can be written down. This is essential for reading, but it also helps children learn to spell well. We teach the children simple ways of remembering these sounds and letters. Ask them to show you what these are.

 

The children also practise reading (and spelling) what we call ‘tricky words’, such as ‘once,’ ‘have,’ ‘said’ and ‘where’. The children practise their reading with books that match the phonics and the ‘tricky words’ they know. They start thinking that they can read and this does wonders for their confidence. The children bring home 2 familiar books that they are able to read and apply the skills and sounds taught in their phonics sessions.

 

The teachers read to the children, too, so the children get to know all sorts of stories, poetry and information books. They learn many more words this way and it also helps their writing.

 

In the afternoons children have a set story time where they have opportunities to practice comprehension skills as well as discussing vocabulary and word meanings. We also come together as a class for a phonics focus sound in the afternoon to help embed the phonics sounds taught in their lessons for Year One’s in preparation for the PSC whereas the Year Two’s will focus on their spelling rule from the week. 

 

Writing

We ensure that the teaching of writing is purposeful, robust and shows clear progression. In line with the new curriculum, we ensure all children are taught explicit grammar, punctuation and spelling objectives required for each age group. Teachers are able to embed skills throughout the year in cross curricular writing opportunities to make sure most children are achieving the expected level by the end of the year and that children have the opportunities achieve the greater depth standard. Cold and warm tasks will allow us to assess whether skills have been learnt and moved into their long term memory.

 

In order to expose children to a range of genres, we have carefully selected our topics to create opportunities for children to have specific writing journeys that are purposeful. Thus journey builds throughout the year, allowing us to revisit different genres and build on their previous skills. High quality texts will drive our writing, which will also expose children to inference, high level vocabulary and a range of punctuation. These texts are selected to promote a love of reading, engagement and to improve the quality of their writing.

To aid handwriting and fine motor, we do daily handwriting sessions linked to the Ruth Miskin sounds. For children with gross or fine motor needs, lessons allow time for children to carry out routines and exercises that will enable them to become better writers.

Links to the phonic sounds is vital. We use common exception word and phonic mats to aid their spelling. This is to show the importance of reading and phonics within their writing.

 

Impact

The impact will be clear, progress, sustained learning and transferable skills across the curriculum. Writing journeys will be visible and clear in books and children will develop skills that they require for the next key stage. We hope that children use their skills across all subjects, being able to write for different purposes and understand how that might change from a different viewpoint. By understanding the purpose, our children will then be able to draw upon specific skills needed to tackle that task. By the end of year two, children will be given more choice to apply what they have learnt. This, alongside our learning values, will create children who enjoy reading and writing.

 

(Reviewed by Subject Leader September 2024)