English (incl. Phonics, Writing & Reading, Oracy and Debating)
Phonics
Our vision for Phonics is to get every child reading. We do this by teaching Phonics daily through small targeted groups. The systematic synthetic Phonics programme we use to achieve this goal is Little Wandle Letters and Sounds.
All staff are trained in this programme and receive ongoing weekly training with the Reading Lead. This model enables all adults to become highly skilled, expert reading teachers that continue to develop their practice. All planning, environments and strategies are completely consistent across the team.
Children are taught a minimum of four sounds a week and apply this within word reading and spelling. Children are assessed every half term by designated assessment leads. The lowest 20% receive daily, systematic interventions by trained intervention teachers. This ensures these children make accelerated progress and no child is left behind. Children receive daily decodable reading sessions in small targeted groups to ensure they are continually applying their phonological understanding. They are then able to take these books home to develop their fluency and confidence.
It is really important that pupils in Reception and Key Stage 1 (years 1 and 2) have a strong phonics programme, we use Little Wandle, which is then linked with decodable reading books. This ensures children are only reading words that they can phonetically decode. As part of Little Wandle, we have decodable reading books which are stored centrally and are given to pupils by their Phonics teacher. These are mapped out systematically each half term so that children are reading books aligned to the Phonics progression. The books found in classroom book corners are not banded but are for interest/pleasure and use by the teachers for story time. Children can also take these home where a parent or guardian can enjoy reading aloud to them. This is a fundamental aspect of developing their engagement and early attitude to reading.
Reading
Reading linked to Phonics – Reception, Years 1 and 2
It is really important that pupils in Reception and Key Stage 1 (years 1 and 2) have a strong phonics programme, we use Little Wandle, which is then linked with decodable reading books. This ensures children are only reading words that they can phonetically decode. As part of Little Wandle, we have decodable reading books which are stored centrally and are given to pupils by their Phonics teacher. These are mapped out systematically each half term so that children are reading books aligned to the Phonics progression.
The books found in classroom book corners are not banded but are for interest/pleasure and use by the teachers for story time. Children can also take these home where a parent or guardian can enjoy reading aloud to them. This is a fundamental aspect of developing their engagement and early attitude to reading.
Reading for pleasure
Once we have all children reading, our mission is then to keep them reading! We want to create readers for life as we believe reading opens limitless doors of opportunity for our pupils.
To instil a love of reading, all classes have carefully constructed book corners. All books have been audited across the school to ensure children receive the most high quality reading opportunities as well as a range of different genres. All book corners are created to mirror the concept of a book shop. Children can browse recommended titles, find books easily, see showcase books rotate and update over time and cosy up and relax!
Every class across the school has daily story time to provide opportunities for children to engage with stories completely for pleasure. This also enables teachers to share their passion and establish a reading community through peer recommendations and informal book talk.
Every child across the school takes a Reading for Pleasure book home every week (if not more). This provides opportunities for children to develop a love of reading at home as well as school and to develop positive experience with books.
Writing
We aim to create a writing curriculum which enables children to express their creativity and provides them with the skills necessary to become independent writers, with strong writer’s voices.
We provide our writers with the tools to communicate and share their ideas with those around them and to do so by understanding the impact of powerful vocabulary and writer’s choices. We believe that carefully selected literature is vital to the development of young writers and we therefore use a variety of different text types and strong teacher and peer models to help shape our own writing.
High quality texts are essential to our vision. With a rich diet of quality texts and enriching experiences children will be able to find their own reasons to write and develop a style that fits the purpose, audience and form intended. Our high quality range of books to allow children to investigate other lives, worlds and perspectives. Children write in a wide range of genres and have meaningful opportunities to write for a purpose in response to a book they have read.
We ensure children write a mix of non-fiction, fiction and poetry. Our writing cycle begins with immersion to let our high quality texts enthuse and engage our pupils through drama, collaborative tasks, discussion and creative activities.
Islington ‘Writing’ Grids for Years 1 – 6: