English

Our Vision for English

Intent

The development of speech and a varied vocabulary is a key life skill. Competence in English enables children to communicate effectively at home, at school and in the wider world and leads to improved life opportunities. Throughout our school children are encouraged to speak and perform in front of an audience and so develop their confidence, clarity and fluency. The skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing enable children to organise and express their own thoughts and to access the knowledge and ideas of others.

What does English look like at our school?

Implementation

At Ainderby Steeple Primary School, reading is at the heart of all that we do. We encourage and support all children to read a variety of genres and authors in order that they become lifelong, avid readers and use adventurous vocabulary in their speech and their written work.

As spoken language underpins the development of reading and writing, we aim to foster exploratory talk and good listening skills. Drama and role-play are regularly used in lessons to encourage creativity in writing. We have developed our curriculum to incorporate good-quality and engaging texts that interest and inspire readers. We intend for all children to be enthusiastic, independent and lively writers with an innate desire to read for pleasure. We use our curriculum to provide a platform for talk and deliver enriched activities for writing. Application of key literacy skills are taught across all subjects. Writing is celebrated and displayed in classrooms and around the school.

Opportunities to celebrate English

World book day, reading competitions, the book fair, reading 3 times a week competition, our library, reading club, displays around school, nativity and summer performances.

Impact

We hope that our curriculum for English allows our children to become confident, enthusiastic readers and writers which can be applied to all areas of the curriculum and in their future development. We hope they will grow in their resilience and creativity and the ability to express their views and opinions.

Quotes from our children

“Reading and writing helps me to learn about different things. I can find out about nature, history and different countries”

“I like reading because it’s relaxing and when I am angry it can calm me down”

Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised

Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised is the chosen validated phonic scheme that is used to deliver effective phonics teaching and learning across Early Years and Year One. Annual phonic parental training will be offered at the start of every academic year; this will enable parents to deepen their understanding of how they can support their child learn to read.

We have chosen to use Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised as our systematic phonics scheme.

Please use the link below to access the Parents section of Little Wandle website.
The resources on this page will help you support your child with saying their sounds (phonemes) and writing their letters (graphemes). There are also some useful videos that will enable you to see how your child is taught at school. The videos will ensure that you are confident with supporting your child with their reading at home. You can also find the full Reception and Year 1 teaching programme overview and this will allow you to see what your child will learn and when.

https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/

Please click the link to access the Phonic and Early Reading Policy.

Please click the link to access the Handwriting Policy.

Please click the link to access the scheme of work for grammar from Hamilton Trust

Please click the link to access the RWI Y2 curriculum matching document

Please click the link to access the RWI Y3/4 curriculum matching document

Please click the link to access the RWI Y5/6 curriculum matching document

Pronunciation Guide Autumn 1
Pronunciation Guide Autumn 2
LS Grapheme Information Sheet Phase 3
Capital Letter Formation 2
Reading Progression
Writing Progression

Reading For Pleasure

Reading for pleasure at Ainderby Steeple C of E Primary School is of high priority.

‘Reading for pleasure is the single most important indicator of a child’s success.’ (OECD 2002)

‘The will influences the skill and vice versa.’ (OECD 2010)

We value reading for pleasure highly and work hard as a school to grow our Reading for Pleasure pedagogy.

We read to children everyday. We choose these books carefully as we want children to experience a wide range of books, including books that reflect the children at school and our local community as well as books that open windows into other worlds and cultures.
Every classroom has an inviting book corner that encourages a love for reading. We curate these books and talk about them to entice children to read a wide range of books.
In Nursery/Reception, children have access to the reading corner every day in their free flow time and the books are continually refreshed.
Children from Nursery/Reception onwards have a home reading record. The parent/carer records comments to share with the adults in school and the adults will write in this on a regular basis to ensure communication between home and school.
As the children progress through the school, they are encouraged to write their own comments and keep a list of the books/authors that they have read.
The school library is made available for classes to use at protected times. It must be booked via the school booking system. Children across the school have regular opportunities to engage with a wide range of Reading for Pleasure events (Extreme reading/Reading Sponsorship/World Book Day etc)