English
At St Edmund’s, we recognise that reading and writing are key skills for pupils to develop for their future. Each week we focus on spelling, grammar and handwriting lessons, as well as exploring a variety of texts and offering varied writing opportunities. We also seek to create a love of reading and a creative outlet in writing.
Reading
We believe that reading is the gateway that opens doors to learning about the world and every area of the curriculum. We recognise that reading is essential for our pupils to be successful in learning and life. It builds the ability to empathise with and relate to others, which creates happier relationships and emotional intelligence.
Reading begins in the Early Years Foundation Stage (Reception class) and children are taught phonics every day using a systematic synthetic programme called Little Wandle. In Year 1 and Reception, every child has reading practice three times a week so they apply their learning and develop a love of reading, learning and books. The children have targeted teaching on decoding strategies, prosody and comprehension.
Reading is also promoted through sharing books in whole-class learning and stories are read at the end of every school day.
Those that require extra support have intervention to embed learning.
In Guided Reading, the children are introduced to basic comprehension skills and expected to give verbal responses. They will also be taught such skills as:
- Turning the page.
- Looking at picture cues.
- Locating the title and following the words from left to right with their finger.
In Key Stage One, children continue learning to decode through daily phonics teaching (Little Wandle) and developing their sight vocabulary for common exception words. Reading strategies are established through individual reading with a teacher, teaching assistant or adult helper. Each child will be listened to read every two weeks. Those that require extra support become target readers, who are listened to three times a week. This intervention continues up to Year 6.
In Year 2, children are introduced to VIPERS. VIPERS focus on specific comprehension skills such as vocabulary, inference, prediction, explanation, retrieval and summarising. Each week the guided reading session will focus on a different skill. Year's 2 to 6 use VIPERS, but work at various stages (Stages 1-6). The higher stages use more challenging texts, ambitious vocabulary and focus on ALL of the VIPER skills, whereas the lower stages may focus on the more specific, initial comprehension skills.
Fluency is a reading focus, and we use a range of techniques when teaching this, such as: echo reading, choral reading, and discussing and identifying challenging vocabulary before reading a text.
Guided Reading provides an opportunity to teach reading in relation to pupil groups' differentiated needs and introduce a variety of fiction, non-fiction and poetry texts. It also provides children with strategies for answering a range of comprehension questions in their classwork and test situations, with adults modelling the different answers.
Home reading
In St Edmund’s, the children are given or choose a home reading book once a week. We use the Collins “Big Cat” scheme which corresponds with the Little Wandle Synthetic Phonics programme we follow for teaching. Big Cat books provide progression and supportive questions for parents. They are visually exciting and link to the children’s real life personal experiences. The children experience fiction, poetry and a wide range of non-fiction texts. Teachers assess the suitability of home reading books for pupils once every half term or term. Each pupil has a reading record book which maintains weekly communication between parents/carers and teachers and teaching assistants. Each child also takes home a library book of their own choosing every week.
Recommended Reading Lists
Reception Recommended Reading List
Year 1 Recommended Reading List
Year 2 Recommended Reading List
Year 3 Recommended Reading List
Year 4 Recommended Reading List
Year 5 Recommended Reading List
Year 6 Recommended Reading List
VIPERS
Reading Skills Map
Quality story books
Stories!!!
Click on this link to find quality stories,
https://www.worldbookday.com/families/share-a-story-corner/
Read aloud, suitable for children between the ages of 4 and 9 years old. This is an ideal way for your children to learn about characters, settings, story problems and solutions. Listening to stories improves vocabulary and can support your children with writing their own stories.
SATS Practice
KS2 PaG Test
Writing
We recognise that writing is integral to all aspects of life, and we endeavour to ensure that children develop a lifelong, healthy and enthusiastic attitude towards writing. The skill of writing enables pupils to communicate with themselves and others while documenting and conveying their knowledge and ideas. Building on experiences, it encourages expression and higher-order thinking. Thus, creating a writing culture in our school ensures our children are given the best opportunities to build their capacity and confidence in a range of writing styles.
Writing skills underpin most elements of the school curriculum and are an essential life-skill. Considering the fundamental importance of writing in everyday life, we are driven by developing each learner’s writing ability.
The writing curriculum at St Edmund’s is based upon the statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage and the National Curriculum 2014. A long-term plan provides a yearly overview of the units of the National Primary English Framework. Medium-term plans map out each term and how the units fit in with the year group’s curriculum topic choice. Short-term plans (Units of Work) give weekly, and daily details of key objectives taught within each unit and the purposeful, cross-curricular links that will provide the context for that learning and teaching.
Writing Skills Map
Writing Policy
Writing Assessment
The children's writing will be assessed at the end of each English unit through an extended piece of writing. This will give each child the opportunity to demonstrate the skills they have learnt and developed. It will be assessed against Ros Wilson's Big Write Standards For Writing (Years 1, 3, 4 and 5) or TAFS (Years 2 and 6).
Spelling
All children are expected to be able to read and spell the Common Exception Words for their year group.
Speaking and Listening
Pupils are provided with varied opportunities to speak and listen to each other, developing their confidence, reasoning and vocabulary. Children may be asked to retell a known story, to debate a topic, or to give a talk on a chosen subject. When exploring a text, pupils will sequence events, retell or dramatise the story, predict the outcome or provide opinions on the book. When writing, younger pupils are encouraged to verbalise what they want to write to understand the patterns of sentences and the function of questions and commands.