English

‘Books and reading are Magic. And this magic must be urgently available to absolutely everyone.’

Cressida Cowell, Children’s Laureate

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Reading

At Herne View we are passionate about ensuring that all children become fluent and accurate readers who discover their own passion for reading throughout their time with us. Reading is at the heart of everything we do – the golden thread that children need to learn in order to access the whole curriculum.

The emphasis in the 2014 Curriculum on phonics teaching, explicit grammar teaching and the enjoyment of reading are areas which have been a focus at the school over the last few years. In English we maintain a cross curricular approach, where appropriate, to make connections in learning across the curriculum.

As a school, we aim to ensure that all pupils:

  • read easily, fluently and with good understanding

  • develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information

  • acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language

  • appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage

  • are exposed to a wide range of high quality texts which inspire and motivate them

  • write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences

  • use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas

  • are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate.

Reading at Home

Your child should be reading at home for 15 minutes or more each day. Your support is hugely important for developing their reading skills, confidence and understanding. Even if your child is an independent reader, it is still important for you to read with them, listen to them and discuss the books they are reading.

How to support developing readers at home:

  • Try to listen to and read with your child regularly, 15 minutes a day is better than a longer session once a week. It can help if a regular time is set aside so that it becomes part of a routine.

  • Find a quiet place to share books where you can feel comfortable and relaxed – learning to read needs to be a positive experience – build their confidence by praising their efforts.

  • Encourage your child to have a go at reading words, by using phonic skills to read any unfamiliar words, and by working on building up their sight vocabulary.

  • Talk about the meanings of words to help to develop your child’s understanding and use of language.

  • Encourage your child to read a range of texts such as stories, newspapers, comics, labels, poetry, non-fiction, tickets, signs, leaflets etc.

  • Read books to your child as well; if they see you enjoying a book it will encourage and motivate them to want to learn to read.

  • Ask them questions about the text to develop their understanding.

Phonics and Spelling

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At Herne View, we believe that all our children can become fluent readers and writers. This is why we teach reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, which is a systematic synthetic phonics programme. We start teaching Little Wandle Foundations in our Nursery and then, from Reception, we follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised progression, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school. As a result, all our children are able to tackle any unfamiliar words as they read.

 

Teachers and LSAs model the application of the alphabetic code through phonics and in shared reading and writing, both inside and outside of the phonics lesson and across the curriculum. We have a strong focus on language development for all our children because we know that speaking and listening are crucial skills for reading and writing in all subjects.

Phonics is taught daily for 30mins in both Reception and Key Stage One. Any child who needs additional practice has Daily Keep-up support and is taught by a fully trained adult. Daily Keep-up lessons follow the Little Wandle progression and use the same procedures, resources and mantras, but in smaller steps with more repetition so that every child secures their learning. Once children reach Year 2 and are secure on Phase 5, they move onto the Little Wandle spelling units.

We use and teach the Little Wandle Rapid Catch Up program to children who are not at age-related expectations for reading in Key Stage Two. These short, sharp lessons last 15 to 20 minutes daily and have been designed to ensure children quickly catch up to age-related expectations in reading.

Writing

Writing is incredibly important to our children’s development at Herne View. We use it as one method to express ourselves. Our writing lessons are carefully planned around high quality texts to ensure children are engaged with their learning and able to link it to their developing knowledge of literature. Teachers work hard to give children a purpose for writing, and ensure they are aware of good examples, as well as their own writing strengths. Throughout the school, we learn to plan, draft and edit our work with support from the adults around us.

Handwriting

Our school handwriting style has been developed to help children to learn to write with fluency and accuracy, and is taught and modelled consistently throughout the school. It is available as a model to children in every classroom.

Children in the EYFS begin to write, first forming the letter shapes while making the phonetic connections to the letter sounds. They then gradually progress through the journey of writing to joining the cursive script into fully joined words.

Website links for English

Phonics

Little Wandle for Parents – https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/

Reading/ Writing

https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk

http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/

https://www.bbc.com/education

https://jumpstartlearning.ca/parent-portal/

https://www.teachitprimary.co.uk/reading-comprehension-ks2