English
We have recently begun a new whole school English programme called Read to Write to support the development of our pupil’s language, literacy and communication skills. The Read to Write programme provides the children with high-quality teaching through high quality literature.
Each unit is centred on two key texts which are engaging and vocabulary rich. The children have really enjoyed learning the new texts. They provide plenty of opportunities for children to develop their writing skills within and across the curriculum. Each unit is full of exciting ideas for writing, spelling, punctuation and grammar.
Long Term Planning - Writing
Phonics
In Reception and Key Stage 1, children learn phonics through a rigorous teaching programme - Floppy’s Phonics. This programme is a content-rich systematic synthetic phonics programme that allows for a two-pronged approach to teaching phonics. It allows for a focused phonics provision along with integration and sustained support in the wider curriculum.
The Floppy’s Phonics programme teaches the letter/s-sound correspondences of the English alphabetic code explicitly and comprehensively for reading and spelling. It includes the characters of Floppy the dog, Biff, Chip and Kipper and their family and friends, which engages children fully for the phonics teaching & learning, vocabulary enrichment and language comprehension.
Initially children's listening skills are developed through the use of music, environmental sounds and rhyme. During their journey through the Reception and Key Stage 1 they are taught the 44 phonemes (sounds) that make up all the sounds required for reading and spelling. These phonemes include those made by just one letter 'b as in bed' and those that are made by two 'ai as in rain or three letters 'igh as in high'.
Children are taught the key skills of blending and segmenting to be able to read and write.
As the children grow in confidence and experience, they are introduced to alternative ways of representing the same sound, eg 'ee' can be represented as 'ee as in bee', 'ea as in tea', 'e-e as in theme' and 'e as in we'. They also learn when to apply simple spelling rules and use verbs in the correct tense.
We ensure that our teaching of phonics is rigorous, structured and enjoyable. In Reception to Year 2, children have discrete, daily phonics sessions where they are introduced to new phonemes, explore, practise and revise previous learning and have plenty of opportunities to apply the knowledge they have.
