English, Phonics and Reading

“When I read great literature, great drama, speeches or sermons, I feel that the human mind has not achieved anything greater than the ability to share feelings and thoughts through language.”

 James Earl Jones

Intent 

At Forestdale Primary school, we aim to develop high standards of literacy and language as we recognise that the development of language is crucial for children to become successful learners. Our aim is for children to: develop a love of reading; articulate their ideas, develop understanding and engage with others through spoken language; and write in a manner which is clear, grammatically correct and engaging.

Our aim as a school is to ensure our children:

• appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage
• read easily, fluently and with good understanding
• develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information
• develop a curiosity around language and text that enables children to understand and use ambitious vocabulary
• acquire an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language
• 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; being active listeners as well as contributors, 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. 

Writing

Our Writing Curriculum at Forestdale places children's literature at its heart, inspiring children to have the ‘will’ to write by using high quality books as inspiration. We plan for writing using high quality texts to ensure that our children encounter a broad range of authors and genres, including fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. When planning writing, teachers follow a model that is responsive to our children's needs and is research informed to give children the necessary skills, knowledge and passion for writing.

Units of writing are planned in three phases which take children through a meaningful writing journey. Initially, children are immersed in the text and shown how a writer uses their craft for different effect. Children then move onto experimenting with ideas from the text through planned opportunities to develop and experiment with grammatical structures within a meaningful context to create a particular impact upon their reader. The final phase of lessons will guide children through the stages needed to create their own outcome with an intended audience and purpose. Along this learning journey, children are given time to read, share, think and talk about writing through rich and varied learning experiences. Explicit teaching of the writing process (how to generate an idea, plan, draft, revise, edit, publish) develops children into successful writers. Alongside the class writing outcome, children have the opportunity to pursue personal writing projects to further support and encourage their ‘will’ to write.

These are the purposes for writing we teach in each year group:

• Writing to entertain could include narratives, poetry, diary entries or letters.
• Writing to inform could include recounts, news reports, non-chronological reports, explanatory texts, instructions.
• Writing to persuade could include adverts, letters, news articles, speeches, posters.
• Writing to discuss could include news articles, debates, speeches. 

Handwriting

Children are taught handwriting from the outset as they move from letter formation to using a cursive script. Children are given a pen to write with in lower key stage 2, once a fluent handwriting style is established.

Guidance on KS1 handwriting at Forestdale

Guidance on KS2 handwriting at Forestdale

Spellings

After completing The Essential Letters and Sounds phonics programme in year 1, children move on to The ELS Essential Spelling programme in year 2.This is based upon teaching the essential information in the most systematic and clear way. The code taught in these lessons is taught to be remembered. Each lesson gives children the opportunity to practise applying the code or suffix taught within the lesson. ELS Essential Spelling covers all the statutory statements in the National Curriculum for year 2 in a format that is engaging and familiar to the children.

Spelling is taught in years 3 – 6 through our Teach Through a Text approach ensuring that the spelling lessons are meaningful. Spelling is taught explicitly. Children learn to spell by applying known rules and patterns to new words. Those who are most successful with spelling can apply these patterns to unknown words in context as they have embedded the rule. Children learn best when they have discovered these rules themselves and have an opportunity to apply them independently. Our spelling provision allows children to investigate and apply within the purposeful context of familiar, high-quality texts. Teachers also provide opportunities for dictation and time is spent learning the word lists set out in the National Curriculum.  The children will receive word list words to learn at home and these will be rehearsed and tested in class. Please find a list of the words to focus on for each half term for each year group.

Year 1 Common Exception Words

Year 2 Common Exception Words

Year 3 Common Exception Words

Year 4 Common Exception Words

Year 5 Common Exception Words

Year 6 Common Exception Words

Reading

At Forestdale, we believe reading is a priority and underpins all learning. We aim to foster a love of reading by ensuring pupils have access to high quality literature. Our book corners and our school library provide a range of authors and genres. We read to our children daily to broaden their knowledge of texts and authors and to enjoy sharing a text together.  Research shows that pupils who develop a love of reading perform significantly better due to their increased access to vocabulary, understanding of different genres and styles as well as developing a pace to their learning which ensures that they are able to grasp and understand concepts. We aim to foster in all our children a love of books so that they become readers for life. In our English lessons we study high quality texts and engage in rich discussion about these texts using Book Talk – which helps children to share their opinions and thoughts about a text and allows them to build on one another’s ideas.

Early Reading 

High-quality Phonics at Forestdale is implemented through Essential Letters and Sounds. The key principle is ‘Keep Up not Catch Up’. Phonics is taught as a whole class approach for between 20 and 45 minutes a day (dependant on the age of the children.) This phonics programme supports children in making quick progress to become fluent and confident readers. This rigorous teaching and learning programme will ensure children are able to read and apply all the common phonemes by the end of year 1 so that they can confidently and independently access the curriculum at year 2 and beyond. Our approach combines continuous and reactive assessment and any gaps in knowledge are carefully tracked using Phonics Tracker. Monitoring and gaps are addressed using robust interventions from the start of the year.

To best support us in teaching your child how to read, we ask that you watch the videos demonstrating the correct pronunciation of sounds:

Phase 2 Sounds      Phase 3 Sounds      Phase 5 Sounds 

We change children’s books once a week; this allows your child to re-read each text several times building their confidence and fluency. This is especially important as they begin to learn that the sounds within our language can be spelt in different ways. As the children have one reading book a week we also provide additional decodable books on the Oxford Owl website (which again will be assigned based on the phonemes your child has learnt in school). To access this please go to the school website's apps page and select Oxford Owl eBook Library and sign in using your child’s login usernamexxx.306 and password (can be found at the front of your child’s contact book).

Key Stage 2 Reading

Where needed, children take part in phonics intervention at the appropriate phase for their ability. This is offered as bespoke, high quality sessions to enable children to leave Forestdale as fluent readers. All children who are accessing phonics sessions take home a phonics decodable book which is precisely matched to their phonic ability.

Reading for Pleasure Challenge

We are excited to be running the Reading for Pleasure challenge in which children are encouraged to read ten new reading books before the end of this academic year. We want every child to be a successful reader and to read for pleasure.  Please support your child but supporting them in reading the books can so that they can complete this challenge. Children in the younger year groups are not expected to read these books independently; they are books that can be shared together.

When children have finished one of the ten books, they can discuss it with their class teacher, who then crosses it off on a tracking tick sheet. When the children have read all ten books, they receive a Reading for Pleasure certificate.

Home Reading  

Children in Reception and Year 1, as well as early readers further up the school, will bring home two types of reading book: 

1. A reading practice book: The decodable reading practice book is taken home to ensure success is shared with the family. This book will be carefully matched to each child’s phonic stage. They will have already read it that week in their phonics lesson. They should be able to read this fluently and independently. Please read the same decodable text provided by the school four times across the week.

2. A sharing book: Reading for pleasure books also go home for parents to share and read to children. The sharing book is a book chosen by the child simply to be enjoyed. Being read to regularly will hugely support them in their journey to becoming an independent reader.

Home Reading Overview 

Forestory

Forestory takes place each week. This is where all the children in each key stage gather in the hall to listen to a story being read aloud by a teacher, taking their imagination away to exciting and engaging fictional places. This allows children to hear good examples of reading aloud and to develop an enthusiasm for reading books themselves.

Whole Class Reading 

From year 2, children are taught the skills of reading through a Whole Class Reading lesson. Whole class reading brings with it the benefit of all children embarking on the same reading journey of the same text providing a shared experience and developing a community of readers. Teachers plan using high quality, ambitious texts to enable them to deliver a broad and engaging reading curriculum. Across a year, teachers plan to use a range of texts in whole class reading which covers novels, poetry, graphic novels, non-fiction and picture books.

In each lesson, teachers will prepare children for reading by:

• Activating prior knowledge – what do we already know about this text and/or what context or background knowledge do we already have or might need to access this?
• Pre-teaching vocabulary – which words are necessary for understanding and might be unknown or misinterpreted?
• Considering text structure & organisation – what would we typically expect to encounter in this genre of text?

Teachers combine a range of reading strategies in lessons which allow children to improve their fluency, pace and understanding. Teachers use echo reading, individual reading and paired reading as approaches to scaffold children’s reading as well as pupils listening to the teacher read. Children are guided to develop and rehearse the necessary skills to become confident readers through constantly questioning, predicting and making links to their own lives and other texts they have encountered. Children are given independent tasks to complete which scaffold, support, extend and challenge and show their understanding of the text.

Library 

                         
We are very fortunate to have a well-resourced and efficiently run library at Forestdale. The borrowing section of our library is electronically logged and children can scan out their own books. We also have an extensive reference section of the library which children can use for independent research during or outside lesson time. Our librarians help children to select books, and foster a love of books within children at the school. 

Information and Further Support

On a termly basis, parents are strongly encouraged to attend our Working Together mornings. These morning sessions provide parents with information and guidance on what their child is learning in class and the strategies they can use in order to help them at home. Parents are invited into the classrooms to work with their child, with the support and guidance of the class teacher.

All children receive quality first literacy teaching on a daily basis and activities are differentiated accordingly. In addition, where identified pupils are considered to require targeted support to enable them to work towards age appropriate objectives, intervention programmes will be implemented. Some children are able to have the benefit of 1:1 sessions delivered by our Intensive Reading teachers. Please click here for further details on advice on who and how to make contact with the school regarding any concerns or needs of your child.