English
Our carefully designed English curriculum integrates the skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking. Lessons are taught to inspire children to read and write. Pupils are given the opportunity to access, share, read and develop a love for quality books. They develop a passion for writing through guided, independent and 'Write What You Like' opportunities. They explore the world of literature through a range of different genres. We have high expectations for the children's development and acquisition of language. Lessons across the curriculum, immerse the children in rich and challenging vocabulary.
Children's Laureate, Cressida Cowell
Waterstones Children's Laureate Cressida Cowell is full of exciting plans and wants EVERY child to read for fun and get something out of books. Here, she shares her Children's Laureate Charter with you all...
PHONICS
Phonics is the way children learn the relationship between letters and sounds. It is proven to be the most effective method of teaching children to learn to read as it simplifies the English language down into just 44 sounds. Using phonics helps children to decode (read) words and encode (spell) words with confidence.
At Willesborough, we teach our children to read using a rigorous synthetic phonics programme called Little Wandle Letters and Sounds.
How does Little Wandle work?
Little Wandle is a structured and systematic phonics programme. This means that sounds are taught in a clear order, building up step by step. Children learn:
- How letters and groups of letters make sounds
- How to blend sounds together to read words
- How to segment words to help with spelling
- How to read and spell tricky words that cannot be sounded out easily
Children take part in daily phonics lessons, which are fast-paced, fun and engaging.
Phonics is the way children learn the relationship between letters and sounds. Using phonics helps children to decode (read) words and encode (spell) words with confidence.
READING
Willesborough Infant School is determined that every child will learn to read, regardless of their background, needs or abilities. We want our children to be fluent, confident readers. At Willesborough they are exposed to a wealth of stories, poems, rhymes and non-fiction texts to develop their vocabulary, language comprehension and foster a genuine love of reading. We work to inspire them to become life-long readers who enjoy books and have a desire to read for pleasure.
In order for the children to have the will to read, and be able to read to learn, they need to have secure skills in reading. Reading is at the heart of our whole curriculum underpinning every subject area. We want every child to read widely, and to gain a rich knowledge across the curriculum. By sharing a wide range of texts, we aim to broaden their minds and experiences to allow them to empathise with and successfully navigate the world in which they live, as well as develop their emotional intelligence.
Early Reading
We teach early reading through the systematic, synthetic phonics programme Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised. Right from the start of Reception children have a daily phonics lesson which follows the progression for Little Wandle Letters and Sounds and this continues in KS1 to ensure children become fluent readers.
We teach phonics for 30 minutes a day, as well as extra daily practice of grapheme recognition, decoding and tricky word recognition. To ensure a strong start in Reception children also take part in extra blending blast sessions to support them in the early stages of decoding. Each week, four new phonemes alongside their corresponding graphemes are taught to the children and at the end of this sequence, we review the week’s teaching to support children to become fluent readers.Reception children spend the year mastering phase two and phase three graphemes and blending before moving onto phase four in the summer terms.
Year One children revise phases two, three and four before moving onto learning new, alternative graphemes in phase five. In Year Two, children spend some time consolidating their phase five knowledge alongside other previously taught phases before moving onto the ‘Bridge to Spelling’ unit and finally, the spelling unit of teaching and learning.
Half termly assessments take place to help inform future teaching and identify children who have gaps in their phonic knowledge and need additional practice. Teachers do not move onto teaching new content until at least 70% of the class are secure with the previous learning. Daily assessment of learning also takes place within the classroom so staff can quickly identify any children who are in danger of falling behind and provide the appropriate daily ‘Keep Up’ intervention. For any child receiving Daily Keep-Up support, they are reassessed every three weeks to ensure progress and to tailor their learning to their specific gaps.
Reading practice
Alongside phonics lessons, children read the Little Wandle fully decodable, Big Cat books.that match the sounds they are learning in class. Every child reads three-times weekly with an adult in a small group with the first reading session focusing on decoding, the second on prosody and the third on comprehension. The children are then able to access this book at home. This allows children to practise their reading skills and builds confidence and fluency as well as developing their reading comprehension and language skills.
Children are encouraged to:
- Read aloud
- Reread books to build fluency
- Talk about what they have read to support understanding
Reading for Pleasure
At Willesborough Infant School, we thrive on ensuring children develop a love and passion for reading and reading for pleasure remains a whole-school priority. Reading enjoyment has been reported as more important for children’s educational success than their family’s socio-economic status (OECD, 2002). We believe that a whole school Reading for Pleasure culture must be planned for and promoted throughout the school in a variety of ways, ensuring that all children have the opportunity to develop that real love of reading. Throughout the school week, children are provided with the opportunity to enjoy school book corners and libraries as well as opportunities for child-led, volitional reading.
Throughout our Pathways To Write curriculum, children encounter a diverse range of literature such as sharing high quality non-fiction texts, fiction texts, kindle stories, iPads, big books and story sacks.
Every day teachers read aloud to their class and this time is timetabled and protected. These texts are chosen carefully so there is a range of high quality, diverse texts to engage the children and appeal to a range of children. During storytimes, teachers do not stop unnecessarily to ask clarification/comprehension questions. Instead, they allow the story to weave its own magic, only pausing occasionally where necessary to define any important vocabulary. Reading is encouraged at home and parents are supported parents to understand how to read to/with their children. Teachers promote reading for pleasure through making recommendations and informal book talk.
WRITING
At Willesborough Infant School, we foster a love of writing from the earliest stages of learning. Children are taught to write in shared, guided and independent contexts across their daily English lessons and many other areas of the curriculum. Opportunities for writing are incorporated into the children's learning environments and we aim to inspire them to write in their own time as well as in directed time.
Our curriculum has been designed to ensure that pupils enjoy writing and have passion and enthusiasm for it. Our aim is to ensure that pupils write clearly, accurately and coherently; write in different styles and for different purposes and audiences; develop a wide vocabulary and a solid understanding of the grammar rules and terminology appropriate for their age group. Our curriculum has also been designed to ensure that pupils are able to express themselves creatively and to communicate effectively with others. Skills are built on progressively.
We follow a Mastery-Learning model, using Pathways to Write. Key skills are taught and repeated so that children are able to master and apply these in further writing. Within each sequence, there are many opportunities for incidental short- burst writing with an extended written outcome built up to by the end of each unit.
The ideas and work are pitched appropriately for all children, with activities for greater depth pupils. For pupils below expected standards, planning is personalised.
Click here to view our EYFS English Overview
Click here to view our Year 1 English Overview
Click here to view our Year 2 English Overview
Handwriting
The correct formation of letters is taught as a discrete, daily handwriting lessons throughout the week. Children are taught about the importance of the ‘4 P’s’ in handwriting; posture, positioning, pencil grip and pressure and every handwriting lesson starts with a handwriting warm-up to support their early development. In Reception, children learn how to form pre-cursive letter formations following the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds programme progression. This is consolidated in year one to ensure that handwriting can progress into becoming a fluent skill, allowing children to free-up their working memory to focus on all the other tricky elements of composition as well as spelling (transcription). In Year Two, children who are able to form lower and upper case letters correctly are introduced to ‘lead in’ strokes to begin to develop their cursive style.
Reading News .......
Look at our Book Swap Shed!
It's full of free books for children. You can swap, drop or just take books from the shed, which can be found in the school reception area. Enjoy!
