Approach

 

In English lessons, children are taught speaking, listening, reading and writing skills through studying a variety of styles of writing (genres).  We follow the Teaching Sequence for Writing, which means that children will firstly be taught to read and understand the text, then practise the skills of the style of writing (including grammar) and apply into their own writing. 

 

Curriculum Content

 

Phonics

At St Cross we use the government scheme ‘Letters and Sounds’ to teach phonics. Children are taught for at least twenty minutes daily in the Foundation Stage and Key Stage One. We also ensure that we continue small group phonics teaching into lower Key Stage Two. The children are assessed regularly as part of the lessons and individually to ensure that they make rapid progress and are secure in each phase before they move on.

 

Spoken Language

The children will become more familiar with and confident in using language in a greater variety of situations. They will, for example:

 

·         Listen to and express views about a wide range of books and poems

·         Retell familiar stories and discuss the order of events

·         Build a bank of poems that they can recite by heart

·         Clarify the meaning of words and extend vocabulary

·         Join in with discussions, ask questions and explain their understanding

·         Change their speaking for different purposes and audiences such as role play or performances

 

Reading

 

This part of the curriculum is broken down into ‘word reading’ and ‘comprehension’. 

Pupils will be taught to read words fluently and speedily, using phonics as well as developing a growing bank of words that they recognise instantly.  They will also be taught to check their own reading makes sense, and to re-read to correct when something doesn’t make sense.

As well as being able to read words, children need to understand what they read and develop a life-long love of reading.  They will learn to do this through carefully structured activities using a wide range of high-quality books. They are encouraged to:

·         Make links between their own experiences and the story

·         Self-correct if what they are reading doesn’t make sense

·         Answer questions about a text, including questions where the answer is not obvious eg ‘Why did the character say that?’

·         Predict what might happen at various points in a story

·         Work out why things have happened in a story

·         Read a variety of non-fiction books

We use a variety of reading schemes in Key Stage One including Oxford Reading Tree and Fisher Family Trust. We use Rigby Star for guided reading.

 

Writing

 

Children will develop their writing through the following areas:

 

Spelling:

 

·         Continue to spell words using phonics

·         Learn commonly used whole words that are difficult to sound out

·         Understand more patterns and rules

 

Handwriting:

 

·         Form letters that are consistent in size

·         Leave appropriate spaces between words

          Join letters correctly

 

Composition:

 

·         Plan what they are going to write

·         Record their writing sentence by sentence

·         Re-read and check for sense and accuracy

·         Write for a range of purposes

·         Develop a wide vocabulary

·         Develop their understanding and accuracy of punctuation

·         Use a range of words to join sentences and add detail.