English

Intent 

At Shadsworth Infant School we aim to give our pupils a high quality English curriculum that will give them a foundation to speak, read and write fluently. We are committed to ensuring our pupils become enthusiastic and confident readers who read widely and often, for both pleasure and information. We are committed to raising phonics screening outcomes in year 1. We want our children to be successful readers by the time they leave our school and research shows that when phonics is taught in a consistent, systematic way it is the most effective way of teaching young children to read. We believe that confident speakers become confident writers and therefore place a big emphasis on developing oracy skills not just within English but across the curriculum. 

Implementation

Phonics

Our School has chosen Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised as our systematic, synthetic phonics (SSP) programme to teach early reading and spelling.  The children progress through the Little Wandle Programme until they can read fluently. Please see the document below for the programme overview and progression. 

Reading

High priority is given to reading throughout school. Children take part in reading practise sessions at least three times a week, daily story time and where necessary one-to-one reading. We aim to develop a love of reading with every child, with the hope that they each become lifelong readers. 

At Shadsworth Infant School we use the Big Cat Collins Letters and Sound Revised reading scheme. This reading scheme is fully phonically decodable and links directly with the phonics programme we follow. Children only read a text which contains the phonemes and tricky words they have been taught and assessment is used to match each child to the correct book. 

All classrooms have inviting and exciting reading areas with subject specific books and other age-appropriate ‘reading for pleasure’ books. Pupils are encouraged to use this area in which to choose, read and interact with books in an enjoyable way. All children have access to the school library each week and take home a book from library (their sharing book) each week to enjoy with someone at home. 

All our topics are book based and begin with an exciting text. Please see below the reading spine for each year group. 

Our Reading Spine

Writing

We follow a Mastery approach to English through the programme ‘Pathways to Write.’ Units of work are delivered using high quality texts and children in all year groups are given varied opportunities for writing. Skills are built up through repetition within the units, and children apply these skills in the writing activities provided. Many opportunities for widening children’s vocabulary are given through the Pathways to Write approach and this builds on the extensive work we do in school to provide our children with a rich and varied vocabulary.

You will find the end of year expectations for writing, reading and spoken language for each of our year groups in the attached documents. For further detail on the skills that your children are learning on a termly basis, please contact your class teacher.

Speaking & Listening

Speaking and listening is incorporated into all areas of the curriculum. Teachers provide children with a range of purposeful opportunities through play, drama and discussion (e.g. hot seating, freeze frames, puppets, debates) to apply their speaking and listening skills. Adults act as good role models within the classroom using complete sentences and Standard English.

Oracy

Oracy has always been at the forefront of our school improvement plan. We know language development is an area of key importance to our children here at Shadsworth Infant School . We use this as our driving force to improve pupil's spoken language and vocabulary which has a positive impact on all wider subjects. and as such, a fundamental key to achieve success!