,
Message sent from:

English

  • Reading

    At Emley First School we believe that learning to read is one of the most important things that your child will learn to do and is a skill that underpins our entire curriculum. We believe that all pupils should be fluent, confident readers who are able to successfully comprehend and understand a wide range of texts.  We want pupils to develop a good knowledge of a range of authors alongside being able to understand more about the world in which they live through the knowledge they gain from texts.  

    We create a culture for a love for reading. 

    Our Reading Journey starts with Read, Write Inc

    Within Early Years and Key Stage One, reading is promoted through the daily teaching of phonics.  At Emley First School we use the DfE approved Phonic Scheme: ReadWriteInc.  Developed by Ruth Miskin.

    Read Write Inc. provides a whole-school approach to teaching literacy that ensures consistency across a child’s primary years. Used in over 5,000 UK Primary schools, Read Write Inc. Phonics is a DfE validated Systematic Synthetic Phonics programme with a whole school approach to teaching early reading and writing, designed to ensure progress for every child, in every primary school.

    As children travel through their phonic journey they will be provided with phonetic decodable books which suit their phonetic ability. 

    To supplement our phonic approach each child will also receive a ‘deepening read’ text.  This text will be from a different range of schemes, some of which are phonically matched and others of which have been picked to extend vocabulary and comprehension skills. 

    Our Reading journey continues through school;

    As a school we have created a reading pathway of texts to be read and shared in each year group, these are rotated on a two year cycle.  We have selected these texts to enrich the curriculum and reading experiences, ensuring a range of genres and authors, themes and structures are met throughout the child's reading journey with us at Emley First School. The choice of books are reviewed every year and updated as and when necessary. Each class has a dedicated ‘storytime’ everyday. This is an important time to share a love of books and for all children to listen to a range of stories, building a repertoire of language and imaginative stories.

    At Emley First School, we teach reading in both direct and indirect ways, developing a positive reading culture throughout school.  We follow the National Curriculum Programmes of Study across all classes.  Children are expected to read on various occasions, in a range of lessons to ensure that they are consistently applying the skills of fluency, inference and comprehension. 

    Children in Emerald class upwards begin shared reading sessions where they take part using whole class texts. This provides an excellent opportunity for children to work together, read together and deepen their understanding of more complex texts. It is also an excellent opportunity to explore rich and varied vocabulary.

    At Emley we want our children to become fluent readers who can read with clear understanding, intonation and expression.  We want them to clearly understand the vocabulary, the context it is used within and the author's intention of impact on the reader.  However, we also want them to develop a love for reading; one that excites them into reading a range of fiction and non-fiction books by authors that will become known to them throughout their primary experience.  Children will enter Key Stage 2 from Key Stage 1 being able to use a range of strategies for decoding, relying on phonetic knowledge and other strategies.  They will also be able to read for knowledge to extend their understanding of all subjects within the curriculum and communicate their research on a wider scale.  We assess phonics and reading skills regularly, both with formative and summative approaches.  Where needed, intervention will occur to keep children on track.

  • A Love of Reading

    At Emley we celebrate reading in its’ entirety. Children have reading buddies across school and share books with them weekly. We have annual reading events and encourage the participation of parents at these. Local residents come in to hear the children read and we welcome the involvement of all parents and carers. We work closely within our pyramid of schools to share good practice and ensure that reading is a priority for us all.

  • How can parents help?

    At Emley Fist School, when your child starts school you will be invited to a meeting so that we can explain how we teach reading and show you the resources and books that we use.  During the meeting, there will be lots of suggestions on how you can help your child to read.  Your support really does get your child off to a flying start and encourages them to make great progress! You can help your child sound out the letters in words and then to 'blend' the sounds together to make a whole word.  Try not to refer to the letters by their names.  Help your child to focus on the sounds.

    Make reading fun! - Remember to keep reading with your child.  It's great to share a book!  They will have access to a much richer vocabulary than they will in their early reading books and you will be helping them grow and develop a deeper understanding of different stories.  It will also encourage them to develop a love of reading and want to read more; if a child sees or hears an adult reading they are inspired by them.  Reading alongside children of any reading ability can be a great way to show importance of reading and promote discussion.

    TOP TIP: to help children practise reading skills, put subtitles on when watching television or films.  This is a proven technique for increasing reading fluency and expertise, whilst enjoying another medium.

    Here are some useful links to websites and documents to support phonics and reading at home:

    Phonics games and activities: https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/

    Top tips to support reading at home: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zbxby9q

    Phonics support: https://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/parents-copy-2/

    Supporting your child: https://literacytrust.org.uk/parents-and-families/

    Reading resources (Scholastic): https://www.scholastic.com/parents/books-and-reading/reading-resources.html

    Online stories (Free): https://www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/have-some-fun/storybooks-and-games/

Writing

At Emley First School, we strive to ensure that high-quality education in English will teach our pupils to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others. We want to ensure that, through their reading and listening, others can communicate with them effectively. Through every key stage and year group, we aim for our children to develop their vocabulary, understanding, are able to write in a range of different genres and continuously develop their spelling, grammar and punctuation skills. In addition to this, we aim for our children to understand the spoken word, use expression appropriately and participate as a member of society fluently and articulately.

To enable our children to write effectively and coherently, we teach from the National Curriculum.  Teachers plan discretely and also encourage writing across the curriculum, ensuring children can transfer skills seamlessly, noting the purpose for writing across a broad range of subjects. To aid the development of confident writers, we are strongly committed to developing a reading culture that involves students, staff, parents and the whole community.  Underpinning this is a 'book focus approach'. Books used within English can have a cross curricula link to Topic or Science, allowing children to use vocabulary and knowledge across a range of subjects (this is at word, sentence and text level).  When developing their independent and imaginative writing skills, children at Emley First School are encouraged to plan, write, edit and reflectively improve their work. We aim for our children to leave us with a good knowledge of vocabulary that they can use correctly within context and in their writing, demonstrating stamina and writing which flows and is interesting to read!  Scaffolding and modelling is pivotal in all of our classrooms so that children can see their teacher's model writing and reading on a daily basis within a range of lessons.  Our planning enables teachers to plan, engage and develop learning across the whole curriculum. Links are made between the written and spoken language, as well as spelling/grammar rules and handwriting development being taught discretely.

At Emley First School our children will progress from Reception to Year 5 and leave us for their next phase of education being able to:-

  • write for a range of purposes including diary entries, persuasion, story to name a few.
  • use their vast knowledge of vocabulary to excite, inform or entertain the reader.
  • understand a range of punctuation and the effect it can have on the reader in both writing and reading.
  • understand and be able to use a range of grammatical devices.
  • understand the various sentence types that can be used to support different genres.
  • spelling using their phonetic knowledge and spelling rules put in place.
  • to speak clearly, fluently and coherently, to be able to listen attentively with understanding, pleasure and empathy and contribute to group discussions effectively
X
Hit enter to search