St Eanswythe's
Church of England Primary School
'Learning holistically through God's unconditional love'
English
St. Eanswythe’s CE Primary School have a strong and varied English curriculum. The aim of this is to develop a life long love of reading and writing through immersing children in a wide range of genres in both fiction and non-fiction.
The English national curriculum (2014) states that: ‘The overarching aim for English in the National Curriculum is to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written language, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment.’
Content: The content of our Curriculum for English is based around the National Curriculum 2014.
Phonics: A structured and systematic synthetic phonics programme is taught every day in the EYFS, Key Stage 1, and for those who need to continue in Key Stage 2, using Read Write Inc. Using Read Write Inc., the children learn to read so they can put all their energy into comprehending what they read. It also allows them to spell effortlessly so that they can put all their energy into composing what they write.
Reading: Reading opens the door to learning. A child who reads a lot will become a good reader. A good reader will be able to read more challenging material. A child who reads challenging material is a child who will learn. The more a child learns, the more he or she will want to find out. Children are explicitly taught the skills of reading in Whole Class Reading sessions. We aim to give our children a rich experience of literature through drama, video, books, ICT, theatre and writing experiences.
Children have time to read their own choice of book independently and to adults. A wide variety of modern and historical literature is read to the children to enable them to enjoy texts as a class. Children also share reading as an experience with buddies of different ages e.g. a Year 5 child and a Year R child.
Writing: is covered across a range of genre in Literacy lessons following the Talk 4 Writing model from EYFS and upwards. Key Stage Two children are taught Shared Writing as a class, in groups and pairs to embed more creative writing techniques which they can then use in their independent work. Children are also given opportunities to write in a variety of different ways across the curriculum.
Spelling: At St. Eanswythe’s we have raised the profile of spellings by introducing new ways to learn to spell!We follow on from our successful Read Write Inc. program in the Key Stage One with an approach to learning to spell in the Key Stage Two using the Twinkl Spelling programme. We re-cap and build on our phonics knowledge on a daily basis with short 10-15 minute sessions.
Speaking and Listening: At St Eanswythe’s CE Primary School, we believe that spoken language is fundamental to not only ensure that our children are good communicators but to guarantee that they make outstanding progress and attainment within English. We aim to orally rehearse and provide our children with a range of oracy opportunities such as: debates which encourages our children to articulate and justify arguments and opinions; performance poetry; drama activities (hot seating, conscience alley, and freeze frames); and we aim that all staff model the correct Standard English at all times.
We aim to give our children a rich experience of literature through drama, video, books, ICT, theatre and writing experiences.
Read Write Inc.
Read Write Inc. is a method of learning centred around letter sounds and phonics, and we use it here at St. Eanswythe’s CE Primary School to aid children with their initial learning in Literacy.
We have put together a guide to how the RWInc programme works together with some useful links.
Mrs Page is our Read Write Inc lead teacher, so if you have questions about RWInc, contact school who can refer you to her. Please take the time to read the information as it will provide invaluable information as to how you can help and support your child in reading.
What is Read Write Inc?
Read Write Inc (RWInc) is a phonics complete literacy programme which helps all children learn to read fluently and at speed so they can focus on developing their skills in comprehension, vocabulary and spelling. The programme is designed for children aged 4-7. However, we will continue teaching RWInc to children beyond the age of 7 if they still need support in their reading.
RWInc was developed by Ruth Miskin and more information on this can be found at https://ruthmiskin.com/en/find-out-more/parents/
How will RWInc be taught?
All children are assessed regularly by our RWInc lead teacher, Mrs Page, so they work with children at the same level. This allows complete participation in lesson.
The children:
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learn 44 sounds and the corresponding letters/letter groups using simple picture prompts
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learn to read words using Fred talk and sound blending
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read from a range of storybooks and non-fictions books matched to their phonic knowledge
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work well with partners
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develop comprehension skills in stories by answering ‘Find It’ and ‘Prove It’ discussion question
The children work in pairs so that they:
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answer every question
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practise every activity with their partner
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take turns in talking and reading to each other
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develop ambitious vocabulary
We use pure sounds (/m/ not ’muh’ , /s/ not ‘suh’, etc.) so that your child will be able to blend the sounds into words more easily.
At school we use a puppet called Fred who is an expert on sounding out words!
We call it, ‘Fred Talk’. E.g. m-o-p, c-a-t, m-a-n, sh-o-p, b-l-a-ck.
Step 1:
Set 1 Sounds are taught in the following order together with rhymes to help children form the letters correctly and instantly recognise sounds ready for blending.
Sound | Rhyme |
|---|---|
nk | I think I stink
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ng | A thing on a string
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x | Cross down the arm and leg and cross the other way |
qu | Round the queen’s head, up to her crown, down her hair and curl
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ch | Curl around the caterpillar, , then down the horse’s head to the hooves and over his back
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z | Zig-zag-zig, down the zip.
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th | Down the tower, across the tower, then down the horse’s head to the hooves and over his back
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w | Down, up, down, up the worm.
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y | Down a horn, up a horn and under the yak’s head.
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v | Down a wing, up a wing
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j | Down his body, curl and dot
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r | Down the robot’s back, then up and curl
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sh | Slither down the snake, then down the horse’s head to the hooves and over his back
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h | Down the horse’s head to the hooves and over his back
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l | Down the long leg
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e | Slice into the egg, go over the top, then under the egg
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f | Down the stem and draw the leaves
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b | Down the laces, over the toe and touch the heel
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u | Down and under the umbrella, up to the top and down to the puddle
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k | Down the kangaroos body, tail and leg
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c | Curl around the caterpillar
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o | All around the orange
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g | Round the girls face, down her hair and give her a curl
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p | Down the plait, up and over the pirates face.
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n | Down Nobby and over the net.
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l | Down the insects body, dot for the head.
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t | Down the tower, across the tower,
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d | Round the dinosaur’s back, up his neck and down to his feet.
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s | Slide around the snake
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a | Round the apple, down the leaf. |
m | Down Maisie then over the two mountains. Maisie, mountain, mountain.
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Sounds are taught in the following order together with rhymes to help children form the letters correctly and instantly recognise sounds ready for blending.
Please do not use letter names at this early stage.
To hear how to pronounce sounds correctly, watch the following video:
Children will also use pictures for each sound to help recognise the sound and then form the shape of the sound.
Step 2:
The children are then taught Set 2 Sounds – the long vowels. When they are very confident with all of set 1 and 2 they are taught Set 3 Sounds.
Nonsense words (Alien words)
As well as learning to read and blend real words children will have plenty of opportunities to apply their sound recognition skills on reading ‘Nonsense words’. These words will also feature heavily in the Year One Phonics Screening check in the summer term.
Step 3:
Children will be introduced to ‘Ditty books’ when they successfully begin to read single words. The short vowels should be kept short and sharp:
Children use sound-blending (Fred Talk) to read short ditties. They will bring home a Book Bag Book, which we hope you will share with your child across the week. Children will then be challenged to use their developing phonic knowledge to write short sentences.
Within all the books children will have red and green words to learn to help them to become speedy readers. Red words are words that are not easily decodable and challenge words to extend children’s vocabulary. Green words are linked to the sounds they have been learning and are easily decodable.
Dots and dashes represent the sound each letter makes.
During the RWInc session children will read the book three times and at each new reading they will have plenty of opportunities to practise using their developing comprehension skills. You may have heard your child talking about ‘hold, edit or build a sentence’.
Hold a sentence is an activity that encourages children to remember a whole sentence while focusing on spelling and punctuation.
Build a sentence is to give children the opportunity to create their own sentence to that shows the meaning of a word and edit a sentence allows the children to critique a sentence using their knowledge of spelling punctuation and grammar. Children complete a longer piece of independent writing, which gives them the opportunity to show off their creativity and to practice their spelling, grammar and punctuation.
Spelling
Spelling is part of the RWInc programme. Children will use ‘Fred fingers’ to first sound out a word before they write it down. Children learn how to spell rather than just get tested. Furthermore, this way of teaching spellings allows children to use Fred fingers whenever they get stuck with spelling a word. Children pinch each sound on fingers before writing the word.
Order of Story books
The expectation is that all children will leave Year One as confident speedy readers, ready to take on the challenges of Year Two. However, some children may need extra support and your teacher will talk to you about this.
Books | Year Group Expectations |
|---|---|
Grey 1-13 | Year One/Year Two
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Blue 1-10 | Year One
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Yellow 1-10 | Year One
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Orange 1-12 | Year One
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Pink 1-10 | Reception/Year One
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Purple 1-10 | Reception |
Green 1-10 | Reception |
Red Ditty 1-10 | Reception |
To help at home:
Your child will start to bring books home when they are confident readers. Each week they will bring home a Read Write Inc Book linked directly to the RWInc book they have shared in school. Please share the book, talk about the pictures and encourage your child to read. Please revisit this book so your child becomes really familiar with the words and in doing so their fluency will develop. If they need to sound out a word, that is fine. Please give lots of praise!
Useful websites for Parents
Please find a list of websites that you may find useful in helping you and your child learn about phonics. Games and fun activity websites are also included.
Parents guide to Read Write Inc
Read Write Inc – in action!
