English

English Subject Intent

At Manor, our English curriculum enables children to:

• speak clearly and audibly, and to take account of their listeners;
• listen with concentration, in order to identify the main points of what they have heard / follow instruction;
• adapt their speech to a wide range of circumstances and demands;
• use effective communication, both verbal and non-verbal, through a variety of drama activities;
• become confident, independent readers, by developing word, sentence and text level knowledge;
• read confidently for pleasure;
• develop comprehension skills in order to understand and discuss the texts they have read;
• use synthetic phonics to develop their reading and writing;
• be enthusiastic and reflective readers, through contact with challenging and substantial texts;
• foster the enjoyment of writing, and a recognition of its value;
• write clearly with well-formed joined script, complete sentences and appropriate punctuation in a variety of genres:
• produce accurate and meaningful writing, both narrative or non-fiction;
• plan, draft and edit their written work;
• use technology to support reading, writing and communication.

Implementation

At Manor Church of England Infant School we use a variety of teaching and learning styles in our English lessons.

Children receive a daily phonics session using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised synthetic phonics, which is focused on teaching the phonemes, and using these to blend and segment for reading and writing. Through phonics, the children also learn to read and spell ‘tricky words’. In Year R the children learn tricky words as listed through the taught synthetic phonics programme. The children in Year 1 and 2 learn to read and spell the common exception words as listed in the National Curriculum.

Pupils in the Foundation Stage and Year One experience five sessions each week of focussed synthetic phonics teaching through ability grouped sessions. At the end of Year 1 the children are tested on their phonic knowledge (national test).

Children in Year 2 receive phonics teaching through the use of a synthetic phonics teaching programme. They also learn the spelling patterns as stated in the National Curriculum.

In Year R, 1 and 2, there is also a daily practice reading session where children read with the teacher, TA or read independently. The children also complete tasks about the text they have read. The children receive daily comprehension sessions that focus on one of the elements of comprehension: clarify, monitor and summarise, select and retrieve, respond and explain, inference, language or themes and conventions. These tasks are based on one of the author focus texts. 

On-going assessment of children's progress takes place and the books children read in school and take home to read are fully decodable and matched to children's secure phonics knowledge. As well as fully decodable books, children take home a non-decodable book for sharing that can be either read to or with them. These books play an essential role in developing a love of reading; an important distinction is that these books are being shared with the children, but they are using fully phonically decodable books to practise their independent reading.

Focus authors:

In each class there is a reading display, this gives information about the author and displays the texts the children will read. In Year 1 and 2, there is also a ‘Word of the Week’ display. Every week a word from the focus text is explored by the children.

Children receive a daily English lesson in which they are taught: a focused word or sentence level activity, a guided or shared reading or writing activity, as well as a guided group or independent activity. Each session is used to assess and / or evaluate progress and learning. Pupils have the opportunity to experience a wide range of texts from different genres. Teachers encourage the use of dictionaries, thesaurus and word banks to support learning.

Talk 4 Writing

Throughout the school ‘Talk 4 Writing’ models are used to support children’s writing. The children learn and write one Pie Corbett story every half term. The children learn to retell these stories using actions and story maps. We also use this method of teaching narrative writing to teach the children other stories. We use many of the ‘Talk 4 Writing’ strategies in teaching the children how to write non-fiction texts.

Speaking and listening skills are developed and extended through drama, role play and discussion.

Wherever possible, we encourage children to use and apply their literacy skills in other areas of the curriculum. Reading, writing, and speaking and listening opportunities are planned across all areas of the curriculum. Pupils are taught to use computing as a tool to aid / enhance their learning.

Impact

By the time the children leave Manor at the end of Year 2 they will:

• speak clearly and audibly, taking account of their listeners;
• listen with concentration, in order to identify the main points of what they have heard and follow instructions;
• adapt their speech to a wide range of circumstances and demands;
• use effective communication, both verbal and non-verbal, through a variety of drama activities;
• be confident, independent readers, by developing word, sentence and text level knowledge;
• read confidently for pleasure;
• have developed the comprehension skills that enable them to understand and discuss texts they have read;
• use synthetic phonics to develop their reading and writing;
• be enthusiastic and reflective readers, through contact with challenging and substantial texts;
• foster the enjoyment of writing, and a recognition of its value;
• write clearly with well-formed joined script, complete sentences and appropriate punctuation in a variety of genres:
• produce accurate and meaningful writing, both narrative and non-fiction;
• plan, draft and edit their written work;
• use ICT to support reading, writing and communication.