English, Phonics and Reading

English 

Intent:

At London Meed we intend to:

• Develop confidence, fluency, and enthusiasm to maintain a love of reading, writing and discussion showing respect for themselves and empathy and understanding of others

• Promote and facilitate curiosity in learning and progression through application of both skills and knowledge through a creative curriculum. 

• Empower and equip children for today and tomorrow by ensuring they are brave enough to challenge themselves and resilient enough to keep trying 

Reading: 

The development of reading begins with use of a systematic phonics approach; building a knowledge of phonemes and graphemes, as well as an increasing recognition of sight words.

Alongside word reading, fluency and  comprehension skills will be developed through high quality discussion and questioning during individual, guided and whole class reading. 

Children will be exposed to a wide range of  high quality genres and authors to feed their imagination. Their reading diet will be developed through  daily whole class reading, teachers sharing stories daily and all children being expected to read at least four times a week. Fluency and comprehension will be developed through the use of colour banded books and phonics bug books. In addition, children’s love of reading will be addressed through regular access to the school library and discussions/recommendations by the class teacher and peers. 

Writing:

The children  follow  a creative curriculum, where each year group has a yearly overview of the writing genres, both narrative and non-fiction, that they will teach. These have been planned to ensure correct coverage of the key genres as well as building on skills from year to year. Writing is taught through the use of high quality texts which exposes the children to inference, high-level vocabulary, a range of punctuation and characterisation.  Each text is purposefully selected in order to promote a love of reading, engagement and high quality writing from each child. They will be inspired to be curious and have the confidence to be brave and challenge themselves. 

The development of writing begins with the understanding and application of phonic knowledge learnt, in order to write words as they sound and then building on this, through the teaching of spelling. This will allow children to become curious about, and confident and accurate with the morphology and etymology of words. Spellings are taught according to the rules and words contained in Appendix 1 of the English National Curriculum.  Children will receive daily phonic sessions using letters and sounds. From Year 3, the No Nonsense Spelling scheme will be used to teach children rules, patterns and key words.

Children will develop their oracy skills through immersion and drama and will use this to build a rich vocabulary and imaginative ideas. They will then apply these skills to plan, compose and edit, which will in turn, allow children to work collaboratively  with their peers as well as taking responsibility for their own learning.

Alongside composition, children will be taught: spelling, punctuation, grammar and handwriting skills both discreetly and within units of work. Weekly spellings will be sent home and children will be supported in class by working walls and vocabulary displays, and other resources. 

Phonics

At London Meed we intend to:

• Make an early start to the teaching of phonics in EYFS and teach this a part of our daily timetable.

• Follow a systematic approach to the teaching of phonics by rigorously following the ‘Phonics Bug’ programme. Develop a curiosity about phonics and word morphology by using the matched phonics reading books to consolidate children’s learning.

• Run effective interventions to help children embed their knowledge of phonics.

• Equip children with the skills they need to become resilient and curious in their quest to become fluent readers.

• Through the explicit teaching of phonics, we develop a community of learners that will challenge themselves and each other to develop their love of reading.

For this year's Book Battle, KS2 children chose a book and wrote a review, to encourage children to read it. Each class held heats, and chose a class champion. Each class champion then went on to represent their class in a Junior assembly, speaking in front of all the children. Please see below a list of the recommended books: