All of our children have a daily English lesson focused around writing and grammar. Reading comprehension is taught separately throughout the week, although English lessons are underpinned by discussions about reading through the context of the main English text.
In addition to this, there are daily opportunities to practice and enjoy reading, including in our structured reading lessons which focus on reading fluency and comprehension, and in our daily story time.
Reading occurs at other times of the day too. We strongly promote reading and writing across the curriculum so children have a sense of purpose and can apply their learning.
We teach all our children to become effective communicators, teaching them to develop their oral language, and use these skills in a range of contexts so that they can express themselves with clarity and confidence.
Our staff value the importance of speech and language development and ensure to articulate clearly with close attention to accurate grammar and pronunciation in speech at all times of the school day.
Our reading curriculum is built around sharing high quality texts with the children. These books are read to the children and shared by the whole class. This enables adults in the classroom to model reading and thinking aloud, to show the children what a good reader does. The children are also given opportunities to read with fluency expression by using echo and paired reading regularly within reading lessons. The children then use their reading skills to build up an understanding of the text as a whole, including prediction, inference, summarising and vocabulary.
We also have dedicated time each day for story time, where the children will be immersed in listening to and enjoying a book that is read to them. These books are chosen carefully from a reading spine or due to their link to texts or subjects taught within the curriculum. This dedicated time aims to foster positive attitudes, enhance pupils’ motivation to read, and develop vocabulary and other knowledge, including of books, authors and genres that they might not choose to read for themselves.
A selection of books is also available in each classroom and children choose their own books from the library. Books are regularly swapped around so that there are more books to choose from. We also have a range of non-fiction books which children can choose to read. This is in addition to the home-reading scheme and is to broaden the children’s knowledge of authors and topic related texts. If children are reading on a Phonics phase there are also appropriate phonetically decodable books available to encourage overlearning and independence.
Children are taught to read at school, but parents can have a huge impact on a child’s reading journey by continuing to practice reading at home.
There are two types of reading book that a child will bring home:
A reading practice book: This will be at the correct phonic/reading stage for each child. They should be able to read this fluently and independently. Regular reading of this book will support a child’s fluency and understanding of the book.
A sharing book: This will usually be a book from the library that a child will not necessarily be able to read on their own. This book is to be read and enjoyed together to support a life-long love of reading.
It is our aim that all children at our school read at home every evening. Each child has a reading record that they will bring home for parents/carers to record comments about how well and how often reading has taken place at home. These should then be brought into school every day so that school staff can monitor this. We also have a reading reward scheme for home reading. Children are able to collect bronze, silver and gold reading badges depending on the number of reads they have completed at home. Those children receiving a badge are celebrated and their photograph is placed on the reading badge display.
Writing is always underpinned by experience and creativity. Our children are increasingly motivated writers who enjoy the process of reading into writing to create stories, poems and a range of non-fiction texts. We believe that children should be able to speak and write fluently so they can communicate their ideas clearly. At Hillbourne Primary School, we want our children to be creative writers.
Children in our school are exposed to a range of high quality texts as a way into writing, which exemplify the new skills they are expected to use, in a meaningful context. Children are also exposed to a wide range of vocabulary in order to be able to express themselves in interesting and exciting ways and vary their vocabulary according to the audience and purpose of writing.
Grammar teaching is a core element of our English curriculum. For all elements of grammar, children are first taught to recognise and understand them, then use them in isolation, and finally apply them within a context, showing that they have mastered that skill. The characteristics of spoken language are very different from written language. Writing needs to be more concise and explicit, whereas spoken language often relies on context, facial expression, intonation and pause and gesture to convey meaning and create effect.
As part of grammar study, it is important that children learn the conventions of Standard English so that they can adopt an appropriate level of formality in their writing appropriate to audience and purpose.
At Hillbourne Primary School, we believe that phonics should be taught in an engaging and systematic way. The Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme enables us to do this. By Year 2, most children can read and write a wide range of graphemes (the letter or letters that match a sound in English). Children then move onto the reading comprehension programme.
You can find our full English and Phonics policies on our school policy page.
The Little Wandle website has resources to help parents to support their child with saying their sounds and writing their letters. There are also useful videos to show how children are taught at school and to develop confidence in supporting reading at home.
Read more about our curriculum.
