English is the base on which every other subject builds. Learning English means learning to communicate through reading, writing, speaking and listening - and doing it well requires a huge range of skills.

To help speed-up our progress in reading, spelling and phonics (in particular), we use the Read Write Inc programme from Nursery to Year 2. Every day, children are taught in small groups, alongside others who are at the same phonics or spelling level as them, in addition to whole-class English teaching. They focus on specific sounds each day, and read and write texts which include only the sounds they know - so that everyone can read, write and spell with confidence, making rapid progress as a result. 

Once phonic knowledge is secure, we teach spelling through daily lessons in Year 2-6, again based around the Read Write Inc programme. Children in these classes are also set spellings to learn every week - click here for guidance on strategies you can use to support your child in learning their spellings. You can also read our Spelling Policy here. 

Our approach to writing is built around the principles of HfL's Essential Writing, which we follow in English throughout the school. You can find out more about all this in our Writing Policy.  

We also prize reading particularly highly (as shown by the enthusiasm with which our entire school community engaged with World Book Day). Throughout the school, we work our way through a levelled reading scheme, which follows the OUP Levels numbering system, but also includes a wide and varied selection of books from other publishers and sources. Read our Skills and Knowledge Progression for Reading to find out more about the way we develop core reading skills.

Reading skills:

We have grouped the skills required to be a ‘good’ reader into six key areas. To support us in understanding the skills we are being taught, practicing and using, each of these is then linked to a corresponding character.

• Rex Retriever - scanning the text for evidence, finding key information, using tables, charts and titles, spotting changes in place and time.    
• Dood Detective - explaining why characters say and do things, recognising how they change through a story and relating texts to our own experiences.  
• Penny Predictor - suggesting what might happen next, based on clues in the text and our knowledge of the characters and genre. 
• Vinny Vocab - working out what new words mean and suggesting why the author has chosen them.
• Stevie Summariser - retelling stories in our own words, picking out the key ideas, events or facts.
• Ansa Analyser - explaining how texts are structured or organised, and comparing texts with a common theme.

This term's learning

Year 3 & 4   - All three classes organised  Stay & Read sessions, where they invited parents and carers to join them in school for an hour of fun reading activities.

Year 1 - This term we have been reading Stanley’s Sticks, Ruby’s Worry and Madlenka. We learnt how to plan and write our own stories about our stick, recount roars or worries we may have had and wrote our own journey tales. We particularly enjoyed getting to share our finished books with children in Nursery. We have also worked on using ? and ! correctly, as well as using conjunctions to extend sentences.

Year 4 - We have all been really trying hard to develop our writing this term, focussing on adding fronted adverbials (with a comma), using expanded noun phrases and similes when describing characters and settings, and ensuring that speech is accurately punctuated. Along with making sure our handwriting is the best it can be and all our spelling is tip-top, it’s a lot to remember all at once, but we have been working hard to draw all of these skills together and produce finished writing that we can be proud of. Over the last few weeks we have been working on writing stories inspired by the fantastic book Leon and the Place Between.

Stay & Spell - We were delighted (and a little bit amazed) by the massive turn-out for our Year 5 & 6 Stay and Spell event earlier this term. Mrs Draper and Mrs Thomas shared lots of ideas for supporting us in learning our spellings at home in fun and interactive ways, and lots of us have been putting these into practice in the weeks since, helping to improve our spelling knowledge. A big thank you to all of the parents and carers who attended.