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

Fieldmice  - We have been reading Paddington’s Post, Little Red and Hungry Lion, The Big Book of Bugs and We’re Going To Find The Monster! We have learnt to use question marks and exclamation marks correctly, as well as up-levelling our sentences further with the use of adjectives and conjunctions. To practice these skills we designed our own super-bugs, described them and wrote about their life-cycles. 

Dormice & Hedgehogs  - We have enjoyed creating poetry comics. We first looked at alliteration and enjoyed making up alliterative sentences which we turned into a whole class poem about Summer. We then looked at antonyms and made a poetry comic all about opposites. We have loved our playful, perfect poems!

Moles & Badgers - Inspired by The Girl Who Stole an Elephant, we wrote our own action-packed adventure stories. We focused on powerful verbs, dramatic moments, and building tension. We produced wonderfully imaginative writing.

World Book Day - To celebrate World Book Day, we got into costume, dressing-up as our favourite storybook characters. We were really impressed with the range of characters and stories on show, with everything from Roald Dahl to Percy Jackson to Dr Seuss! You can find out more about what we got up to (and dressed up as) here.