Reading
We base our reading scheme primarily on Pearson ‘Bug Club’. We have recently taken part in a 2 year research project with the London Institute of Education and Pearson Publishing Company into promoting the enjoyment of reading through using the ‘Bug Club’. However, at each level, we also use books from other reading schemes such as Oxford Reading Tree as supplementary and extension readers. This enables us to consolidate learning and develop as wide a reading vocabulary as possible. ‘Phonics’ is our primary method of teaching reading supported by the ‘look and say’ approach. The research project was a massive success and as a result, children right across school are more engaged with their reading and are reading for pleasure.
Children take their reading book home each day in order to practice their reading skills and to share their learning with parents. Children and parents are encouraged to share other books at home on a regular basis. The children also have access to the ‘Bug Club’ Online Reading World to support and enhance their learning and enjoyment of reading.
We provide a Homework Diary so that teachers and parents can communicate the progress that the children make. We really value this partnership between home and school, suggesting that parents aim for ten minutes of reading and listening per day. Short, enjoyable sessions encourage children to read for pleasure, whilst regular additional practice really does boost skills!
In the Juniors, children are still expected to read at home, every night. When children become more confident readers it is not necessary to listen to them read every night. We would be grateful though if you could sign their diary so we know they have read. As children move towards the upper juniors, more focus is placed on key reading comprehension skills. Through class reads and using resources from the Rigby Navigator scheme, the children develop their inference skills, understanding of authorial intent and language choice as well as their ability to reason their ideas based on evidence from the text.
Click on the ‘Bug Club’ logo to access the online reading world.
We aim to provide an environment that encourages children to develop fully their ability to use language, both spoken and written. The skills developed in English are necessary for all areas of the curriculum and are used throughout the school week. However, specific English teaching takes place during the daily Literacy lesson.
Speaking & Listening
Our children are given opportunities to communicate their ideas in a variety of situations. These may take the form of a discussion with a partner, a group, or class. Children are taught from an early age the value of listening to others and taking the opinions of others on board. Regular “Prayer and Liturgy” celebrations, to which parents are invited, provide children with an opportunity to speak to larger audiences.
Writing
Writing is a vital communication tool, which is incorporated into almost every part of our school curriculum. We aim to make writing meaningful and engaging while teaching children to write for a wide range of purposes. Children have the opportunity to develop their factual and creative writing and their ability to write poetry throughout KS1 and KS2. This starts in Reception with word and sentence level work linked to the children’s topics, the jungle for example, and develops throughout school until Year 6 where the children write diaries, formal letters, non-chronological reports and more based on their topics.
Pupils are encouraged to work with increasing independence; dictionary skills are taught in order to aid this process.
SPaG is incorporated into the English curriculum throughout school from Reception to Year 6. Children are taught year related objectives taken from our school SPaG scheme that ensures continuity and coverage across school. As a school, we understand the need to make SPaG meaningful for our children and we therefore take every opportunity to apply SPaG objectives to writing.
Handwriting
Handwriting is taught as a skill with an emphasis placed upon the careful presentation of work.
Spelling
The carefully structured Letters and Sounds phonics programme supports outstanding progress in reading and spelling. Moving into the juniors, the children have weekly spellings to learn which can be found at the back of their homework diaries
Reading Vision 2020
What does Reading look like now?
At Hambleton Primary Academy, our vision is that we develop a reading culture that increases children’s attainment. We promote reading for pleasure to support all children to become confident, keen and capable readers. Children who read for pleasure have enhanced levels of text comprehension, an increased knowledge of grammar and show improvement in their writing. We believe in both the importance of developing children’s discrete word-reading skills and comprehension, and the need to engender their love of books and reading. We recognise that the two elements are intertwined; each relies on the other if children are to become life-long readers.
Reading – The best we can be…
We place reading and books at the centre of the curriculum, topics are planned around text to engage the children. We acknowledge that not all children will have had the opportunity to develop a love of reading at home, so this has to be taught and encouraged at school by holding various “reading events” throughout the year such as; World Book Week, Pyjamarma day, book fairs. We have built in time within our timetable for all children to read independently, read aloud and be read to during the school day. EYFS have introduced tracking grids for Phonics linking to reading books. Lexonik has been introduced using a six week programme. It works on the basis of four children per hour x 5 hours per day (20 children over a six week period). Children are given a questionnaire at the start and the end of the programme to assess their confidence in reading. The library space is being developed to ensure reading areas are appealing. The Subject Coordinator, would like to see Teachers read “child friendly” books and have them displayed on their classroom door reinforcing and promoting the love of reading. The subject Coordinator along with other teaching staff should review the current choice of Non-Fiction books to ensure that they support the teaching of cross curricular topics. The subject Corodinator will continue to attend both Reading QIG and RIG cluster groups to share good practises and ideas.
Writing Vision 2020
What does Writing look like now?
At Hambleton Primary Academy, we believe that the keys skills of reading, writing and communication are crucial to a child’s success across the curriculum and for life-long learning. We provide an interesting, engaging and challenging English curriculum that is embedded in high-quality texts, which motive and excite the children. Writing is organised around a clear learning sequence where children study and engage with a high-quality text, practice grammar skills necessary for the genre before progressing into extended writing and editing. We pride ourselves on good presentation skills in English and therefore we teach children at Hambleton Primary Academy to write using precursive and cursive script from the beginning of their time at school. We understand that using a cursive script supports most children in becoming more confident, fluent writers and helps to improve spelling.
Writing – The best we can be…
We want our children to develop into skilful and imaginative writers across the curriculum. To continue to improve writing across the school, I feel it is important to place a great emphasis on talk for writing and modelling. Children must have an opportunity to talk about their ideas and develop and extend their vocabulary choices verbally, as well as see the writing process in action through modelling. As a result, children can see how sentences are formed and how appropriate vocabulary is chosen and improved. We will continue to place a large focus on handwriting in KS1 so that children are able to successfully join their handwriting by the end of Year 2. This will support children in their overall presentation as well as their spelling skills. I feel it important to work alongside the reading coordinator to ensure children have exciting, challenging texts to take inspiration from for their writing.