English
Our English curriculum at Somerdale Educate Together Primary School is the ‘treasure-house of wonder and joy for curious young minds’ teaching through enquiry.
Our curriculum for English aims to:
- Ensure that every child becomes an avid reader, a passionate writer and a confident speaker with a love of the spoken and written word. As linguists they will explore and should acquire a rich diverse vocabulary knowledge through speaking, listening, discussion and collaboration.
- Immerses and inspires pupils as authors through the exploration and wonder of a range of high-quality text and literature from a variety of cultures that extends challenges and encourages children to have the confidence to explore their imagination, form opinions and which encourages questioning.
- Be purposeful, developmental and sequential, developing knowledge and skills that will ensure our children read and write confidently across all areas of the curriculum, understand different genres, styles of writing, persistence and cohesive writing.
- Ensure children develop a secure phonological awareness, the key to early reading and writing, through our teaching using Letters and Sounds synthetic phonics and linked reading books.
Implementation:
Writing
Teachers will provide opportunities for children to build on knowledge and skills through a learning pathway which is linked to the focus texts and the children’s enquiry question.
The teaching of writing will be enriching, purposeful and creative with a focus on both the National Curriculum Objectives and individual or group writing needs within the classroom.
The approach moves from dependence towards independence with the teacher using shared and guided teaching to develop the ability in children to write creatively and powerfully.
Teachers will devise sequenced teaching of literature which follows the writing genre pathway (writing to inform, writing to entertain, writing to persuade, writing to discuss). Learning is sustained so children are able to transfer what they have learnt from each different genre of writing.
Teachers use a creative, sequential approach to the teaching of writing which enables children to read and write independently for a variety of audiences and purposes across the curriculum.
A key feature is that children internalise the language structures needed to write through ‘immersion in the text’, rich and varied complementary texts, learning based upon both curriculum objectives but writing need of children.
A whole school approach to the teaching of cursive handwriting will be embedded to ensure high standards of presentation and fluency in writing.
A whole school approach to phonics will be implemented as a foundation to secure strong writing skills.
Phonics for spelling
Spelling will be taught to provide children with a wide range of spelling strategies to enable them to be confident, competent and independent spellers. At Somerdale we follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds programme.
Pre-School: Phase 1
Reception: Phase 2-Phase 4
Year One: Phase 4-Phase 5
Year Two: Phase 5 reconsolidation-Phase 6 through regular teaching of Spelling Shed
Year Three: Phase 5 and Phase 6 reconsolidation through regular teaching of Spelling Shed
Year Four: Regular teaching of Spelling Shed
Year Five: Regular teaching of Spelling Shed
Year Six: Regular teaching of Spelling Shed
Reading
Teachers will provide opportunities for children to build on knowledge and skills through a learning pathway which links Guided Reading to the focus texts and the children’s enquiry question.
Small group Guided Reading is regular and purposeful with planned adult led sessions with opportunities for comprehension (VIPERS Year Two onwards).
All teachers use a thematic approach to raise the profile of reading for pleasure and enjoyment; books based on children’s interests and passions but also situated in their lived lives
Children have ownership of building their classroom bookshelves which are linked to their enquiry question. Children have opportunities to browse a ‘Class Canon of Literature,’ and they use books with excitement and are often found reading in their spare time. All teachers will establish a daily shared story time with a class book displayed.
All parents will be confident and actively engaged in supporting the school’s model and culture of reading. Home reading is a priority with children swapping books regularly. A home school reading diary is used for parents to communicate with teachers. Teachers in EYFS and Y1 run a parent phonics workshop. Busy Things home access is updated to include taught sounds.
Teachers plan regular school library sessions in school to explore different genres of books. Priority reading groups read to Reading Project Volunteers and Volunteer readers on a regular basis to support progress. Teachers have established links with the local library in Keynsham.
Accelerated Reader
At Somerdale, we are passionate about ensuring that every child is a confident reader. This term, we are launching a computer program called Accelerated Reader (AR) for children from the end of Year 2 to 6 (EYFS and year 1 will continue to use Little Wandle). Accelerated Reader helps teachers manage and monitor children’s independent reading practice.
How can I help my child at home?
Encourage your child to read at least 4 times a week, record in their Reading Record and they will get a Golden Ticket for a chance to win a book in Celebration Assembly as usual; discuss books; ask questions about what they have read and visit your local library. Together, we can help every child to be a successful reader!
How does AR work?
In school, your child picks a book at his or her own level and reads it at their own pace. When finished, your child takes a short quiz on the computer; passing the quiz is an indication that your child has understood what has been read.
Since they are reading books at their own reading and interest levels, most children are likely to be successful and enjoy the books and quizzes. Best of all they learn and grow at their own pace.
As with anything, performance improves with practise and children who read at least 20 minutes a day with a 90% comprehension rate on the AR quizzes see the greatest gain. At school, we dedicate 15 minutes a day to independent reading, which we refer to as ‘Drop Everything and Read’ time (DEAR)
At school, STAR Reading is used to determine your child’s reading level. It is a computer-based reading assessment program linked to AR that uses computer-adaptive technology. Questions continually adjust to your child’s responses, making the difficulty easier or harder where appropriate. The test uses multiple-choice questions and takes approximately 20 minutes.
Teachers will support your child in taking a STAR Reading assessment six times annually. Book levels represent the difficulty of the text. The levels range from 0.2 up to 13.5. Books are chosen based on recommendations from the STAR Reading assessment. The score from this is called their Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) For example a child with a ZPD of 2.2-4.5 will achieve well if they read books with a Book Level between 2.2 and 4.5 to challenge them without causing frustration or loss of motivation. This range will be shared with them in reading records. We will no longer be using colour bands.
It is important for children to read with a high degree of comprehension and within the given range. Teachers may decide that a child needs to read books beyond the original range suggested by the STAR Reading assessment in order to give them a fresh challenge.
Each book on the AR scheme has an interest level, which indicates the age group that a book is appropriate for, based on the content and themes. These are recommendations only and teachers and parents should use their best judgement when guiding children in choosing their books. We have purchased new books, and are still adding to our shelves thanks to help from FOSET and a Tesco grant, that the children can choose from in school. However, we are also aware that
many children like to read their own books from home.
You can visit the website www.arbookfind.co.uk to search all of the available books with AR quizzes to see if the book your child wants to read is on the scheme. If not, then it doesn’t mean your child can not read the book but rather that there will be no quiz available and therefore it will not be recorded on your child’s
AR profile.
All pupils from years 2 to 6 have their own login and password to access the quizzes and pupils are welcome to access them at home via https://global-zone61.renaissance-go.com/welcomeportal/7258292
Parent Guide - Accelerated Reader
Phonics for reading
Daily Phonics is taught through the Little Wandle programme from Reception to Year One. From Year Two onwards No-Nonsense Spelling is also used through a reading lens to recap Phase 5/6 sounds.
In EYFS daily Phonics is linked to EYFS provision. Additionally, word boxes are designed for children to practise blending (linked to grapheme progression) where reconsolidation is needed. During Phase 2, alongside pink book bands for children who are blending, captions linked to the current taught sounds are also sent home.
Coloured book banded books are selected, following the banded system which links to Phonics pathways. Somerdale uses a range of different Phonics books schemes to spark the interest and diversify content. Home Reading books are chosen based on the Phonological knowledge progress but chosen by the children.
Reading and Phonics Curriculum
Resources for parents
Grapheme formation and phoneme support video.
Little Wandle Resources for Parents
Busy Things – Our school subscription to this online resource includes home access. Here you will find lots of activities in the English section from Pre-School all the way to the end of Key Stage Two. There are resources to help you pronounce the sounds too.
Please speak to your class teacher if you need reminding of the Home Access log-in details.
BBC Bitesize English- Key Stage One: guides and fun activities for children in Year One and Two.
BBC Bitesize English-Key Stage Two: guides and fun activities for children in Year Three, Four, Five and Six.
BBC Teach-Key Stage One
Use this website to access free information, games and live lessons for Year One and Year Two.
BBC Teach-Key Stage Two
Use this website to access free information, games and live lessons for Year Three, Year Four, Year Five and Year Six.
Phonics Play : This website has lots of useful Phonics games
