English

Write to be understood, speak to be heard and read to grow. - Lawrence Clarke Powell

At St Andrew's and partner school, Potters Gate, we believe that every child can become passionate, fluent readers, inspired, creative writers and confident, expressive speakers.  

As a school community, we promote a strong love of teaching the English language through an exciting, language rich curriculum and continually take inspiration from the world around us. Imagine, express, create.

Reading

“Reading is the gateway for children that makes all other learning possible.” – Barack Obama  

At St Andrew's Infant School, we believe that reading is the key to all learning. As a school, we are fully committed to support all of our children to become fluent and confident readers. Reading, we believe, is a key building block for our children to lead life in all its fullness. (John 10:10).

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you’ll go.” Dr. Seuss

We use the Read Write Inc Phonics (‘RWI’) programme to get children off to a flying start with their reading. RWI is a government backed phonics scheme which teaches children the sounds in English, the letters that represent them and how to form the letters when writing. RWI includes reading books written only using the letters they have learnt at each level (and a small number of separately taught tricky words.) The systematic and routine based structure of the scheme allows children to quickly feel confident and successful as they develop their reading skills.

Who teaches RWI phonics?

We have a dedicated team of Teachers and Teaching Assistants who have all received accredited RWI training. They are passionate about achieving success and take part in regular meetings for coaching and training purposes. The scheme is overseen by the RWI leader, who will monitor RWI sessions and ensure that all teaching is high quality and that children are focused and engaged.

How does RWI ensure success?

Each child is carefully assessed and placed into a RWI group based their phonics sound knowledge and reading skills. This ensures that all children are working at the right level for their ability which is the best way to ensure progress and confidence in their reading skills. Your child might not be taught phonics by their own class teacher however all information is passed on from their RWI tutor to enable further guidance and support in all subsequent lessons.

Groups are assessed every half term (6 weeks) and children are moved accordingly to either accelerate progress or provide further consolidation. Any children who are not making the expected progress will be given targeted intervention or additional 1:1 support. This compilation of rapid acceleration, streamed groupings and targeted support all helps support our aim that our children are confident readers by the time they leave Year 2.

Introduction to Read Write Inc

“Reading is the gateway for children that makes all other learning possible.” – Barack Obama  

At St Andrew's Infant School, we believe that reading is the key to all learning. As a school, we are fully committed to support all of our children to become fluent and confident readers. Reading, we believe, is a key building block for our children to lead life in all its fullness. (John 10:10).

Teachers celebrate the books they are reading through classroom displays which the children can add their own ideas and predictions to. These displays help make the story visual for the children and will include questions and vocabulary linked to their book.

Guided Reading Whole School Overview

At St Andrew's Infant School, we strive to engage all children in a love of reading and spread our passion for literature across the curriculum.  

We are lucky to have incredible school libraries at both sites, which provide the children with an abundance of high-quality fiction and non-fiction books.  Our inviting, fun book corners in every classroom provide opportunities for the children to further develop their reading skills and promotes our school ethos.   

Daily story time is included in our curriculum and the children enjoy reading with their reading buddies across the year groups. Reading is celebrated in extra-curriculum events such as World Book Day, workshops and many author visits for all year groups.  

Writing

“You can make anything by writing.” – C.S Lewis 

Our exciting and engaging English curriculum enables our children to write confidently and innovatively for a variety of purposes across varying genres and the wider curriculum.  We immerse the children in a wide range of genres, providing them the opportunity to explore and magpie ideas to enrich their own writing for a range of audiences. We then scaffold the learning appropriately - developing grammar skills and introducing new and rich vocabulary - in order for every child to succeed.   

Writing Curriculum Overview - Reception

Writing Curriculum Overview - Year 1

Writing Curriculum Overview - Year 2 

Spoken Language

At Potters Gate school, we understand that giving the children opportunities for increasing confidence in spoken language is an important life skill. Starting in Early Years, all children will have the opportunities to explore stories and books through a range of oracy techniques. As a school, we understand the importance of drama to encourage the development of an active, vivid imagination to support all areas of learning, understanding and engagement. Every child will have the chance to perform in a class assembly each year and children are given many opportunities to speak or present in worship. 

 

HOW THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH PROMOTES OUR SCHOOL VALUES:

Fellowship
Our guided reading sessions develop team work skills; children are encouraged to work together through paired and’ tag’ reading. Children learn to listen carefully to each other read and collaborate to answer a wide range of questions about a text. Whole class writing enables the children to share their ideas with their teachers to create a piece that all children can be proud of. 

Justice  
Across the schools, we study a wide range of current and diverse texts which have morals based on justice and fairness. We choose our stories from a wide range of genres to enable all children to have access to a variety of cultures and develop an understanding of how key events of the past have influenced society today.   

Resilience  
We develop strong, independent writers who through exposure to high-quality texts learn to express themselves through a wide range of genres including story writing, poetry, persuasive leaflets, newspaper articles and biographies. We believe that all children can be resilient in their approach to writing; through understanding the impact that editing and improving sessions can have on their work. 

Trust
We promote a positive culture of reading by trusting children to frequently visit our well-stocked library so they can independently choose a book to read in and out of school. In classrooms, children trust each other to give positive and constructive opinions on the pieces of writing they produce. During independent writing sessions, we have faith and confidence in our children to create narratives they are proud of and can share amongst their peers.