Reading and Writing
At Cheddington, it is our intention that all pupils understand the value of English to them both now and in their future. We strive to teach all children the skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening which they will apply in their life. We believe by providing a well-rounded learning experience, this will develop our pupils into passionate and enthusiastic learners. We want all our children to be confident in the basic language skills in order to communicate, so that by the time they leave Cheddington for their future journey through education and beyond, they have the confidence to communicate creatively, imaginatively, and collaboratively; express their feelings and opinions through both verbal and written forms of communication; and be equipped with the fundamental tools to achieve as lifelong learners and linguists. We aim to provide all children with rich, memorable and varied learning opportunities, from which they can confidently transfer their skills to other areas of the curriculum.
The overarching aim for English in the National Curriculum is to promote high standards of reading and writing by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written word, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment.
The programmes of study for English are set out year-by-year for key stage 1 and two yearly for key stage 2. By the end of each key stage, pupils are expected to know, apply and understand the matters, skills and processes specified in the relevant programme of study.
At Cheddington, each class follows the objectives of the year group, as set out in the NC programmes of study. These are primarily taught and learnt through the use of high-quality texts and whole school projects. This is in order to provide purpose and context to our writing and reading, and to combine the two skills so that our pupils are readers who write. We also look for opportunities to apply the basic skills of English purposefully across the broader curriculum so that our pupils continue to master the fundamentals of English.
English is recognised in our school as being the foundation on which all other curriculum areas are built, as well as being a core subject in its own right. With this responsibility, English must be progressive, stimulating and a showcase of achievement.
English can be divided into 3 strands; writing (including grammar and punctuation), reading, and spoken language. At Cheddington School we recognise that through each of these strands can be, and often are, taught independent of one another, the skills from each must be progressive, stimulating and a showcase of achievement.
At Cheddington, we use quality texts to cover narrative, poetry and non-fiction. Pupils study class-based texts, in that time will use the text to explore the specific strands and skills of narrative writing, reading, or spoken language as required in their year group.
All pupils are encouraged to read for pleasure. In weekly library sessions, the children are able to select a book of their choice from a rich range of authors. We believe that by providing children this opportunity they are able not only to take ownership of their decisions, but also develop their personal love of reading. We ensure we have a wide range of texts displayed around our library which reflect and correlate with our wider curriculum and serve as inspiration.
Our class reading corners, display texts that are suitable and interesting to each year group. Children have the opportunity to explore the reading corners regularly. They are updated regularly to promote children interest in new topics and ideas.
Weekly comprehension lessons expose the children to a further variety of texts with which to advance their comprehension skills and so to develop an understanding of the deeper meaning of texts.
Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar
Spelling is taught daily using Spelling Shed resources. Children have the opportunity to use these at home to support their spelling learning. Weekly, punctuation and grammar lessons enable the children to develop a clear understanding, and to clarify the meaning, of the diverse grammatical curriculum. Our children are provided further opportunities to apply their new knowledge within the wider curriculum.
Handwriting
All children are encouraged to take pride in presenting their work. We consider good presentation to be an important element of writing. All children are taught cursive letter formation, and, as they progress through the school, are expected to develop a fluent joined script.
Phonics
At Cheddington School we believe that early, effective phonics teaching and learning is essential for achieving high attainment in reading and writing. Additionally, children’s confidence with phonics is integral to the curriculum and is used in all subjects. Achievement in this area benefits every area of pupils’ development and the school as a whole.
We provide consistent, high quality phonics teaching that ensures all children have a strong foundation upon which to tackle the complexity of reading and writing. We ensure that teaching of synthetic phonics is systematic and progressive throughout the Foundation stage, Key Stage One and Key Stage Two for those children needing interventions (taking place the same day, following misconceptions in lesson) to support phonemic knowledge and understanding. We ensure that children have a sound phonetic knowledge, understanding and skills so that they can decode words with confidence and engage with higher order reading and writing skills.