We understand that English is the foundation to accessing learning in all other areas of the curriculum and English learning is encouraged, developed and supported at Manor Leas Infant School with great importance at every opportunity.
English has three main aspects: spoken language, reading and writing. Each of these aspects supports the others so all are taught with equal importance. We strongly believe that high quality phonics teaching and learning and high quality spoken language experiences build the strongest foundations for good reading and writing development. Therefore, as we are an infant school supporting the youngest of learners, we place a strong emphasis on these key elements during each and every school day. We have English opportunities embedded throughout our curriculum and it is used to explore and develop learning in all other subjects.
Spoken language
At Manor Leas Infant School we strongly believe that the teaching of new vocabulary is of the utmost importance across all curriculum areas so every term the children are taught and learn how to use new subject specific vocabulary. Most lessons across the curriculum involve the children using their spoken language skills to revisit and consolidate past learning or to facilitate moving their learning on. The children often work collaboratively, either in pairs or small groups, which encourages the development of key skills such as the use of precise vocabulary, taking turns, respectful listening, awareness of audience and negotiating. Our use of Talk 4 Writing as a tool to teach English means that children regularly verbally imitate a model text, thereby learning rich new language patterns and vocabulary. This then gives them an accurate model that they can innovate on, keeping the sentence structures but altering the words. In the beginning phase of a new English unit of work we use techniques such as book talk, drama, freeze framing and hot seating to encourage the children to use talk to further explore the text.
Phonics
At Manor Leas Infant School we know that high quality phonics teaching is the key to success in the development of children’s early reading skills. Therefore, phonics is taught discretely for 20-25 minutes each day following Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised scheme, which is a published government approved fully-synthetic systematic phonics scheme. In each lesson, children are presented with grapheme flashcards to recognise, with the earliest phonemes having an accompanying pneumonic to help the children to quickly recall and learn them. Next, the children practise reading words with previously taught graphemes in them and they also practise reading previously taught tricky words. After that, a new grapheme is introduced and the children practise blending words that contain this new grapheme. Then a new tricky word is introduced. Finally children finish the lesson by segmenting and spelling some words containing the new grapheme and then either reading or writing a caption or sentence to practise their new learning. Each class has a bank of resources to support the teaching of these lessons.
As well as a daily discrete phonics lesson, opportunities for the children to practise and apply their developing phonics knowledge are given as often as possible across all curriculum areas. Through encouraging the children to apply their phonics learning throughout the day, most children quickly become able to have a go at reading simple words and sentences and writing phonetically plausible words and sentences independently.
It is expected that most children will be secure in their knowledge of Phase 4 when they leave the Early Years Foundation Stage and secure in their knowledge of Phase 5 by the end of Year 1. Termly assessment of all children along with the review of interventions should ensure gaps in learning are quickly identified and focused, specific intervention programmes are put into place to address these.
In Year 2, instead of a daily phonics lesson, the children take part in a discrete spelling lesson instead. This allows for further development of their spelling knowledge following the requirements of the National Curriculum. We currently use the Year 2 Spelling Shed Spelling Scheme to support the teaching of these requirements. Children in Year 2 that have not met the end of year expectations for Year 1 will also continue to receive daily phonics through either group or individual sessions, depending on their needs, until they reach the expected standard.
Reading
We know that a love of reading needs to be developed and nurtured in these formative years in order for children to become lifelong readers so we actively build in many opportunities to use or share a book with the children. In every class there is a reading area that offers the children a range of good quality fiction, non-fiction and poetry books. Where possible these are displayed with the cover facing outwards to give the children the chance to choose a book that appeals to them. Each of the books in the area are carefully chosen from the school reading spine or by the class teacher for their ability to enhance the current learning taking place in class both in English and across the wider curriculum. They are changed at least termly so that children do not lose interest in the area. Every opportunity is taken by the adults in class to share these books with the children, individually or through group or class story times, so that less confident readers become familiar with the books and then feel encouraged to access them. A dedicated reading for pleasure story time takes place in every classroom at least 3 times a week.
Group guided reading in EYFS and Year 1
We know that children’s reading skills develop more quickly when they practise their reading regularly using a fully decodable book, accurately matched to their current phonics knowledge, enabling them to read at least 90% of the text independently. We also know that re-reading the same text a number of times is the best way to improve children’s fluency and comprehension skills. We currently use Little Wandle Big Cat Phonics books for Guided Reading sessions, which are organised into phases and sets to match our phonics scheme progression.
In EYFS and Year 1 the children read in a small group for 15-20 minutes, three times a week, with an adult. Each child in a group uses the same book, which has been accurately matched to their current phonic knowledge through the use of rigorous assessment, for each of the three sessions. The focus of the teaching in the first session is on decoding and recognising tricky words in the text as well as ensuring that any new vocabulary is understood. The second session provides a focus on reading with more fluency and developing prosody (reading with expression). The focus of the final session is on comprehension of the text now that it can be read more fluently. After the final session, the children take the book home to share with an adult. As they know the text well after reading it in school already, this allows for a high level of success at home.
Initially the books that the children read in EYFS are wordless books but they are moved onto books with text as soon as they can confidently recognise s, a, t, p, i, n, m and d and can blend CVC words such as sat and man.
Group guided and whole class reading in Year 2
When the children first enter Year 2 they continue guided reading as in Year 1 but sessions are reduced to twice a week so that whole class reading sessions can also be introduced. It is expected that as the Autumn Term progresses, many of the children will reach the end of the Little Wandle phonics reading scheme and progress onto Book Banded books, beginning at Turquoise band. The children reading book banded books will still read in a group twice a week and take the book home for further reading as they did with the phonetically decodable books. Their first weekly session will focus on fluency and their second weekly session will develop their comprehension skills, which may include completing a written activity.
Alongside the group reading sessions, whole class reading sessions take place for 20 minutes, 3 times a week. The sessions are based around good quality picture books or early chapter books. They are used to teach new vocabulary, practise retrieval, inference, summarising and predicting and generally encourage book talk. As these sessions are to develop children’s comprehension, the teacher models the reading of the text so that it is accessible to all. They may sometimes invite the children to echo or choral read the text together after the initial reading. Once new vocabulary has been discussed, the children complete activities that develop their comprehension skills and demonstrate their understanding of the text and authorial intent.
Home reading
After the children have read a book in a group at school, they will take a copy home to read to their adults. This book is replaced weekly as they read a new book in school. Children reading book banded books may also take home an extra unseen book banded book at their level chosen by themselves to supplement their independent reading.
Alongside the reading scheme books, all children are invited to take home a ‘reading for pleasure book’ to share together with their parents. There is no expectation that the children should be able to read these, although some children may be able to do so confidently. These books are for the purpose of enjoyment, discussion, comprehension and vocabulary acquisition.
Writing
As a school, we have adopted the Talk 4 Writing approach as our tool for teaching writing. The children follow a progressive scheme from EYFS up to Year 2, using good quality model texts as a stimulus for their writing. Each year group covers a range of narrative, non-fiction and poetry text types.
Initiation
At the beginning of each unit of work, a ‘cold task’ writing assessment, with a rich and interesting stimulus, is used to work out what the next steps are for the whole class and gain knowledge of any gaps in the learning of different groups and individuals. This knowledge is then used to adapt the model text and plan a sequence of lessons.
In EYFS, practitioners may ask the children to tell them a story and scribe it for them rather than asking them to write so that they can assess their compositional and linguistic knowledge and not just their transcription skills.
Imitation
Children start each unit of work with a ‘creative hook’ to gain their interest. They then learn the model text, supported by the use of actions and a text map. The model text showcases the language patterns and grammar that will be taught throughout the unit and helps the children to embed the new elements. Alongside learning the text, the children take part in activities that deepen their understanding of the text, e.g. drama, book talk. They also learn and begin to practise using new language patterns and grammar through short burst writing activities. After this, the children work with the teacher to box-up the structure of the text into 5 parts and co-construct a toolkit by looking at what the author has done to make the text interesting for the reader and how they did this.
In EYFS, learning at this stage could be facilitated through short whole class sessions, in adult led groups, as adult initiated tasks or within continuous provision areas so that children can initiate their own learning.
Innovation
Once the children have internalised the model text, they begin to create their own versions by altering elements of the story, e.g. changing characters or the setting. The teacher heavily supports this process, particularly at the beginning on this stage. In EYFS and Year 1, the children use post-it notes to make changes to the text map and then move on to retelling/drawing/writing new versions from this. Children in Year 2 begin to use boxed-up planners rather than post-it notes, with teachers demonstrating how to create simple plans and orally develop ideas prior to writing. Shared and guided writing takes place over a number of days, with regular feedback being given individually, in small groups and to the whole class, so that the children learn how to improve their writing and make it more accurate.
Invention
In EYFS, a whole class invention session takes place once a week, where the whole class work together to create a story based around given props and following a simple 5 part pattern – introduction, build-up, problem, resolution and ending.
In KS1, after innovating on the model text, the children are given the opportunity to independently apply their new learning to a new piece of writing. In Year 2, the children follow the process of boxing up, oral rehearsal and writing that was modelled during the innovation stage. There should be evidence of the new language structures and grammar that has been taught in their writing but it is expected that the new text should not cling as closely to the original text and be more individual to the child. In Year 1, most children are not ready to invent a complete new text but they are able to work on elements of this through short burst writing activities and editing tasks.
As children’s non-fiction writing develops, there will be opportunities to apply these skills to their cross-curricular learning, e.g. writing a report about the Great Fire of London, writing a recipe for a fruit salad.
Grammar and Punctuation
Grammar and punctuation are modelled and taught throughout each unit as appropriate to the requirements of the National Curriculum and following the progression of our scheme. Children are given time to practise and apply this new learning through shared and guided writing as well as short burst writing activities. The children are expected to apply their current knowledge of grammar and punctuation across all of their writing, not just in English lessons.
Handwriting
In the EYFS, letter formation is first introduced alongside the children’s phonics learning to provide them with a multisensory approach. The Little Wandle Letters and Sounds revised scheme provides a patter for the formation of each letter. Each letter is then revised regularly through adult led activities.
In KS1, handwriting is taught through short sessions delivered throughout the week. In Year 1 the focus is on correct pencil grip and the formation of letters in the correct direction, starting and beginning in the right place. They also learn how to write all capital letters and the digits 0 to 9 correctly. In Year 2 the focus shifts to the correct sizing, spacing and orientation of the letters and begins to explore the strokes needed to begin to join some letters.