English

At the heart of our writing teaching is the ‘Ready Steady Write’ approach to teaching. This enables children to imitate the key language they need before they try reading and analysing it. Through fun activities that help them rehearse the tune of the language they need, followed by shared writing to show them how to craft their writing, children are helped to write in the same style. As a result, they rapidly develop their reading, writing and language skills.

Rationale

At Leighton Academy we believe that writing is:

• An essential life skill
• A complex process that draws upon many skills; spelling, handwriting, composition, vocabulary and grammar are all key aspects.
• The ability to construct and convey meaning in written language for different purposes.

Aims

At Leighton Academy we aim to:

• Use story telling as a starting point for writing.
• Teach children the fundamental building blocks of writing, both secretarial and creative
• Teach children writing skills [which they utilise] in a range of subjects and contexts.
• Develop children’s creative minds and expand their vocabulary.
• Develop in children a love of writing, and knowledge of genres and authors.
• Provide opportunities to write for pleasure for a variety of different purposes
• Develop children’s independent writing skills.
• Develop children’s ‘writing stamina’ so they can write quietly, with focus and enjoyment for sustained periods.
• Provide a wide range of opportunities to explore texts.

Teaching

Handwriting – see Handwriting Policy

Composition

A yearly overview is in place that shows the text and genre for each year group for each half term.

At Leighton Academy we are committed to the delivery of excellence in the teaching of phonics. Our aim is to provide our pupils with the strategies, tools and knowledge to read with fluency and confidence. This is combined with fostering a love of reading and writing as they progress through life.

Intent

We aim to teach pupils to read effectively and quickly using a range of strategies and primarily use the Little Wandle teaching programme. This includes teaching synthetic phonics, sight vocabulary, decoding and encoding words, as well as spelling and accurate letter formation. In addition to this, it also creates an interactive platform for discussion and comprehension around texts.

This structure of teaching uses the phonic phases that are outlined in the ‘Little Wandle’ programme in 5 stages, each with new phonemes to be learnt and increasing with difficulty as you progress through the levels. 

We passionately believe that teaching children to read and write independently and as quickly as possible applying their skills and knowledge, showing perseverance and resilience to read and understand tricky words and texts. These fundamental skills not only hold the keys to the rest of the curriculum but also have a huge impact upon the children’s self esteem and future life chances.

 Using the Little Wandle programme we teach pupils to:

• Read easily, fluently and with good understanding.
• Develop resilience and perseverance using their phonic skills to spot new sounds that can be applied to new and unfamiliar words.
• To develop a lifelong love of reading for pleasure and as a tool to acquire knowledge and understanding.
• To apply their phonic knowledge in both their reading and writing, accurately and coherently.

Implementation

 At Leighton Academy, we recognise that reading and writing are essential life skills and we are dedicated to enabling our pupils to become enthused, engaged and successful lifelong readers and writers. To support this we follow the structure of the Little Wandle scheme. 

The Little Wandle programme teaches the letter/s-sound correspondences of the English alphabetic code explicitly and comprehensively for reading and spelling. 

Initially children's listening skills are developed through the use of music, environmental sounds and rhyme. During their journey in nursery and through the Early Years Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 they are taught the 44 phonemes (sounds) that make up all the sounds required for reading and spelling. These phonemes include those made by just one letter 'b as in bed' and those that are made by two 'ai as in rain or three letters 'igh as in high'. 

Pupils are taught the key skills of blending sounds together for reading and segmenting (breaking up) words for spelling. 

As the pupils grow in confidence and experience, they are introduced to alternative ways of representing the same sound, eg 'ee' can be represented as 'ee, as in bee', 'ea as in tea', 'e-e as in theme' and 'e as in we'. They also learn when to apply simple spelling rules and use verbs in the correct tense. 

We ensure that our teaching of phonics is rigorous, structured and enjoyable. Starting in Early Years and progressing to Year 2, pupils have discrete, daily phonics sessions where they are introduced to new phonemes, explore, practise and revise previous learning and have plenty of opportunities to apply the knowledge they have. 

We use a range of multisensory strategies to engage pupils, including the use of interactive whiteboards, grapheme tiles/ cards, speaking and listening games, wipeboards and practical activities. Pupils work with pace and are encouraged to apply their knowledge in all of their learning.

Impact

By the time pupils leave Key Stage 1 and progress into Key Stage 2, they have a good understanding of the alphabetic code and have become confident resourceful readers and writers who reflect upon their learning.  Pupils have experienced a wide variety of texts, both from their own individual reading as well as those shared with the class. As a result, pupils have a thirst for reading for many purposes and are able to participate in discussions, ask probing questions and apply their skills across the curriculum.

Throughout the teaching of Little Wandle we are able to measure their attainment after each stage and provide pupils with correct additional support to help embed their learning and provide them with the next stage of challenge.  In addition, we are able to see the impact of this programme with their progress in the Year One phonics screening check. We are able to use all this to make sure that the teaching of good synthetic phonics continues to follow those pupils that need it throughout their primary education.