English
'Learning Together for Life'
We aim to develop pupils’ abilities within an integrated programme of Speaking & Listening, Reading and Writing. Pupils will be given opportunities to interrelate the requirements of English within a broad and balanced curriculum: with opportunities to consolidate and reinforce taught Literacy skills. We aim to equip pupils with knowledge and skills and the ability to apply these to meet the needs of present and future society.
At Hartford Manor we aim to encourage pupils to:
Speak fluently and listen with attention and understanding
Read and write with confidence, fluency and understanding
Be able to use a full range of reading cues (phonic, graphic, syntactic, contextual) to monitor their reading and correct their own mistakes
Have interest in words and their meanings; developing a growing vocabulary in spoken and written forms
Understand a range of text types and genres – be able to write in a variety of styles and forms appropriate to the situation
Have fluent and legible handwriting
Plan, draft, revise and edit their own writing
Be interested in books. Read with enjoyment and evaluate and justify their preferences
Develop their powers of imagination, inventiveness and critical awareness
Pathways to Read, Write and Spell
We follow a mastery approach to English through the programmes ‘Pathways to Write' and 'Pathways to Spell’.
Units of work are delivered using high quality texts and children in all year groups are given varied opportunities for writing. Skills are built up through repetition within the units, and children apply these skills in the writing activities provided. Many opportunities for widening children’s vocabulary are given through the Pathways to Write approach and this builds on the extensive work we do in school to provide our children with a rich and varied vocabulary.
The 'Pathways to Spell' programme designed to deliver the statutory content of the Primary National Curriculum for spelling in key stages 1 and 2. Through weekly teaching of spelling objectives and development of a whole school approach to word transcription, vocabulary development and proof-reading, the programme aims to develop children as proficient spellers.
Approaches to Reading: Teachers plan from the objectives in the National Curriculum and teach reading through a combination of approaches, including: daily phonics lessons, guided reading sessions (material is used from across a range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry texts. The format of the sessions can either follow the small group ‘carousel’ model or whole class model), whole class shared reading, supported reading – individuals read to class teacher/TA where appropriate, independent reading at school and at home (EY and KS1 are levelled according to Floppy's Phonics levels alongside other age-appropriate texts), use of class novels and text-based units and class discussions around new texts/authors. Teachers promote a love of reading and a range of children’s literature available for staff to borrow in order to keep up to date with new texts and a love of reading.
Phonics at Hartford Manor
We use the Floppy’s Phonics Sounds and Letters programme to deliver teaching of systematic, synthetic phonics.
Lessons are taught daily in Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and 2. Some children may have more than one session a day.
Children are assessed every 4-6 weeks to ensure they ‘keep up’ and don’t have to ‘catch up’. Where they are at the risk of falling behind, they are given additional support such as daily flashcard practice, pre-teach sessions or a re-teach. The impact of this intervention is measured at the subsequent assessment point.
Parents are invited to attend a reading meeting at the beginning of the academic year to ensure they understand how to support their child. They also have access to the online teaching platform used in school so that they can re-practice any previously taught sounds.
Children take home their activity sheets to share with parents so that they get another opportunity to practice and parents are fully involved with their child’s learning.
