English
Our English Team:
Our Phonics Lead is Mrs C Hallam
Our reading and writing lead is Mrs Walters
Our reading and writing lead in EYFS is Mrs Bamford
Our oracy lead is Miss Anderson
Phonics and Reading
‘The more you read the more you’ll know, the more you learn the more places you’ll go.’
Phonics
At Djanogly Strelley Academy, we aim to nurture and create a love of books and reading in all of our children. We recognise the importance of reading and believe that all children can become fluent, confident and independent readers with an excellent understanding of what they read. Reading is a key skill that ‘opens the door’ to all areas of the wider curriculum. To begin this journey successfully phonics must be taught through a systematic and structured phonics programme.
We use Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised to plan and provide daily phonics lessons. Our teaching starts in Nursery and continues through to Reception and Year 1 and 2*. Our children are taught to master phonics strategies so they are able to tackle unfamiliar words that they come across in wider reading. Our application of phonics in reading is taught through both the phonics sessions and in shared reading and strategies are referred to across the curriculum.
*Some pupils require further phonics teaching in years 3, 4, 5 and 6 and follow the Little Wandle Rapid Catch up, or the SEN programme, where applicable.
How we teach phonics:
- In the nursery, children follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised ‘Foundations for Phonics’ guidance. The focus is on daily oral blending and language development through high quality stories and rhymes.
- In Reception and Year 1, children follow the progression within Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme. Phonics is taught daily and there is a review session on a Friday.
- Phonics starts in Reception in week 2 to ensure the children make a strong start.
- By the end of Reception, children will have been taught up to the end of Phase 4.
- By the end of Year 1, children will have been taught up to the end of Phase 5.
- Reception lessons start at 10 minutes, with daily additional oral blending – increasing to 30 minutes as soon as possible.
- Year 1 lessons are 30 minutes long.
- In Year 2 and 3, phonic lessons are taught daily to children where appropriate – following the model of Little Wandle but plugging specific gaps identified through assessment.
- In Year 2 to 6, there are planned phonic ‘catch-up’ sessions following a set model to address specific reading/writing gaps. These are short, sharp sessions lasting 10 minutes in length and taking place at least three times a week.
Reading Practice Sessions
- Children across Reception, Year 1, Year 2 (and beyond if appropriate) apply their phonics knowledge by using a full matched decodable reader in a reading practice session.
- These sessions happen three times a week.
- The sessions follow the model set out in Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised.
- In Reception these sessions start in week 4. Children who are not decoding, do a little blending lesson, following the model set out in Little Wandle Letters and Sound Revised.
How do we assess phonic knowledge?
- In Reception and Year 1, at the end of each week there is a review session which recaps the learning. There are also whole review weeks (pre-planned and bespoke review weeks to address gaps identified by the class teacher’s ongoing formative assessment).
- Children identified in Reception and Year 1 as in danger of falling behind are immediately identified and daily ‘keep up’ sessions are put in place – sessions follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme.
- In Reception and Year 1, the children are assessed at the end of every half term using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessment tracker.
- The children in Year 1 sit the Phonics Screening Check in the Summer term.
- Children who do not pass the Phonics Screening Check in Year 1, will re-sit this in Year 2.
- Children who are in Year 2 to 6 and need ‘catch up’ sessions are assessed through teacher’s ongoing formative assessment.
Reading Intent
It is our intent to instill a love of reading and great literature in our children. We do this by teaching them to read and motivating them to enjoy reading for learning and for pleasure. We want every child to be able to read and access a variety of well pitched and exciting literature.
Reading Implementation
Reading is embedded within our curriculum and we expose children to a range of high-quality texts. Reading skills are taught in phonics and later in in themed reading. Children are taught to decode, to have fluency and to comprehend their reading as well as develop their vocabulary through direct teaching. Children are read to every day, where adults model prosody and enjoyment in the class novel. Children are offered a range of age appropriate books including links to the curriculum, RSHE and pupil choice. Children also have the opportunity to enjoy reading for pleasure with the weekly timetable. This is also the time for children and staff to discuss their reading preferences and recommendations. Children are listened to read by adults in school through guided and themed reading lessons as well as 1:1 sessions.
Children are encouraged to read at home and log their reading on Boom Reader. This earns both Dojo and additional prizes from the vending machine such as books for home and reading afternoons. Children's reading is celebrated in reward assemblies each Friday morning.
We have two Literacy Volunteers who provide enriching reading experiences for key children in years three and four, exploring a developing love of reading through books and games. Other volunteers (previous teachers and teaching assistants) come as reading volunteers and read with children in school.
Reading Impact
The culture we are developing is one where reading is important and books are valued. Children are motivated to choose, read and share books from their learning environment, the library and around school. They are developing vocabulary, understanding of language and imagination through their exposure to high-quality texts.
Find out about what we are reading and our 100 books to read in each year here.
Writing:
Intent
At Djanogly Strelley Academy, our intent is to immerse children in good literature and authentic experiences so that they are able to produce writing which engages the reader. Children write more effectively if they can draw on experience, great literature and a wider vocabulary so that they have the background knowledge and understanding to write with clarity and impact.
Implementation
Our writing is planned so that pupils write for the four purposes of writing: entertain, inform, persuade and discuss. We teach English each day using the Teaching Sequence of Writing as part of Nottingham Priority Literacy programme. Our pupils are immersed in good literature and imaginative experiences, which are sometimes linked to our learning in other curriculum subjects.
Early writers are supported to develop good transcriptional fluency with their handwriting and spelling. Using Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme, our children begin to form letters, learning rhymes for each grapheme taught. As children move through school, we continue to teach handwriting in letter families. This begins to be joined in year two. We use Letter Join to support our handwriting across school. Early writers follow the same sequence as others in year 2 and above but are scaffolded in their work in order for them to further develop their transcriptional fluency so they are more able to catch up with their peers.
Once transcriptional fluency is embedded, children are given key vocabulary to help them in their writing and we spend time looking at what makes a good example impactful for our reader. Each unit has a clear SO THAT so pupils understand what we are writing and what effect we are attempting to have on our reader. We look at different grammatical features and link them back to the SO THAT so pupils carefully choose how to incorporate them into their writing to have a clear impact on their reader. We plan, draft and review our writing using both editing and revising techniques. We then publish our work choosing the best way to present this.
Impact
Pupils will become independent writers who think about why they are writing and use appropriate vocabulary, spelling, punctuation and grammar to support this. They will have good transcriptional fluency and will take pride in their writing. They will know whether their writing should be formal or informal and use the correct register appropriately.
Oracy
We are currently developing our oracy curriculum.