English
At St Alfege with St Peter's we aim to ensure that all pupils:
- Read fluently and with good understanding.
- Develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information.
- Acquire a wide vocabulary, spell accurately and have a secure understanding of grammar.
- Write clearly, accurately and coherently across a range of genres.
- Are competent in the arts of speaking and listening.
Phonics
At St. Alfege with St. Peter’s Primary School all Reception, Year 1 and 2 children take part in daily phonics sessions. These sessions follow a set structure involving speaking and listening, reading and a writing elements. The session is driven by the children’s participation. They learn to use their phonic knowledge for reading, writing and independent play.
From a very early stage, children develop an awareness of different sounds in spoken language. They develop an understanding that spoken words are made up of different sounds (phonemes) and they learn to match these phonemes to letters (graphemes). Phonics is about children knowing how letters link to sounds (graphemes to phonemes), e.g. c as in ‘cat’, ll as in ‘fell’, ee as in ‘sheep’. Children use this phonics knowledge when they are reading and writing.
At St. Alfege with St. Peter’s Primary School we use the original letters and sounds phase one for our nursery children, building their awareness of where sounds are coming from, isolating single sounds and developing a strong ability to orally blend and segment words. Our aim is to fully prepare them for the next part of their phonics journey when they start Reception. We then use elements of the phonics programme Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revisited, but have adapted it to meet the needs of our children. Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revisited is divided into four phases (phases 2-5) with each phase following closely from the last. They are also taught to read and spell ‘exception words’ – words with unusual spellings or which children have not yet been taught.
The following links can be used to support phonics learning at home:
Reading
We aim to promote a love of reading through access to a wide range of quality texts and to give children the skills to be curious, enthusiastic and critical life-long readers.
In Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1, early reading is supported by the use of fully decodable books that clearly progress up through the phonics phases. Children have lots of chance to practise reading throughout the day both in taught sessions, continuous provision and through targeted 1:1 reading or interventions. We regularly asses our children’s phonetical awareness and ability to make sure they are reading at the correct level. Children must be confident in the graphemes and exception words for a book band before they start reading that colour.
We use Accelerated Reader to support the development of reading in KS2 and for those children who are ready for it in KS1.
Children in Years 3 to 6 participate in whole class guided reading sessions which focus on the learning of comprehension skills. These skills allow children to fully appreciate and engage with texts they choose for themselves or texts that form part of their learning. We encourage all children to read for pleasure and the Accelerated Reading programme supports us to do this by allowing children to practise and apply comprehension skills through a range of texts across a variety of interest and genre which include quality picture books and children’s classics. Children are also encouraged to read outside of the programme texts such as newspapers, poetry books or brand new publications.
All classes take part in daily Read Together sessions. For the younger children this is a whole picture book or part of a non-fiction book. For the older children this is a chapter of the class novel. Once a week classes enjoy poems together instead of their class book.
We want our children to love books and reading as much as we do!
Recommended books to choose at the library
Writing
In Foundation Stage, children are valued as early writers. They are encouraged to use mark making to enrich their play and are taught explicit writing skills in regular adult-led sessions.
In Years 1 to 6, children learn to write a variety of fiction and non-fiction genres.
Spelling, punctuation and grammar lessons help learners to produce technically accurate writing. These skills are taught alongside more creative aspects to ensure ideas are communicated effectively and legibly.
Children are encouraged to write as writers, thinking about the process of crafting a text – planning, writing, editing and publishing.
'Power of Reading’ (CLPE), ‘Talk for Writing’ (Pie Corbett) and ‘The Literacy Curriculum’ (Literacy Tree) are used to deliver the writing curriculum.
