Mastering English is fundamental to pupils’ educational success. English is not only the gateway to understanding the rest of the curriculum but also allows pupils to explore the power and beauty of literature and language. Through studying English, pupils’ eyes are opened to the human experience, and they explore meaning and ambiguity as well as the beauty and power of language.
Reading at Stoke-on-Tern
Reading plays a key role in our curriculum and all children in school read on a daily basis, be this as part of a phonics session, a guided reading lesson, whilst sharing a class book, reading one-to-one with an adult or enjoying a quiet moment alone with their book. We boast a well-stocked library in school, which is run by school librarians who regularly update the stock available. We encourage children to read a wide range of authors and a wide range of genres throughout their time at our school.
Teaching Early Reading.
At Stoke-on-Tern School, children are taught to read through systematic synthetic phonics (SSP). Phonics teaching is delivered via Little Wandle, which is a comprehensive phonics programme designed to support children in learning to read. Little Wandle is based on the latest research and provides consistent, effective and structured teaching of early reading. Little Wandle also enables teachers to track progress and provide targeted support for pupils who need additional help. The Little Wandle programme phases:
Phase 1: Focuses on developing listening skills, sound discrimination, and oral blending and segmenting. This phase is crucial for laying the foundation for phonics learning.
Phase 2: Introduces the first set of grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) and teaches pupils to blend and segment simple words. Pupils begin to read and write simple words and captions.
Phase 3: Continues to introduce new GPCs, including digraphs and trigraphs. Pupils learn to read and write more complex words and sentences.
Phase 4: Focuses on consolidating the GPCs learned in Phases 2 and 3. Pupils practice reading and writing longer words and sentences, including those with adjacent consonants.
Phase 5: Introduces alternative pronunciations and spellings for known GPCs. Pupils learn to read and write a wider range of words, including those with more complex spelling patterns.
Phase 6: Focuses on developing fluency and accuracy in reading and writing. Pupils learn to apply their phonics knowledge to read and spell unfamiliar words and develop their comprehension skills.
Throughout the programme, pupils are regularly assessed to ensure that they are making progress. Teachers are able to quickly identify any areas where they may need additional support.
Little Wandle Information for Parents.
Reading Beyond Little Wandle.
As pupils master phonics, they continue to be taught to read through guided reading sessions. At Stoke-on-Tern School, we use the Literacy Company’s ‘Pathways to Read’ programme, to ensure that reading knowledge and skills are taught in a structured way, through a range of genres. The Pathways planning follows a mastery approach where reading skills are built up through repetition within the units, and children apply these skills in the reading activities provided. In our shared and grouped reads, there is a clear teaching focus with the opportunity to master key reading skills in each session. Additionally, throughout the Pathways to read lessons, there are many opportunities for widening children’s vocabulary and this builds on the extensive work we do in school to provide our children with a rich and varied vocabulary.
For those pupils still needing support with phonics from years 2-6, we provide an individual reading programme that has phonically decodable texts at the heart of it.
Teachers use ongoing, summative assessment to support pupils’ progression in reading during guided, group and/or one-to-one reading sessions. Teachers take particular care to identify the needs of our struggling readers and to provide a targeted approach to support them to overcome their barriers.
You will find the end of year expectations for reading for each of our year groups in the attached documents.
End of Year Expectations: Reading Skills
Progression in Reading Skills
Reading aloud to, and with, parents at home is encouraged in all year-groups. Our younger children have a reading diary which is shared with parents; the older children keep a reading journal in which parents, children and teachers can share a dialogue about books and reading.
(Please note that, for copyright reasons, we are unable to share further details of our reading scheme on the website but would encourage you to contact your child’s class teacher if you would like further details about teaching and learning in reading.)
Teaching Writing at Stoke-on-Tern
At Stoke-on-Tern School, we use the Literacy Company’s ‘Pathways to Write’ programme to deliver the writing requirements of the National Curriculum. ‘Pathways to Write’ is a comprehensive writing programme developed especially for primary schools. The programme includes detailed, sequenced lesson plans linked to high-quality texts, from a range of genres, to ensure the delivery of engaging and purposeful English lessons.
We also use the Literacy Company’s ‘Pathways to Poetry’ programme which is a comprehensive and engaging approach to teaching poetry. Our poetry curriculum covers a wide range of poetry forms and styles, ensuring full coverage of poetry detailed in the national curriculum from EYFS to Year 6. Poetry teaching emphasises vocabulary development, spoken language, and composition skills. It provides opportunities for pupils to perform and craft their own poetry, fostering a positive attitude towards poetry learning.
As part of the teaching process, teachers use ongoing summative assessment in writing and poetry lessons, to provide meaningful and precise feedback to pupils in order to enable them to make progress. Pupils’ writing is also formally assessed termly.
Progression in writing skills
Stoke-on-Tern Pathways Reading, Writing and Poetry Overview
‘Nothing is more important in education than ensuring that every child can read well. Pupils who can read are overwhelmingly more likely to succeed at school, achieve good qualifications, and subsequently enjoy a fulfilling and rewarding career.’
Reading, the Next Steps, DfE 2015