English

PHONICS

In all year groups, we use the Sounds Write approach to teaching reading and spelling. There are four main concepts that the children learn through the Sounds Write programme:

• letters are symbols that represent sounds.
• sounds can be spelled using 1, 2, 3 or 4 letters.
• the same sound can be spelled in different ways.
• the same spelling can represent different sounds.

Through a mixture of segmenting, blending and phoneme manipulation lessons, the children learn the code knowledge and apply it in whole words from the very beginning. With a focus on what the children can hear, all children can participate.

In Years 4-6, the children continue to use the Sounds Write approach to support them with spelling, building on the work they have already done and extending this to polysyllabic words.

READING

Our reading and writing curriculum is centred around high-quality texts that have been carefully chosen to provide a range of writing opportunities. We incorporate texts that are reflective of the children’s experiences and those that show the world beyond what they know.

Each half term, the children focus on one text (or a series of linked texts) in guided reading. This provides them with the opportunity to develop their vocabulary, improve the fluency of their reading and understand texts at a deeper level.

We allow the text to lead the lessons so there is not a prescribed sequence to the lessons; some books require more vocabulary work than others and others need more focus on discussion. Our teachers expertly decide what the children need to successfully understand what we are reading.

WRITING

Writing is a complex task that requires a range of skills and knowledge to be used at the same time in a variety of ways. To support the children, they complete a minimum of two writing sequences based on the book they studied in the previous half term. This ensures they can use the vocabulary, background knowledge and key events from a book they know really well, in their writing and focus on the skills that make their writing effective.

For each writing sequence, the children are shown a model of what a good one looks like (WAGOLL) and learn the different text features, sentence types and punctuation and grammar that are specific to the genre or text type the are writing. The children are giving plenty of opportunities to revisit prior learning, embed and refine existing skills and learn new writing techniques.

Each final piece of writing is published in Best Books as a showcase of their hard work and progress.

The QPA Reading and Writing curriculum can be found here