English at Spring Bank Primary School

At Spring Bank Primary School, we believe that literacy and communication are key life skills. Across the curriculum, we will help children develop the skills and knowledge that will enable them to communicate effectively and creatively through spoken and written language and equip them with the skills to become lifelong learners. We want children to enjoy and appreciate literature and its rich variety.

We ensure that children are taught to:

• Read, write and speak with confidence, fluency and understanding;
• Have an avid interest in books and read for enjoyment;
• Become enthusiastic and critical readers of stories, poetry and drama, non-fiction and media texts;
• Have an interest in words and their meanings, developing a growing vocabulary in spoken and written forms;
• Understand the connections between the spoken and written word;
• Discuss reading and writing comprehensively, expressing opinions, explaining techniques and justifying preferences about a wide range of fiction and non-fiction texts using appropriate technical vocabulary.

Across school, children will be given opportunities to:

• Discuss aspects of literacy learning;
• Interact with each other and the teacher, contributing to discussions, offering positive criticisms leading to the improvement of reading and writing;
• Edit and evaluate their own and others’ contributions;
• Be ambitious and have high expectations for personal success.

Reading at School

There are two aspects to the reading programme at Spring Bank Primary – word reading and comprehension (both listening and reading.)

During Reception and beyond, our children learn to read at school using the Phonics Scheme ‘Floppy’s Phonics'. Children then practise their reading at home using fully decodable books that follow the 'Floppy's Phonics' teaching sequence.

As they travel on their journey to becoming independent and enthusiastic readers the children have access to a full range of exciting books.

All children are encouraged to take home a reading book to share with parents or to read on their own – for our fully independent readers these books may not adhere to a particular scheme and may be a book borrowed from our library. Younger children have a home/school diary and older children also have Guided Reading homework and a Reading Journal.

Writing at School

Writing at school is made up of two dimensions – transcription (spelling and handwriting) and composition (articulating ideas and structuring them in speech and writing.) In addition, there is a strong focus on spelling, vocabulary, grammar and punctuation throughout the school. Writing is taught through a focus on different text types in each year with frequent opportunities to apply their learning across the curriculum.

Please see the documents below for the overview of learning in reading and writing and also recommended reading lists.