English

English

Phonics

We believe that all our children can become fluent readers and writers. This is why we teach reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme. Using Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised also provides consistency for the children when they join us from Albany Infant School.

Catch up sessions are delivered, to target and close gaps in phonics knowledge and each child will have a decodable reading book that is matched to their phase and ability.

"When children are learning to read, it is imperative that they practise independent reading with fully decodable books that are matched to their secure phonic knowledge. This will enable them to use the GPCs they know to decode the words and, with practise, develop fluency when reading. It will also establish the habit of using phonics as the route to decoding unknown words, avoiding unreliable guessing strategies. Evidence and experience clearly shows that this is the most effective approach to ensuring almost all children learn to read." (Little Wandle)

DEVELOPING FLUENCY

For children who have a secure phonics knowledge but need to develop their reading fluency, we use the Little Wandle Fluency books, which include an inclusive mix of fiction and non-fiction. The 40 books progress from Fluency 1 to Fluency 10. Fluency 1 books are designed for a reading speed of 60wpm (the expected level at the end of the Little Wandle programme) and Fluency 10 for a reading speed of 120wpm (beyond the expected level for Year 3).

Reading

Reading Essence Statement

At AIS/AJS, we teach Reading by meeting the requirements of the national curriculum. Our aim is for children to be fluent readers who demonstrate a good understanding. Children will develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually through the literature they will study. Our reading curriculum enables children to acquire knowledge and to build on what they already know. We encourage reading for pleasure and promote a love of reading.

We aim to achieve this by teaching knowledge and skills through high quality sequences of lessons which are designed to help pupils develop their understanding of:

• Rich and varied vocabulary that isn’t encountered in everyday speech;
• Challenging, high quality texts from a range of authors;
• Word reading and comprehension skills through linguistic knowledge;
• A range of genres, including stories, poems and non-fiction;
   
   
  Teaching of reading takes place during 2 x 1 hour lessons per week and are linked directly to current Humanities topics. Lexia and Switch on Reading are used as interventions to accelerate the phonic and linguistic knowledge of unskilled readers in school.

Reading policy

This policy explains the importance of reading in our curriculum as well as our approach to teaching, learning and assessment.

Reading curriculum

Our reading curriculum is outlined below and explains how this is implemented.

Reading spine

Each year group has a set of challenging texts that will be studied and these link directly to the History and Geography topics.

Progression in reading

Writing

Writing Essence at Albany

At Albany Juniors, we teach writing by meeting the requirements of the national curriculum. We aim to deliver a high-quality education which teaches pupils to write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others. We aim to deliver quality first lessons that follow a structure/sequence of lessons which develop all of the literary skills that children require to be successful. Writing is taught through a wide variety of age related genres in each year group progressively.

Sequencing involves

• Selecting and reading high quality texts which enrich children’s knowledge and experiences.
• Teaching of challenging vocabulary with cross curricular links.
• Grammar and punctuation woven in to daily/weekly lessons
• Transcription (spelling and handwriting)
• Composition (articulating ideas and structuring them in speech and writing)
• Planning, editing and evaluating their writing.
• Writing throughout the sequence and completing a final piece per unit/genre.
   
   
  Teaching is designed to take account of our five key curriculum drivers with skills and knowledge taken from our progression documents to ensure age appropriate content. Where appropriate, links are also made to ensure that children’s social, moral, spiritual and cultural development is enhanced through writing.