We recognise the vital importance of listening and speaking skills in a child’s development and we try to give as many opportunities for meaningful discussion as we can. We encourage children to write and record their thoughts in many different ways and for many different purposes. Formal lessons on aspects of grammar, punctuation and spelling take place on a daily basis in all year groups as part of the English lessons.
English
Language
Phonics
In reception, year 1 and year 2 the children learn from the Little Wandle Collins Big Cat scheme, as it provides a structured approach to teaching and is SSP approved. It provides a structured approach to teaching literacy and is designed to create fluent readers, confident speakers and willing writers which meets the expectations of the National Curriculum.
Reading
All children are given a wide range of opportunities to develop and practise their Reading, Writing and Speaking & Listening skills. All of these skills are taught through the class theme which allows the children to transfer their theme knowledge to their Literacy and vice versa. This thematic approach allows children to express themselves creatively and imaginatively, communicating effectively with others.
In Key Stage 1 the emphasis is on fictional texts where children can apply their structure and punctuation knowledge to a familiar context.At Lakefield we consider Reading to be a high priority in a child’s education, without the ability or confidence to read a child can have limited access to and enjoyment of other subjects. In KS1, we use Collins Big Cat as our basis for teaching reading at school and supporting reading at home, although this has been supplemented with a variety of books to give children a breadth to their early reading experiences. In EYFS there are phonetically decodable books, which help children to gain confidence by sounding out the words and following a short, simple story.As children move through KS1 they are able to access books that are appropriate to their reading ability and have age appropriate content. As the children progress through KS1 they are encouraged to become more independent and are given the opportunity to select their own reading books.
The books are organised according to ability to provide the children with some guidance, and by the end of Y2 the children progress on to selecting from our ‘Free Readers’ section where the books are organised by author. In KS2 books have been graded to help children progress and support choice, thus allowing children to choose their own books from a wide selection of fiction available within each classroom. Each class has a library time where the children are able to discuss their book choices and listen to recommendations from peers before selecting their own book to read for enjoyment.
Writing
From the start of school life in Reception, children are encouraged and supported to write for a variety of reasons; from writing labels for their pictures or building block creations, to recounts about class trips and researching information for non-chronological reports. Teachers use books and novels to introduce a topic and use this as inspiration for further writing projects. For example: Year 1 read the book ‘Whatever Next’ they put on their own magic boots and created their own adventure story. Years 3 and 4 were studying the local area around Gloucestershire, they studied a range of information leaflets in order to create their own information leaflet about Frampton On Severn.
Throughout their career at Lakefield, children will write for a number of motivating purposes (instructions, explanations, recounts, persuasive writing, argument and debate, journalistic writing all being a few of the examples). Embedded within our practise we teach the children grammar, handwriting and spelling according to the 2014 National Curriculum.