English
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Reading
Being able to read is a necessary life skill. Our aim is to develop a love and passion for reading, and for children to leave Harmans Water Primary School confidently with their fluency and comprehension. The teaching of reading begins in our Nursery where children are introduced to the phonic sounds. We follow the ‘Read Write Inc Phonics’ programme to teach early reading skills and, from Reception, children are taught sounds, letters and words in small groups for 30 minutes each day. Once the children have mastered phonics and can read fluently, they engage in daily whole-class reading sessions which are based around a quality text.
We encourage reading for pleasure everyday. All children read between 1pm and 1:30pm, and we dedicate the end of each day to daily story time. We support children with choosing a range of high quality texts to broaden their known texts by using reading challenge lists for each year group.
We have a wide selection of progressive colour-banded books for the children to choose from for home reading and we encourage them to change their books regularly. Every class also visits the library once a week to select books to take home. Children who complete reading homework are rewarded with a bookmark to collect stickers on. These bookmarks are exchanged for raffle tickets and books are given as prizes to the winners.
Writing
The teaching of writing relates closely to the teaching of reading. The quality texts that are studied in class link to year group Learning Adverntures and become the stimulus for children’s writing. For some projects we use the principles of ‘Talk for Writing’ where, during each unit studied, children move through 3 phases of writing that begin with oral rehearsal and drama work before engaging in supported writing and finally fully independent writing. We give children real-life purposes for their writing, encourage creativity and imagination, and provide opportunities for writing across the curriculum.
Handwriting is taught using an interactive programme. This supports children to write legibly and at speed.
Click on the picture below to see a video showing how we teach letter formation.
Spelling is taught discretely using the ‘Read Write Inc’ programme, as well as subject-specific language which is taught through the projects. Children learn to understand punctuation and grammar through English sessions, word/sentence games and direct teaching.