At Boney Hay, we recognise the importance of early language development in creating opportunities later in life. We believe in creating vocabulary-rich learning environments and unlocking new words through quality texts and life experiences. Our English Curriculum has been developed to support a life-long appreciation of reading and writing.
We love reading and want every child to discover their own love of reading before they leave our school. We have several library areas around our school which pupils spend time in each week and choose books to take home from. On top of understanding the importance of reading to acquire knowledge, we want our pupils to know and enjoy the pleasure of books.
In our English lessons and daily story times, we choose engaging, high quality books that allow the children to see and understand the world through different lenses. Through these texts, we create opportunities for children to develop spoken language through debate, drama and discussion about the issues raised in the texts. We foster an enthusiasm for writing by providing meaningful writing opportunities that allow pupils to write for different purposes and audiences. We believe it is important for our pupils’ futures to be able to write confidently in all contexts.
In Reception, children begin the foundations of writing through daily Read Write Inc phonics lessons in which they are taught to write letters and sounds to write words. They complete ‘Get Writing’ activities through Read Write Inc, providing meaningful opportunities to apply the sounds they have learned to their writing. Children also write creatively through Drawing Club sessions and activities within the continuous provision. Read Write Inc daily lessons continue into Year 1 and Year 2 until children have completed this programme.
In Years 1-6, children take part in half termly grammar journeys in which they are taught relevant year group skills which link to a key high quality text which they explore throughout the half term. Through this text based approach, children explore their grammar and punctuation objectives, working through a grammar journey until they are secure in applying their grammar skill to writing. At this point, they explore a key genre linked to their text and begin the writing process, which results in a quality piece of writing which applies their year group grammar skills.
We are so proud of our children’s work and love showing it off at any given opportunity! Our classrooms and corridors are full of wonderful fiction and non-fiction writing which showcases our grammar and punctuation skills.
Spelling begins in Reception as soon as children are able to blend sounds to read words. At this point, they explore segmenting words to spell with spelling practise embedded into their daily phonics lessons. In Years 1-6 children follow the ‘Spelling Shed’ programme in which spellings are set each week linking to a spelling rule from the National Curriculum. This is a comprehensive and accessible programme which enables spelling to be taught progressively. It teaches children strategies, knowledge and skills they need to tackle new spellings with confidence.
Weekly spellings are set every Monday in Years 1-6 and children have the opportunity to practise their spellings daily in class in addition to their spelling lessons. Spelling lists are also sent home each Monday along with weekly assignments on the Spelling Shed online programme which children are encouraged to access at home for further practise and consolidation of their spelling rule through fun games and activities. You can access Spelling Shed on the link below.
As pupils complete the Read Write Inc. Programme in Year 2, they move onto whole class reading lessons which explore key texts with a focus on comprehension. We use VIPERS as a teaching tool to ensure children cover a range of comprehension questions in each reading cycle. VIPERS is an acronym to aid the recall of the 6 reading domains as part of the National Curriculum. They are the key areas which we feel children need to know and understand in order to improve their comprehension of texts.
In addition to our RWI phonics and whole class reading lessons, we also deliver a daily story time for all children from Reception to Year 6. These sessions focus on reading for enjoyment and are a fantastic opportunity for teachers to model fluent, expressive reading to children. Our story time is sacred!
Each week, children bring a library book to enjoy with you at home. Children on the RWI programme also have access each week to a book at their phonics level alongside a weekly quiz on this. As children progress from RWI, they move onto Oxford Reading Tree book bands and bring home a book to read for themselves at their reading level.
Our school expectation is that children read at home at least three times each week and reading diaries are signed to reflect this. Every Monday in our school assembly, we update our Reading Races board to show which classes are zooming ahead with their reading at home!
For 10 top tips on supporting your child with their reading at home, please visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/10-top-tips-to-encourage-children-to-read/10-top-tips-to-encourage-children-to-read
