English
Reading
At The Hill Primary School, our reading curriculum will enable every child to become a fluent, confident reader to allow them not only to access the breadth of the curriculum but to help them to explore the world around them.
By experiencing a wide range of reading materials, genres and authors, children will be immersed in a variety of issues such as culture, race, socio-economic status, disability and other social issues to help them to broaden their understanding of the world.
Reading is a source of great pleasure and one that we hope all of our children will carry forward. By the time they leave The Hill, children will understand that reading can enrich their lives.
Implementation
From FS2 we teach children to decode using the systematic phonics programme Floppy’s Phonics. Please see below for Implementation of Phonics.
From Year 2 - 6, pupils then progress onto whole class reading sessions using our Reading Spine, where books are selected for a range of reasons including: diversity, 5 plagues of reading, curriculum links, environmental and global issues and aspirations. Each reading plan covers the content domains. Time is also built in so that discrete skills are taught. Any child still requiring phonics instruction will have this as an intervention session and will also receive 1:1 tutoring daily from their TA. Any child falling behind in their fluency will also receive fluency instruction with the class teacher– we use the principles of Reader’s Theatre (as recommended by the EEF) to support this.
Class teachers and TAs read 1:1 frequently with the bottom 20% and regularly with all pupils in their class. Every half term, every child who has completed Floppy’s Phonics will do a Benchmark Assessment which will determine accurate level for reading. The Benchmark level indicates which books the pupil can read and understand. Pupils select a book within their level as their home reading book from a carefully selected classroom collection. In addition to this all children will have a ‘Sharing Book’ from the class or school library to take home.
We expect all our pupils to read 5 x a week for 20 minutes a day and record this in their Home/School diaries.
Whole School:
As our English writing scheme is book-based, all class teachers read well-chosen, high quality books to the children in their classes, these books are thematically linked to the books in the reading curriculum and support their cultural capital. Every year we celebrate World Book Day and use this to promote reading in our school community. All children have a weekly library session where teachers encourage children to discover new authors/genres of book. The library is also open 3 times a week at lunchtime for children to change their books and this is run by our Year 6 librarians. Teachers are also encouraged to read a class book at the end of the day to children which may be their whole class reading book or another book purely for pleasure.
Impact
As a result of our Reading teaching at The Hill Primary School you will see:
- Children who love reading and can talk about books, genres and authors.
- Children who read a variety of texts including books, comic books, newspapers, information texts and poetry.
- Engaged children who are all supported and challenged.
- Confident children who can talk about Reading, books and their learning, as well as the links between books and other areas of the curriculum and the wider world.
- Children who can apply their reading to a range of situations successfully.
- Children who demonstrate fluency in their reading.
- Learning that is tracked and monitored to ensure all children make good or better progress.
This will be carried out through:
- Learning walks/Drop ins
- Book Looks
- Pupil voice
- Writing moderations
- Analysis of summative data
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Phonics
At The Hill school we use Floppy’s Phonics as our chosen systematic synthetic phonics framework. Whole class phonics is taught in EYFS and Key Stage 1. It may be used as an intervention in KS2 for children who need it. This programme provides a clear framework of progression beginning with simple phoneme identification, blending and segmenting to developing fluency in independent reading. The programme is support with resources such as reading books, that are fully decodable which are sent home to support reading practice, and are used in school.
Writing
Our curriculum will enable every child to communicate effectively and creatively using the written word for a range of audiences and purposes. Our text-based approach will ensure that as well as gaining the skills, children will also develop a love for writing and sharing this with others. We will also create writers who can re-read, edit and improve their writing as well as having the confidence to use the essential skills of Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling.
Implementation
- At The Hill we use a book based curriculum where writing units are planned around high quality texts.
- Early writing is taught through mark making then letter formation is taught linked with phonics teaching and using Nelson Handwriting. Independent writing is also encouraged throughout continuous provision.
- In Early Years and Key Stage 1, Nelson handwriting is used to teach letter formation and hand writing.
- Over the course of the unit specific skills linking to grammar and composition will be taught linking to those needed for the audience and purpose of writing as well as editing skills.
- Oracy skills will be developed throughout the unit through discussion, debate and drama in order for children to be immersed in their learning.
- At the end of each unit, children will produce an independent piece of writing. This will be self -edited and may be published suitable for the purpose and audience.
- Teachers assess children’s writing using Key Performance Indicators and these are then used to moderate writing or In Years 2 & 6 the Teacher Assessment Framework for writing will be used.
- Spelling – In EY and KS1 we use Floppy’s Phonics for spelling then at KS2 spelling sessions are taught using Spelling Shed. Children are encouraged to access Spelling Shed at home to practice spellings.
Impact
As a result of our Writing teaching at The Hill Primary School you will see:
- High quality writing which links to audience and purpose.
- Children who can write in a variety of styles and from a variety of points of view.
- Engaged children who are all supported and challenged.
- Confident children who can talk about their learning and apply this independently.
- Children who can apply their writing to a range of situations successfully.
- Children who demonstrate fluency in their writing.
- Learning that is tracked and monitored to ensure all children make good or better progress.
This will be carried out through:
- Learning walks/Drop ins
- Book Looks
- Pupil voice
- Writing moderations
- Analysis of summative data
Reading and Phonics Presentation 2023
For more information about our curriculum please contact the office on admin@hill.reading.sch.uk
