English
At Kenyngton Manor Primary School our aim is for children to acquire the knowledge, skills and understanding in English which enable them to express their ideas fluently, confidently and imaginatively both verbally and in writing and to become fluent readers showing an increasingly mature understanding of a wide range of challenging texts.
Reading
Teaching children to read is a priority. Our aim is that every child should read with confidence and enjoyment, widely and often.
Our children learn to read and then move on and read to learn.
In the Early Years Foundation Stage children participate in sharing stories, rhymes and poems. The environment is filled with opportunities to see books and reenact this in their play. Our early years environments are language-rich.
In years 1 to 6, reading is taught:
- in daily 'class reader' (story time) sessions.
- in guided reading sessions - in small groups with a book/text appropriate for your child's reading level (or if in the early stages of reading a book that is entirely phonically decodable to them), chosen by the teacher
- through independent reading - for those who are in the early stages these will be decodable texts they can read using the phonemes (sounds) that they have learnt. For older children these will be colour book banded or freely chosen books. Children will read these at school and bring them home to read too.
- children choose to read a rich range of books and texts to enjoy for themselves. Children might choose these at home or school. For those in the earliest stages of reading, these books should be read to them.
Writing
Our aim is to equip our children with the skills they need to be able to write fluently and appropriately for a wide range of different purposes and audiences.
In the Early Years Foundation Stage, the environment (indoors and outdoors) provides plentiful opportunities to engage in mark making. As children learn to form letters and use sounds to segment and write words, children are given opportunities to participate in meaningful opportunities for writing both in their play and when being taught by the adults who work with them.
In Years 1 to 6, we teach writing using the 'Talk for Writing' approach. Each unit of work begins with an age-appropriate high quality book or text (fiction or non-fiction). Within the units we teach all aspects of English: speaking and listening, reading, grammar and spelling. Children develop their use of language for writing by learning and retelling stories and drama, which inspires and motivates children to write creatively. We encourage children to challenge themselves by using ambitious vocabulary choices, grammatical structures and a range of punctuation, linked to the Early Years Foundation Stage or the National Curriculum.
We teach handwriting explicitly to enable children to develop a fluent, legible writing style and we follow best practice from research, linking learning spellings to handwriting.
Writing skills are then applied as children write across the curriculum. Our children learn to write and then move on and write to learn.