Phonics
Phonics
At Hester’s Way Primary School, we use the systematic and synthetic phonics scheme “Little Wandle” to teach phonics in Reception and Key Stage 1. This is an evidence, research based, government validated scheme.
All teaching staff have been trained using the “Little Wandle” training resources and checks.
The scheme provides SEND and Rapid Catch Up programmes, for those who are identified as needing additional support.
Teachers and the SENDCo will assess and check if a child needs an alternative intervention programme such as: ‘Talk Boost’ and ‘Dancing Bears’, following exposure and access to “Little Wandle” teaching and learning.
Please see the “Little Wandle” website for more information
Letters and Sounds | A complete Phonics resource to support children
Phonics Guidance for Parents/Carers
Help your child to practise phonics learning at home by using the “Little Wandle” parent information on their website.
Reading
Reading is a vital, key, life skill which will improve the future successes and educational outcomes of our pupils. We are dedicated to enabling our pupils to become lifelong readers, who enjoy “‘reading for pleasure” and have a love of literature.
We use the “Little Wandle” de-code-able books, linked to phonics teaching. The children read the books three times a week to decode, read with prosody and then to comprehend.
As a school, we believe that reading is vital for academic success across the curriculum. Reading develops the mind and imagination. We learn and gain knowledge of subject areas, as well as acquiring vocabulary (75% of our vocabulary comes from reading), and the ability to think in the abstract. It develops language and communication skills.
Many of our staff have been trained by Pie Corbett, an educational adviser, who has been a head teacher, Ofsted inspector as well as a writer, author and poet, in ‘Reading as a Reader!’.
Reading comprehension is planned, using ‘Vipers’. The comprehension focus is introduced in through modelled and shared whole class sessions, children work in groups and independently to complete activities or tasks.
We want our pupils to be competent readers who can: recommend books to their peers; have a thirst for reading a range of text types; take part in discussions about what they have read including an author’s use of language and its impact on the reader, as well as answering comprehension questions and improving their progress to reach national attainment outcomes.
Every class has dedicated time, “Reading for Pleasure” and a protected story time session, at the end of the day where the teacher will read aloud books, including those in our Reading Spine.
Our Reading Spine
This is a range of age-related and “best books” that all teachers can refer back to, with “best” defined as a rich, diverse sampling of engaging and useful books that serve students over time.
These great stories build up language acquisition. This common bank of stories helps to bind our school community together through shared experiences, being able to talk about books that children have read or listened to year on year, as well as ensuring that our pupils are immersed in texts similar to their peers in other local and national schools. Please see the Pie Corbett Reading Spine. We have also developed our own reading spine which is annually reviewed.
Whilst we feel that this common base of books that all children read for shared reference must be diverse and representative, we also believe that this selection should include classics.
Classic texts help us to develop our children’s cultural knowledge and give them cultural touchstones which will develop a feeling of belonging. These books are also often ‘pre-complex’ texts which introduce children to syntax and language of complex texts that they will meet later. We would not want all of the books that a child encounters to be classics, but we do believe that one of the greatest gifts a teacher can give to their pupils is a book that they might never have considered themselves. This forms part of our “Cultural Capital” Offer.
It is our role to introduce children to a wider range of books than they may independently choose, in order to develop a familiarity with broad range of texts.
Track My Read
Writing
Our school has committed to a two year, “The Write Journey” programme – led by the Local Authority, Gloucestershire Schools Alliance and the EEF. This is to improve outcomes in all pupil’s writing but especially that of the Pupil Premium children.
The aim is to improve writing across primary schools and into secondary, so that the gap closes for Pupil Premium pupils at the end of Key Stage 3. Ultimately, everyone needs to be able to write and especially to gain qualifications in GCSEs, including sports and other foundation subjects.
In Reception Class, we use “Drawing Club” which teaches the children word, phrase and sentence level work. It motivates and encourages children to write, during this informative entry year.
We use Talk for Writing and over the years, we have developed our curriculum, choice of texts and adapt resources to the assessment and teaching needs of our pupils. We use the skills progression to assess and plan next steps.
At Hester’s Way Primary School, we aim to inspire the children’s love of English by developing their skills, in order to become thoughtful readers and creative writers. Classes attend the Cheltenham Literature Festival to see authors in action.
Our mission is to enable children to immerse themselves fully into a text and in class, an age related text. They will broaden their speech and language, widen their vocabulary and further their understanding of different text types. Every child has the potential to be confident readers and creative writers.
“Talk for Writing” is an engaging teaching framework developed by Pie Corbett. It is powerful and demonstrates good outcomes, as it is based on the principles of how children learn. It enables children to imitate the language they need, orally, before reading and analyzing the text and innovating (changing) the text, then moving on to inventing – writing their own version.
The “Talk for Writing” process is used from Reception through to Year 6. As a school we have mapped out the text that we use and linked in “short bursts” or poetry, rhyme and other literary contexts, as well as planning in opportunities for the children to apply their writing skills independently, in other subject areas. Please see our “Whole School Text Overview”.
Since joining “The Write Journey”, teachers have developed their modelled writing, sharing their meta-cognition. This has had a great impact varied writing outcomes, as pupil’s have improved their invention writing.
Writing Progressions
Whole School Overview
Talk For Writing
Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling (GPS)
We teach GPS every day. “Talk for Writing – Cold Writing Tasks” are assessed and inform what the teacher should teach next. The children are given an interesting or rich stimulus to see what they can do independently at the start of a unit, drawing on their prior learning. The writing is then assessed and used with our internal teacher judgement assessments, to identify what the children should learn next on the “Talk for Writing Progression” overview. The teachers set targets for the whole class, groups and individuals, for the writing unit of work. The model text is then adapted to include the text features, vocabulary and GPS that will be taught in the unit. At the end of the unit the pupils complete a “Hot Writing Task” which is an independent task on a similar type of writing, which then demonstrates the progress the children have made. We also use “Vocabulary Ninja” to teach specific objectives.
Talk for Writing Progression Overviews
The “Talk for Writing” progression overviews set out what we expect to teach in each year group. This includes “Story Making” language and vocabulary, as well as the more detailed word, phrase and sentence construction expectations. Teachers use the pupil’s writing outcomes assessments, to plan next steps using the overviews as a planning tool. The “Talk for Writing” progression and overviews are set at age-related and above, which enables us as a school to aspire, aim high, and teach with higher expectations of our pupils. This will in turn improve progress and raise attainment. Please see the “Talk for Writing” Progression Overviews. Following assessment, if a child is working below the age related expectation of 3-5 years, we use the Development Matters document.
