English
English Curriculum @ Harlestone
Phonics & Reading
At Harlestone Primary School, we teach phonics using the Little Wandle scheme. We believe this phonics programme helps all pupils to learn to read fluently and at speed in a focused and engaging way.
As pupils move through the school, we develop the comprehension of reading through focused reading sessions using a range of different text types to ensure pupils have a varied vocabulary and a rich appreciation of different types of literature.
We believe strongly that children who are enjoying their reading will develop more quickly and as such, feel it is vital that we provide as wide a range of stimulus books as possible. We have a well stocked library which is accessible at all times. Class teachers share books regularly with the children so that they experience different authors and many opportunities are provided for pupils to discuss and share books they enjoy with their peers.
To further develop a love of reading we celebrate World Book Day with the children each year as well as having shared reading times with adults and peers alike. This allows us the opportunity to share the books that we all enjoy.
Writing-Pathways to Write
We want to help all our children develop into thoughtful readers and creative writers and it is through the Pathways to Write approach that we believe we can achieve this. Through its multi-sensory and interactive teaching it enables children of all ages and abilities to learn to write successfully. The approach uses high quality texts that are both engaging and challenging. All aspects of writing, including punctuation and Grammar, are taught by using a range of interesting and diverse texts with clearly modelled and shared writing examples that can be easily adapted and challenge those with greater depth writing ability.
At Harlestone we are all very enthusiastic about this approach as it brings out the best in the children and the teachers – we are all writers together! Writing becomes a joint adventure and the results are exciting!
Process
The following processes set out how we work together to develop knowledge, confidence and independence in writing:
- Imitation
During this phase the children are introduced to a model text. The key to success for the children is that they internalise the text type through repetition and exploration.. They look at the structure of the narrative and investigate the different characters, settings and events. They also begin to look closely at the language used and the effect this has on the reader. We call this process ‘read as a writer’. The classroom becomes a dynamic, interactive resource filled with word ideas, sentence types and language tools collected by the children to use in their stories later.
- Innovation
During this phase the teacher and the children begin to adapt or reuse aspects of the model text and incorporate their own ideas. They explore the text using different characters, settings or events and new ideas for descriptive language whilst sticking closely to the underlying structure.
- Invention
During the invent sessions the children plan and write their own story/writing piece based on the text type they have been learning. They experiment with the ideas and begin to explore their own style of writing using sentence types from the model text.
Reading curriculum map
Reading Comprehension overview
British values books mapped to curriculum