English

Reading

At West Town Primary School, we want children to develop a love of reading which reflects and celebrates the world they live in. We want our children to be confident, fluent readers that can access a wide range of texts. ​Our aim is to enable children to read for learning as well as reading for pleasure. 

Key stage 1

We teach early reading through phonics using the scheme of Little Wandle. Please click here to view the phonics page for more information about how we teach using the scheme.

Key stage 2

We continue to teach reading throughout Key Stage 2 focusing on increasing the fluency of your child’s reading and the reading skills needed for comprehension following the whole class model of James Durran.

Each reading session teaches a reading skill (Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation, Retrieval, Summarising/Sequencing). Reading sessions follow the structure shown in the diagram below. We use high quality texts that are chosen for the children to explore and enjoy.

Reading at home

It is important that children read at home at least three times as week as this provides them with the opportunity to build and practise their fluency. Your child does not need to read the whole book each time just a couple of pages or a chapter. Please remember to sign their reading record so we know they have read to an adult. Please see below the document that you can use to ask your children questions about what they have read to help build their reading skills.

Writing

At West Town Primary School, we want to develop children who are independent writers, which can apply the skills learnt to create an impactful piece of writing that has the reader at the heart of it. Our English curriculum is carefully planned to ensure we expose our children to a wide range of text types and teach the vocabulary, spelling and punctuation required for each year group. Our units of work are based around high quality texts that have cross -curricular links.

Spelling

From Year 3 onwards we move on to teaching the spelling rules that the children need when writing using the No Nonsense Spelling scheme. This scheme makes link with their previous learning and provides the children with an array of strategies that they can use to learn and remember how to spell words.

Handwriting

From Year 1 onwards we teach handwriting using the Nelson scheme. In Year 1 this teaches the children how to correctly form letters. From Year 2 onwards progresses onto teaching the children how to join letters which aids speed, rhythm, and ease of writing without reducing legibility.

See images below of letter formation and an example of joined handwriting.

These are the letters that we join into but not out of, expect z which we do not join at all.