English

Phonics

We have fidelity to Essential Letters and Sounds (ELS) in Reception and Year 1 and this is taught daily.

Spelling

From Year 2 onwards, spelling is taught daily in class. This will typically involve children looking at a spelling rule or pattern. All  children have Spelling Shed accounts. Children are allocated words on a weekly basis.

Reading

In Y2- Y6, Guided Reading lessons are based around Reciprocal Reading. Reciprocal Reading covers four key elements - clarifying, predicting, questioning and summarising.

Guided Reading lessons provide the children with the opportunity to read a range of texts. Good practice includes reading in advance the genre the children will be writing in during subsequent English lessons. This allows them to be immersed in the text type and understand the features and layout of different genres.

All children have a school reading book which goes home daily. In EYFS and Y1 these books will also support the phonics the children are learning. At Ightham Primary School, we use Oxford Reading Tree books.

Every class has a story time session every day when the pupils will become immersed in a shared book.

Writing

The core English curriculum is based on Power of Reading (PoR) materials.

English is taught daily and provides a balance of skills lessons (SPaG) and opportunities for children to write in a range of genres to apply the skills taught.

Handwriting is taught using the Nelson scheme of work.