Infant School English

Curriculum

Vision

At The Hermitage Infant School we recognise the importance of creating a culture where children develop secure foundations in reading through using a systematic synthetic phonics scheme (Read Write Inc). We seek to inspire reading for pleasure, as well nurturing children’s ability to acquire information through a wide variety of stories, poems, rhymes and non-fictions books. We believe that children should take pride in their writing, write clearly and accurately, and adapt their language and style for a range of audiences and purposes. We provide opportunities across the curriculum for children to become confident in the art of speaking and listening, using our knowledge of the Oracy Framework to support children to communicate and further their learning and language development. Building solid foundational knowledge is crucial to a high-quality education and will give our children the tools they need in their next steps of their education, participating fully as a responsible member of society. 

These aims are embedded across our English lessons and the wider curriculum, providing purposeful opportunities for reading, writing and the development of children’s oracy. Teachers adapt planning as appropriate to their class and make cross curricular links where and when appropriate.

Our curriculum closely follows the aims of the National Curriculum for English 2014 and Spoken Language which underpins the development of reading and writing. The overarching aim for English in the national curriculum is to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written language, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment. The national curriculum for English aims to ensure that all pupils:

• Read easily, fluently and with good understanding
• Develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information
• Acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language
• Appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage
• Write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences
• Use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas
• Are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate

Reading

Phonics

We place a high importance on developing children's phonics skills and use the highly successful and structured Read Write Inc scheme to support this. Within our Nursery children's phonological awareness is developed. Reception children are taught Phonics from the beginning of the year and ongoing assessment across all year groups ensures that children are supported at all stages. In Reception Read Write Inc sound sheets are sent home at the end of each week so that parents are aware of the sounds taught and to enable children to further embed their phonic knowledge at home.

We incorporate the five RWI principles throughout all lessons.

The Five RWI Principles of -

1.         Purpose

2.         Passion

3.         Pace

4.         Participation

5.         Positive teaching

Reading for Pleasure

Children will hear, share and discuss a wide range of high quality books to develop their love of reading, broaden their vocabulary and develop their understanding of a range of experiences.  We believe that it is important for children to hear and discuss stories, poetry and non-fiction at a level beyond that at which they can read independently in order to develop pleasure in reading, increase their vocabulary and awareness of grammar, and develop skills of inference. 

Our Reception children develop their reading skills through individual and shared reading in groups and build fluency through reciting and performing poetry using 'The Poetry Basket'. RWI Guided Reading lessons take place in Year 1 and Year 2 and support children with their reading fluency and the acquisition of reading comprehension. Reading targets are aligned to children's home reading book band to support their further reading development. Parents are asked to record their child's progress against the targets in their child's Reading Diary for home/school communication. 

Book bag books are sent home each week so that each child has access to books that are phonetically decodable. In addition children take home a 'Book for Sharing' reading book. At the early stage of reading these books will also be phonically decodable.

Please find the Reading Spine below, along with those recommended through our Power of Reading texts -

Reading Spine

Handwriting

To ensure a consistent and progressive approach to handwriting we use the mnemonics from the RWI Phonics scheme and the online resource Letterjoin. Across the school handwriting is carefully modelled by the teacher in all lessons, from print in Reception to cursive in Year 2. The children use handwriting books to record and practise their handwriting. To support the development of their handwriting, children within Reception are provided with a range of different opportunities to develop their gross and fine motor skills. A high standard of presentation is always encouraged and expected in children’s written work.

Spelling Houses

At The Hermitage Infant School spellings are taught using a whole class approach. Common Exception Words (CEW) have been grouped to form ‘streets’ which have been further grouped to form ‘houses’. There are eight spelling houses in the blue street (Year 1 CEW) and eight spelling houses in the red street (Year 2 CEW). Individual houses are taught depending on the children’s stage of learning. The houses are available within the classroom so that children are able to refer to them when writing.

RWInc Spellings

Once children are confident in their phonics when writing, children move onto learn Spellings using the Read Write Inc programme.

The Wider Curriculum

Children are exposed to a range of different opportunities and experiences within their foundation subject teaching to excite, inspire and engage them in their writing across the curriculum. 

By the end of Year 2, our aim is for children to read fluently and for enjoyment, and to write with automaticity for a range of purposes. We continue to monitor teaching and learning, and assess reading and writing in the following ways:

1. Statutory Assessment

Reception: Prime areas of Learning and Literacy ELG

Year 1: Children take part in the Phonics Screening check.

2. In School Assessments

Half termly RWI phonics assessments take place to ensure that children are keeping up and gaps in learning are identified. 1:1 coaching supports any child to catch up following these assessments. These assessments also inform teachers of children's next steps as readers and indicates the fluency of their reading, alongside their comprehension.

Pobble is used to moderate and assess children's writing at whole school and Trust moderation events, and to further support development of teaching and learning, and ultimately in children's writing. Teachers continuously assess children’s attainment and progress during individual and whole class phonics, reading and writing sessions. Pupil voice is used to assess children's attitudes towards their learning of English.