At Durham Gilesgate Primary School we see English as the foundation of our curriculum. Our main aim is to ensure that every single child makes good progress in the three areas of reading, writing, and speaking and listening. It is our aim for all children to join secondary school with the skills and knowledge that they need to access the Key Stage 3 curriculum. 

Reading 

Intent 

At Durham Gilesgate Primary School, our intention is that children learn to read from an early age, that they develop confidence, fluency and understanding across a range of genre and that they develop an enjoyment for reading. 

We recognise the importance of reading as a key to unlocking the curriculum because reading skills will enable children to follow their own interests, carry out research and delve deeper into subject knowledge. Thus, we give reading the prominence that it deserves, not only by teaching reading skills but also how reading us used across the curriculum. 

We encourage reading for pleasure which helps children to develop lifelong skills. We encourage home/school partnerships by sending new books home regularly with a reading record, where parents are welcomed to record any messages about reading with their children. Regular assessments of reading enable teachers to support children at individual levels on the reading journey. 

Implementation 

Phonics 

In Durham Gilesgate Primary School we teach children to read using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised phonics approach, which ensures optimum learning for the maximum number of children. Taught with fidelity, in parallel to the committed development of vocabulary and comprehension, and in a context that embraces Reading for Pleasure, it can provide reading success for all children, regardless of their background.  

In Nursery, children learn the skills which underpin phonics; the ability to listen to, recognise and discriminate between different sounds. 

See the link below for further information: 

https://www.littlewandle.org.uk/resources/for-parents/  

Foundations for Phonics in Nursery 

We provide a balance of child-led and adult-led experiences for all children that meet the curriculum expectations for ‘Communication and language’ and ‘Literacy.’ These include: 

• sharing high-quality stories and poems 

• learning a range of nursery rhymes and action rhymes 

• activities that develop focused listening and attention, including oral blending 

• attention to high-quality language. 

We ensure Nursery children are well prepared to begin learning grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) and blending in Reception 

Daily Phonics Lessons in Reception and Key Stage 1 

When children are in Reception, they begin to learn letter sounds (phonemes) and the written letters which represent them (graphemes). In addition, children will learn to blend sounds together to read a word, to listen to a word and to recognise which sounds are used to make it. This is called blending and segmenting. 

Not all words can be sounded out using phonics and these are called ‘tricky words.’ Children learn to recognise and sight read these ‘tricky words.’ 

We teach phonics daily. In Reception, we build from 10-minute lessons, with additional daily oral blending games, to the full-length lesson as quickly as possible. Each Friday, we review the week’s teaching to help children become fluent readers. 

Children make a strong start in Reception: teaching begins in Week 1 of the Autumn term.  

We follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised expectations of progress: 

• Children in Reception are taught to read and spell words using Phase 2 and 3 GPCs, and words with adjacent consonants (Phase 4) with fluency and accuracy. 

• Children in Year 1 review Phase 3 and 4 and are taught to read and spell words using Phase 5 GPCs with fluency and accuracy. 

Daily Keep-up lessons ensure every child learns to read 

Once Little Wandle has been taught, it is our intention that the vast majority of children will have learned to read using a phonic approach by the end of Year 1. (There may be children with a learning difficulty or who are new to the school who may not reach that standard by the end of Year 1, in these cases we will continue to use a phonic based approach in Year 2 or beyond) 

• Any child who needs additional practice has daily Keep-up support, taught by a fully trained adult. Keep-up lessons match the structure of class teaching, and use the same procedures, resources and mantras, but in smaller steps with more repetition, so that every child secures their learning. 

• In Year 2 we complete the Phase 5 programme if it wasn’t completed in Year 1 and then we begin the Phase 5 review which leads to the Bridge to Spelling and finally the spelling units. Children who have larger gaps are given rapid catch up alongside the Year 2 programmes. Teaching of phonics and spelling is daily in Year 2.  

• If any child in Year 3 to 6 has gaps in their phonic knowledge or reading we teach ‘rapid catch-up’ lessons to specifically address these gaps. These short, sharp lessons last 10 minutes and take place at least three times a week.

We teach children to read through reading practice sessions three times a week. These: 

• are taught by a fully trained adult to small groups of approximately six children 

• use books matched to the children’s secure phonic knowledge via the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessments. The books are matched precisely so that children can decode and read the words in them 

• are monitored by the class teacher, who rotates and works with each group on a regular basis. 

Reading

Each reading practice session has a clear focus, so that the demands of the session do not overload the children’s working memory. The reading practice sessions have been designed to focus on three key reading skills: 

• decoding 

• prosody: teaching children to read with understanding and expression 

• comprehension: teaching children to understand the text. 

In Reception these sessions start in Week 4. Children who are not yet decoding have daily additional blending practice in small groups, so that they quickly learn to blend and can begin to read books. 

In Year 1 the children read up to Phase 5 Set 5. Once they get to Phase 5 set 3, the children are given a fluency assessment to ensure they are ready to move on.  

In Year 2 the children continue in Phase 5 until they are secure. They begin the Little Wandle Fluency programme when they are confident and following a Little Wandle fluency assessment.  

In Key Stage 2 the children move to the school-based reading system. Any child who hasn’t secured phonic knowledge, receives rapid catch up and this includes their three reading sessions. 

Ensuring consistency and pace of progress 

All staff in our school have been trained to teach reading, so we have the same expectations of progress. We all use the same language, routines and resources to teach children to read so that we lower children’s cognitive load. 

Weekly content grids map each element of new learning to each day, week and term for the duration of the programme. 

Lesson templates, prompt cards and `how to` videos ensure teachers all have a consistent approach and structure for each lesson. 

The reading leader and senior leaders use the Audit and Prompt cards to regularly monitor and observe teaching; they use the summative data to identify children who need additional support and have gaps in learning. 

Home Reading 

The decodable reading practice book is taken home after the third read to ensure success is shared with the family. 

• Once the children are on the Year 2 Fluency programme, they move onto the school’s home reading system ready for their progression into KS2. 

• Reading for pleasure books also go home for parents to share and read to children. 

• We use the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised parents’ resources to engage our families and share information about phonics, the benefits of sharing books, how children learn to blend and other aspects of our provision, both online and through workshops. 

 Reading for Pleasure, Reading for Life 

‘Reading for pleasure is the single most important indicator of a child’s success.’ (The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development OECD 2002) 

At Durham Gilesgate Primary School we not only want to have a rigorous system for teaching reading, we also want children to acquire a love of reading so that will motivate them to read more often thereby developing this lifelong skill. 

We place a high value on reading for pleasure and work hard as a school to develop our reading for pleasure pedagogy. 

• We read to children every day. We choose these books carefully as we want children to experience a wide range of books, including books that reflect the diversity of our school community. 

• Every classroom has an inviting book corner that encourages a love for reading. We curate the books in these areas and talk about them to entice children to read a wide range of texts. 

• Bookflix displays encourage children to choose from and read a range of books specifically chosen for each class. This is linked to class topics and wider curriculum. 

• In EYFS, children have access to the reading corner every day in their free flow time and the books are continually refreshed. 

• Children from Reception onwards have a home reading record. The parent/carer records comments to share with the adults in school and the adults will write in this on a regular basis to ensure communication between home and school. 

• As the children progress through the school, they are encouraged to write their own comments and keep a list of the books/authors that they have read. 

• The school library is made available for classes to use at designated times. EYFS also have their own libraries. 

• Children across the school have regular opportunities to engage with a wide range of reading for pleasure events (author visits and workshops, national events etc). 

Parents can help us achieve our aims by sharing books with their children and taking time to read at home with them on a regular basis, talking about the text they have read. 

Some key vocabulary used when talking about Phonics and Reading 

• Phonics– the learning of letters and sounds 

• Phoneme– the sound a letter makes 

• Grapheme– the written letter 

• Blending– running sounds together to make a word 

• Segmenting– breaking a word up into its component sounds 

• Tricky words – words that cannot be decoded using phonics 

• CVC– c = consonant (b/c/d/f), v = vowel (a/e/i/o/u) e.g. cat dog 

• Digraph– two letters that make one sound – e.g. sh in ship  ai in rain and oi in soil.  

• Trigraph – 3 letters one sound such as igh in night and ear in fear. 

• Quadgraph – 4 letters one sound such as ture as in picture 

• Schwa – an unstressed vowel sound often “uh” or “ih” such as different 

• Phonetically plausible– a word written phonetically that can still be read although it is spelled incorrectly g. Torl(tall), werk (work) 

 

Reading beyond phonics 

In Early Years, many activities take place which promote pre-reading skills. Stories are read to children on a daily basis and the environment supports the children to become aware of print in their environment. It helps them to understand that they can match pictures and words. After phonics is introduced children will take home reading books and these have been book banded and also coded in terms of phonic development to help ensure that each child will be able to read a book with a high degree of accuracy. Every child from reception through to Year 6 will take home an independent home reading book and we like children to read to an adult at home a minimum of three times each week. Reading records are provided so that adults can indicate how much has been read and if the child has liked the book. In Key Stages 1 and 2 each time a child reads at home, they receive a sticker; when children receive a specified number of stickers (depending on Year group) they can choose a prize.  

 In Key Stage 2, guided reading takes place daily where children work in small groups with a member of staff or complete a directed reading task in class. This provides pupils with further opportunities to explore challenging texts, discussing vocabulary, sentence structure and text to deepen understanding. Learning objectives in guided reading are informed by analysis of reading assessments both formative and summative.  

Key Stage 2 books selected by the teacher in guided reading sessions will be more challenging than those taken home in independent reading. This is because guided reading is where teachers challenge children, teach skills, develop new vocabulary and help children develop a more in depth understanding of the texts that they read. Teachers might use a variety of strategies to support the teaching of reading because we have a diverse range of pupils in our school and we recognise our children are individual and therefore can require different approaches to secure their learning and skills. 

 Guided Reading Scheme KS2 

When children reach Key Stage 2, they access Reading Plus. This is an online reading platform, which is an adaptive programme, designed to improve reading, comprehension, vocabulary and stamina. It accelerates reading for all learners by setting itself to each individual child.  When children have achieved each level, they are presented with a certificate to celebrate their achievements. Children can choose which text they would like to read, across a range of genres, therefore keeping them interested in reading. Their genre choices also give staff further insight into their reading habits. 

Impact 

We expect that most children will achieve at age related standards in reading at the end of each year. We recognise that some children may not, but we will expect that they have made good progress from their starting point. We also recognise that some other children will exceed age related standards and we will have deepened learning for these children. We encourage children to read regularly both inside and outside of school for pleasure and we expect that children will discuss books with excitement and interest. 

We firmly believe that at Gilesgate Primary School, if we support pupils in establishing a love for reading and expose them to high quality vocabulary, this has a significant impact on pupil’s ability to become authors and developing their own, individualised style of writing. We will also expect to see achievement rise across the curriculum as children will be better placed to read around a subject and carry out research. 

 

Writing 

Intent 

As a school we recognise that reading is fundamental to the writing process, because children write successfully when they have a full understanding of the features of specific genres and a strong vocabulary. We believe that pupils who are provided with a reason for writing will demonstrate flair and effective writing composition and a clear understanding of the writing process in order to establish themselves as an author in their own right. This leads to high quality outcomes across the curriculum. It is our intention that writing is an integral part of our curriculum. All children from Foundation Stage to Year 6 are provided with many opportunities to develop and apply their writing skills across all subjects so that they write as historians in history lessons and as scientists in their science books. 

Implementation 

We follow a Mastery approach to English through the programme ‘Pathways to Write.’ Units of work are delivered using high quality texts and children in all year groups are given varied opportunities for writing. Skills are built up through repetition within the units, and children apply these skills in the writing activities provided.  Many opportunities for widening children’s vocabulary are given through the Pathways to Write approach and this builds on the extensive work we do in school to provide our children with a rich and varied vocabulary.    

In Early Years Foundation Stage children have writing materials provided for them through continuous provision. For example, there will be access to writing materials in different areas so that children can start to make marks in their play. We will find this in a construction area where children might label their model, in the home area where they might be making a shopping list or in the maths area where they might be using early attempts at number formation. In Reception they are taught letter formation and which letters represent the sounds that they are learning in phonics.  By the end of reception, we expect most children to be able to write a simple dictated phrase. 

In Year 1 the alternate graphemes are taught and applied via dictated sentences and words. This is further developed in Year 2 where there is greater focus on application in spelling and writing.  

Through Key Stages 1 and 2 our curriculum is implemented through sequences of high-quality lessons that build upon skills previously taught. Each lesson develops grammar and punctuation, knowledge and understanding. By accessing a broad range of text types, children learn how to identify the purpose and audience; plan and write an initial piece of writing with a clear context and purpose before evaluating the effectiveness of writing by editing and redrafting. Teachers model examples of effective writing, whilst focussing on rich vocabulary, enabling children to be successful in their own writing, therefore applying their writing skills to the wider curriculum. We are explicit in teaching children new vocabulary both in English lessons and through curriculum subject and the teaching of writing and development of vocabulary are supported by classroom display and WAGOLL (What a good one looks like) boards. 

Impact 

The impact on our children is improved achievement in writing; where children make good progress and transfer skills across the wider curriculum. With the implementation of writing taught thoroughly in all Key Stages, children are becoming more confident writers and by the time they are in upper Key Stage 2 they write with clear purpose and intent applying knowledge and skills that are now embedded.  As all aspects of English are an integral part of the curriculum, cross curricular writing standards have also improved and skills taught in the English lesson are transferred into other subjects; this shows consolidation of skills and a deeper understanding of how and when to use specific grammar, punctuation and grammar objectives. 

Children are proud of their achievements and enjoy seeing their work displayed on the WAGOLL board, which is shared in celebration assemblies. We hope that as children move on from us to further their education and learning that their creativity, passion for English and high aspirations travel with them and continue to grow and develop as they do.