Clipstone Brook
Lower School
Intent
The systematic teaching of phonics has a high priority throughout Foundation Stage, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2. At Clipstone Brook Lower School, we value reading as a key life skill, and are dedicated to enabling our pupils to become lifelong readers. We acknowledge that children need to be taught the key skills in segmenting and blending to be equipped with the knowledge to be able to complete the phonics check at the end of Year 1. We also value and encourage the pupils to read for enjoyment and recognise that this starts with the foundations of acquiring letter sounds, segmenting and blending skills.
Implementation
At Clipstone, early literacy skills are taught through the ‘Read, Write Inc.’ program (RWI). Children are taught the essential skills needed for reading. Phonics is taught daily to all children in Foundation Stage, KS1 and children still requiring essential phonic knowledge and skills in KS2. Children are assessed half termly to ensure progress and pupils not making the necessary progress are picked up for 1:1 fast track phonics tutoring daily (5-10 minutes per child). Pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds are automatically included in interventions to make sure they reach their full potential. Staff systematically teach learners the relationship between sounds and the written spelling patterns, or graphemes, which represent them. Spelling at Key Stage 2 is taught through RWI spelling, which is a familiar programme that follows the same systematic approach to the acquisition of spelling (see English Intent, Implementation and Impact statement). Phonics is delivered within homogenous groups to enable staff to fill gaps and teach children at a level appropriate to the child’s stage of development. Pupils are expected to read at home with an adult daily for 10-15 minutes and are heard by an adult reading during RWI sessions daily. Home reading books have been purchased from the RWI home reading range and are called ‘Book Bag Books’, which are aligned to the reading books the children use in class. On entry to the school in Year R, parents are invited to curriculum meetings to learn how systematic phonics are taught in school.
Impact
Attainment in reading and the acquisition of phonic sounds are measured through the RWI assessment sheets and through hearing children read for fluency and comprehension. Tracking pupil progress is the responsibility of the RWI coordinator (Mrs Francis) and all assessment sheets are viewed by her before assigning the child to their homogenous group. This ensures that pupil progress is monitored and where progress is not as expected, interventions are put in place immediately. Interventions are implemented and monitored over a period of time (every 4-6 weeks) to ensure rapid progress. This is to ensure children ‘keep up’ with their group and do not have to ‘catch up’. Acquisition of phonic knowledge can also be measured through the application of pupil’s knowledge when spelling decodable, multi-syllabic or tricky (Red words) in their writing.
Statutory assessments
Attainment in reading at the end of Key Stage one, is measured using the statutory assessments in Year 2. These results are measured against the reading attainment of children nationally. Attainment in phonics is measured by the Phonics Screening Test at the end of Year 1. We firmly believe that reading is the key to all learning. Therefore, the importance of phonics and reading is embedded throughout the whole school curriculum and a focus for monitoring by the English and Phonics Leads.
Please read the document below and go to the following websites for more information:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo7fbLgY2oA_cFCIg9GdxtQ
Intent
At Clipstone Brook Lower School, English is embedded across the curriculum. Our aim is to ensure that every child progresses in the areas of reading, writing, speaking and listening. We believe in supporting our children to love reading and writing. We recognise the importance of nurturing a culture where children take pride in their writing, can write clearly and accurately and adapt their language and style for a range of contexts. We believe in setting high standards in the presentation of writing along with setting the important foundations in spelling and grammar. We aim to inspire children in their writing by providing high quality texts and opportunities to develop and apply writing skills across the curriculum. We value reading as a key life skill and we are dedicated to enabling our pupils to become lifelong readers. We believe that through supporting our children to learn to read, they will be able to read to learn for the rest of their lives. Reading is key for academic success. We believe in developing reading fluency and all comprehension skills. This starts with the foundations of acquiring letter sounds, segmenting and blending skills.
Implementation
With these aims in mind, writing and reading opportunities are timetabled daily across all year groups. In years 2 – 4 whole class guided reading sessions provide the children with opportunities to develop word reading and comprehension skills, incorporating all strands of reading comprehension. Focused talk is key to understanding, and discussion is used to promote both a shared and individual response to texts. In reception and Year 1 daily phonics supports the development of early reading skills (see separate Intent, Implementation and Impact for Phonics) as well as for those that need this vital support in other year groups. In addition to the discrete daily reading, a diverse range of reading opportunities are embedded across the curriculum. Quality texts are used as a lead into many writing opportunities where new vocabulary and appropriate sentence structure can be learnt and applied. Whole class texts are also shared with the children to allow time to listen to and enjoy stories.
Vulnerable groups and those needing additional reading support are identified by class teachers and reading interventions are put in place to support the development of their reading. This may be small group comprehension work or additional daily reading to develop fluency and build confidence.
In classrooms, children are able to choose their own book, from the level that they are currently working at, enabling the children to choose a book that is of interest to them. We also have a well-stocked library that children visit weekly to share stories and take out books. Children are encouraged to make recommendations to their peers about books they have enjoyed.
At Clipstone Brook Lower School we ensure that the teaching of writing is purposeful and there is a clear progression for all children. In line with the national curriculum, we ensure that each year group is taught the explicit grammar, punctuation and spelling objectives required for that age group and these are revisited and reinforced to ensure embedded skills. A range of text types and styles of writing are used as models to allow children to write for a variety of purposes and audiences. High quality texts are used to ensure engagement and enjoyment of the written word to inspire high quality writing.
The implementation of daily Read Write Inc Spelling sessions for children in Y2-Y4 has successfully raised the profile of spelling across the school. As well as teaching the national curriculum objectives, teachers are able to embed the skills throughout the year in cross curricular writing opportunities and ensure that most children are achieving the objectives at the expected level. Writing is taught through the use of quality texts, which expose the children to inference, high-level vocabulary, a range of punctuation and grammar in an enjoyable context. Each text is purposefully selected in order to promote a love of reading, engagement and high quality writing from each child. Writing is celebrated across the school with displays of high quality writing on our corridor display boards.
Impact
∙ Our pupils enjoy reading and are exposed to a broad range of texts and authors.
∙ Successful readers are nurtured through the good teaching of a range of comprehension skills and word reading.
∙ Pupils have a good range of vocabulary that they are able to apply in their writing.
∙ Pupils have a good knowledge of how to adapt their writing for different purposes and audiences. Pupils have a solid foundation in spelling and have a toolkit of different strategies to support the continual learning of their spelling after they leave us.
∙ Pupils are able to identify, use and apply grammatical features in their writing effectively across the curriculum. Links between taught grammar and punctuation and those identified in reading are made explicit.
Pupils are enthusiastic readers and writers.
∙ In KS1, pupils achieve broadly in line national and local averages in reading and writing.
∙ In KS2 (Year 4), pupils achieve broadly in line with local averages in reading and writing.
We foster a community of enthusiastic and engaged readers and writers who we hope will carry forward the high aspirations and creativity that has been encouraged at Clipstone Brook Lower as they move forward in their education.