English

In every aspect of the curriculum, English can be found. Our children become confident speakers, listeners, readers and writers and are given opportunities to use and practise these skills in every subject. The English curriculum and the teaching of it has never been more high profile.

Here at Livingstone we place a great emphasis on the importance of reading, whether this be through active phonics sessions, inviting book areas, book clubs, stimulus books and simply reading for pleasure. We encourage and nurture a love of reading and support children of all ages and abilities to access the wonderful world of books. We have purchased lots of new books to make our library and book areas interesting including graphic novels which are popular with our reluctant readers. We also involve the children in lots of fun activities such as World Book Day, The Wondrous Book Club and author visits. Our 'Reading Champions' (a group of Year 5/6 pupils) also promote reading around school by doing a range of activities such as; running a library cafe, organising book quizzes and awarding reading certificates.

To support early reading, Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 (Key Stage One) have a daily phonics session. We use the phonics scheme 'Monster Phonics' which uses colour-coded visual cues and multisensory teaching of systematic synthetic phonics. This scheme is then followed by 'Superhero Spelling' which builds on the phonic knowledge children have and continues the same colour-coding system to support children with spelling throughout Key Stage 2.

As the children start to read, they will be given phonetically decodable books according to the phonics phase they are working on.  We believe this will support them to reinforce their decoding skills and support improved progression in phonics.  Children read Monster Phonics books at school but then take home a range of phonically decodable books matched to the stage at which they are learning.  This is continued in Year 1 until children are secure at Phase 5.  At this point they also read books from our main scheme in order to develop comprehension.

In Key Stage 1, each half term is centered around a quality text which is often linked to the class topic theme.  We use this text as a stimulus for English teaching and teachers will teach vocabulary, grammatical skills, spoken language skills and provide long and short writing opportunities. There is a strong focus on oral-composition, dictation activites and handwriting.  This balanced approach supports early literacy skills and builds directly on Reception learning. 

In Key Stage 2, classes read a longer shared novel each term, which provides an anchor for their English teaching.  Reading a high-quality text together allows pupils to enjoy the story whilst also developing deeper comprehension, vocabulary and critical thinking.  The novel also provides a stimulus for writing, ranging from chracter descriptions and diary entries to persuasive letters and longer narratives.  This builds confidence with more complex texts and nurtures a love of reading. 

For further information, the Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation scheme of work can be downloaded below, along with guides on Phonics at home and Reading at home produced by the Tameside Loves Reading team.

https://www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/bookfinder/

https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/free-home-learning-packs/

https://www.englishmastery.org/

https://www.literacyshedplus.com/en-gb/browse/free-resources

https://www.literacyshedplus.com/en-gb/browse/free-resources

https://2simple.com/purple-mash/

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