English at Priors Field

 

At Priors Field, English is at the core of the curriculum, which enables our pupils to be lifelong learners through our cross curricular approach to English. Our Linked Learning themes teach skills through other areas of the curriculum such as History and Geography.   

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Reading

Our learning environments promote a love of reading with all children being encouraged to regularly read for pleasure and purpose both at home and in school. Our Talk for Reading approach aims to support children into becoming efficient readers who can deepen their thinking through their reading.

All children from the Early Years to Year Six have a reading book that is matched to their current reading level, alongside children reading widely across a range of genres for pleasure and to support their learning across the curriculum.

Teachers read to pupils everyday selecting books from children’s classics to popular authors and illustrators. We have an inviting library, book corners in every classroom and topic-based book boxes. As a further reading resource all children have access to ‘Bug Club’ which is an interactive online reading resource at home and school.

Alongside word reading and decoding, we teach children the importance of reading for meaning. This involves talking about what they have read to clarify ideas, relate reading to experiences they have had and reflecting on what they have read.

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Phonics

At Priors Field phonics is taught on a daily basis from the start of Early Years and throughout Key Stage 1, following the Essential Letters and Sounds program. Phonics teaches children the complex connections in English between sounds and letters, which are essential to understand during early reading.

Children in Reception and Year 1 read books that are closely matched to the phonic sounds they already know. These books (available as an e-book) along with ‘shared reading’ books can be shared with an adult to foster the love of reading.

The sessions focus on a different phoneme from the relevant phase and the children have practise reading sessions with an adult. At the beginning of Early Years our children are provided with a phonics home school book in which daily phonemes are included.

We track children’s progression in phonics on a termly basis. All children complete the statutory Phonics Screening Check at the end of Year 1 where their ability to read 40 real and non-sense words is tested.

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Writing 

At Priors Field, our pupils are given an opportunity to write for a range of purposes and audiences. Through English children are taught to develop skills in spelling, handwriting and grammar becoming creative writers. Our Talk for Writing approach enables children to imitate high quality texts on a particular writing genre, before reading and analysing it, and then writing their own creative version.

 

Please follow the links below for more specific details on early reading and handwriting.

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