English at Hauxton Primary School

Our aim is to inspire a love of reading, writing and language, ensuring children have experience of a range of text types both in school and at home. We teach children to become confident and successful readers and writers through high quality teaching and learning, clear progression and application of skills throughout the curriculum.

At Hauxton, we follow Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised to support high quality phonics teaching. For support with phonics, including pronunciation and progression, please follow this link:  

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

We use Collins Big Cat books, which are matched to the children's phonics, allowing them to be decodable. As children finish the phonics programme, they have access to Oxford Reading Tree supplemented with  a wide range of book banded texts. 

Reading

KS1

• High quality phonics teaching from reception.
• To support early reading, high quality decodable books are used for Guided Reading sessions, where a variety of skills are guided by a teacher.
• Guided Reading books are chosen by the teacher to challenge Guided Reading groups.
• Continuous assessment through guided reading sessions and individual reading.
• Book banded or phonically decodable home readers chosen for each child. As children become more confident readers they are given the opportunity to choose suitable texts which are monitored by the teacher.
• Electronic Reading Records ensure consistent communication with home.

KS2

• Guided Reading books are chosen to challenge Guided Reading groups, where a variety of skills are guided by a teacher.
• Guided Reading sessions every day recorded on Guided Reading sheets.
• Book banded books to support progression until children are at a level of being able to free read.
• Home readers chosen by children and monitored by teachers.
• Electronic Reading journals ensure continued communication with home.

KS2 use a combination of Guided Reading and Whole Class Reading. During Whole Class Reading, children have an opportunity to discuss the text as well as record their understanding. 

Stories are read in assemblies, in class and as part of most subjects. Children apply reading skills across the curriculum and understand the importance of reading. Each week children take part in Buddy Reading, where the children, in their houses, explore different activities, led by an adult, linked to reading for pleasure. 

Each class has a welcoming book corner to allow children opportunities to read and listen for pleasure in a relaxed environment.

The school has a library in the central area which can be accessed by all classes.

Writing

Each half term starts with a writing unit which lasts for roughly 3 weeks, based around a core text. The core text will embed both reading and writing skills through a text the children will become familiar with. Within each core text, children will explore a range of genres and focus on grammar skills. To assess the children’s writing, the children will have opportunities to write a text-type in another curriculum area, following on from their learning in English. This application shows how well a child has mastered different writing text-types. All children are expected to carry out writing in other curriculum areas at least twice a half term.

Early Years English

Explorer time and activities provide children with a wide range of early writing activities throughout the week.

Cursive Handwriting

The school uses the letter-join cursive font, www.letterjoin.co.uk. Explicit teaching of handwriting allows every child to develop fluent handwriting by year 6. High expectations of handwriting are expected across the curriculum and when ready, children are given a pen license to use in class.

Books

Big Writes take place half termly and start with a whole school stimulus. Each child has a Big Write book which they take with them through the school. These are used as part of writing standardisation and moderation and allow staff to examine writing progression throughout the school.

Daily English should be recorded in English books, ensuring the long date is recorded and consistent marking and feedback informs targets and next steps.

Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar work is recorded in English books as part of the core book learning.

Each class has a specific day for spelling tests. Children take home a spelling book with 33 activities for the children to have a go at, to support the learning of spellings. Children start with 10 spellings and after two consecutive weeks of spellings, they progress on to the next 10. Children’s progressed is tracked to highlight any additional help needed.

Cross-curricular writing

High expectations across the curriculum ensure that writing standards are maintained, fluency is developed and opportunities to write are varied, engaging and relevant.

The school magazine provides further opportunities for children to write and share their news and hard work from throughout the term. Magazines are published termly by year 5 and 6.

English Working Wall

The English ‘Working Wall’ is used to support and enhance daily learning and cross curricular application of English knowledge.

Specific sections include:

Words of the Week

Phonics and Spelling

Punctuation and Grammar

Today’s learning including examples of annotated model texts, shared writing etc.

There is also display opportunities to celebrate reading and writing in class.

Speaking and Listening

The class celebration assembly, school production and termly opportunities for poetry performance and debate ensure that speaking and listening skills are developed, shared and celebrated within the class and in front of an audience.

Writing Expectations

Please find documents below that demonstrate the expectation for children's writing year on year. We have developed a progression of sentence structures based on Alan Peat's sentence types that are taught to develop children's writing. Also, you will find writing guidance that indicates the key features expected in different text types.