English

English at The Minster

The English curriculum develops children’s ability to listen, speak, read and write for a wide range of purposes, including the communication of their ideas, opinions and feelings.

Communication is the essential foundation which enables children to successful in all they do and to maintain their wellbeing. Speaking and listening is a priority from the beginning of your child’s journey with us. Our curriculum is carefully planned to give children every opportunity to speak clearly and express themselves with confidence. From there, we strive to ensure every child develops a love of reading and writing.

To give children the knowledge and skills they need to succeed, we use the ‘Read Write Inc’ phonics programme, and in KS1, we have adopted the Literacy Tree for our writing lessons. You can find out more about phonics here.

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Phonics

Speaking and Listening

Throughout the day in Nursery and Reception, many opportunities, including daily story time, are planned for children to listen carefully and engage in purposeful talk. Teachers follow children’s interests to maximise these opportunities and the engagement from the children. Adults model appropriate behaviour and responses so children can see what good speaking and listening looks like. In Reception, children regularly take part in ‘Helicopter Stories’, in which the children verbally tell their own stories to the teacher, who will write the story down. Later, the teacher will read the story aloud during a circle time and the children will act out the story.

In KS1, exploratory talk and use of spoken language are at the heart of the Literacy Tree. The high-quality texts enable deep discussion which gives children the opportunity to explore themes, characters and plots. Regular use of questions and discussion points mean children are frequently able to listen to others and express their thoughts in a meaningful way. Vocabulary focused tasks enable children to consider the effectiveness of words and think about their own word choices.

In English and across the curriculum throughout the school, adults will use partner talk and sentence stems to enable children to speak regularly and rehearse their ideas. Teaching vocabulary is woven into lessons to ensure children have the words they need to clearly express their ideas.

Reading

Becoming an effective and proficient reader, and reading regularly for pleasure, is the gateway to learning in all areas of the curriculum. In the Early Years Foundation stage, we aim to give children continuous experience of print through all their learning experiences across the curriculum. The environment is rich with appropriate text: labels, captions, lists, names, alphabet prompts and simple instructions. Adults model reading in the learning environment, embedding the idea that print can convey meaning. Children are taught from the youngest age to value and care for books.

In addition to phonics, group reading sessions take place in Year 1 and 2. During group reading sessions, the teachers read texts at an appropriate level with a small group, teaching and assessing reading skills. Through discussion with the teacher, children develop their understanding of fiction and non-fiction, and develop comprehension skills including prediction and inference. Teachers discuss new and unfamiliar vocabulary to ensure children are able understand the text. In Reception, Year 1 and Year 2, children take home reading books which are matched to their reading level.

Every day, all classes have story time so children can experience the joy of hearing a story read aloud. To promote reading for pleasure, teachers do not always choose the texts but instead, discuss choices with the children and follow their interests. Every Friday is ‘Poetry Friday’ so children also enjoy a range of classic and contemporary poetry.

All classes have a well-stocked, inviting book area, which includes a range of magazines and ‘First News’ in year 2. Children are encouraged to read at home regularly, they are able to choose a book to take home from the class library. Each child is provided with a reading record book in which to record their reading journey at home. These books are monitored by the class teacher and provide a further link between home and school.

Writing

In Nursery and Reception, there is a focus on building the fine and motor skills needed to be able to write (See handwriting section below for more detail). In Reception, phonics lessons teach children the letter formation and phoneme-grapheme correspondence they need to begin writing their own words, phrases and sentences. Teachers plan for focused writing activities linked to class texts and provide frequent opportunities to encourage and enable children to choose to engage with writing as part of their play.

In KS1, writing in English lessons is taught through the Literacy Tree. The English curriculum objectives for composition, transcription, spelling and grammar are all covered within the context of the focus text. Planning regularly allows children to engage in shorter and longer pieces of writing for different purposes and ensures children have the opportunity to plan, draft and edit writing.

Handwriting

At the Minster Infants, we aim for all children to be confident and comfortable when handwriting so that they can achieve their best when using writing to communicate their ideas. We recognise that handwriting is a complex process requiring the development of many different skills and we give children the support they need to match their rate of development in handwriting.

We follow the expectations set out in the EYFS and KS1 National Curriculum.

In Nursery, developing children’s gross and fine motor skills is priority. To support this, children are given lots of opportunity for outdoor play and access to wide range of gross and fine motor activities. We provide as many opportunities as possible for the development of early mark making using different tools such as paint brushes and chalk.

In Reception, the development of mark making, and gross and fine motor skills remains a priority, alongside the teaching of letter formation. Children are introduced to the letter families at the beginning of the year so that as they learn letter formation as part of the ‘Read Write Inc’ phonics lessons, teachers can remind them which family each letter belongs to. Additional time is allocated each day for discrete handwriting practise. In autumn 1, children practise drawing patterns, then shapes, then letters. From the start of the spring term, there is a whole class focus on 1 letter a week, teaching through the letter formation families. Children practise writing the letter at the beginning of each day. Learning support assistants work with focus groups to support children who need extra practise.

In KS1, children are taught handwriting in discrete sessions, focusing on the correct formation within each letter family. When they are ready, children are introduced to making diagonal and horizontal joins in their writing. Depending on the class and individual needs, additional practise can take place during early morning work or in targeted groups.