English

At Starks Field Primary School we believe that literacy and communication are key life skills. Through our English curriculum children develop the skills and knowledge that will enable them to communicate effectively and creatively through spoken and written language. We aim to provide a rich and stimulating environment where speaking and listening and reading and writing are an integral part of everything we do in order to foster a love of reading, writing and drama.

Every day children across the school take part in reading sessions to help develop their reading skills. Children in EYFS and Key Stage 1 are taught to read using the Read Write Inc phonics programme; this is a highly-regarded synthetic phonics scheme which is rigorously implemented daily by teachers and support staff who are trained in its delivery. 

In Key Stage 2 teachers and support staff use Schofield & Sims Complete Comprehension series, a structured programme for teaching reading comprehension skills. It covers an impressive breadth of genre, subject matter and style, including a range of extracts from popular contemporary authors and from classic texts.  Staff consistently model and make explicit reading skills through thinking aloud their understanding across the curriculum.

Reading for pleasure is a guiding principle at Starks Field. We know that reading is the single biggest indicator of a child’s future success. We aim to build a strong community of readers which in turn will develop a culture of reading for pleasure across our school, with every teacher taking responsibility for promoting a love of reading. We have worked hard to develop our reading environment, ensuring that our book corners are comfortable and inviting, our book shelves grow and evolve with the pupils’ interests, needs and curriculum, reading huts in our outside areas are used by all children and regular story cafés and library events take place.

At Starks Field we understand that it is important for pupils to have control over their own reading activities by selecting books aligned to their developing reading interests, as this promotes reading motivation, engagement, effort and commitment.

Parents and carers are strongly encouraged to be actively involved in their children’s reading at all ages by listening to their children read, asking children questions about their reading, reading to their children and promoting a home environment where books and reading are valued by modelling reading for pleasure.

In Key Stage 1 the children in RWI phonics groups take home a RWI Storybook that is matched to their phonic knowledge. They take home one of the following at least once a week:

• The last RWI Storybook that they have read
• An earlier RWI Storybook
• A RWI ‘Book Bag Book’ that matches the last Storybook that they have read, as well as a picture book that they know well.

In Key Stage 2 children pick a reading book from within the appropriate book band range and are encouraged to make free choices of books based on their own interests from the class book corner/shelf and from the school library.

We are very fortunate at Starks Field to have a very well-stocked library. All children visit the library regularly and the library is open before school twice weekly for the ‘Book and a Biscuit’ book club.

Reading huts in the EYFS, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 playgrounds allow children a further opportunity to spend their free time reading for pleasure with their friends, again with a view to engendering a love of reading through a child’s active choice.

Listening to good reading aloud is vital to children’s development as readers and fosters a love of reading. With this in mind, every child in school hears at least 15 minutes of quality reading from their teacher every day.

For English lessons we use the Pathways to Poetry and Pathways to Write schemes across the school. These writing programmes, which are linked to engaging and diverse texts, develop vocabulary, reading and writing skills progressively across the years. Pupils are introduced to texts, have opportunities to practise all grammar and punctuation objectives for the year group and have many writing opportunities across a range of themes and genres, with opportunities to practise speaking and listening skills through drama. The rules of grammar are taught as part of the units; spellings and handwriting are taught separately, with spelling words and rules a focus of our fluency sessions in KS2. We use the RWI handwriting scheme for EYFS and KS1.