King Richard III Infant and Nursery School

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English

At King Richard III Infant and Nursery School we believe that the teaching of English is an integral part of the curriculum. We plan an inclusive learning journey that allows all children to receive a rich education in reading, writing and speaking. We want to immerse our children in stimuli to inspire them and present our pupils with creative opportunities to develop and apply their reading and writing skills across the curriculum. Through our English curriculum we strive to equip our children with transferable skills which can be adapted to support them in all their learning.

When teaching reading we provide a platform for the children to be able to understand the world around them, to broaden their experiences and horizons and improve their language comprehension. Our synthetic phonics scheme (Little Wandle for Letters and Sounds) is systematic and developmental and allows the children to develop an understanding of the phonetic code. The children are guided in developing their decoding, prosody and comprehension skills through reading practice sessions. We strive to build a culture where reading for pleasure is valued. We want our children to develop a life-long love of reading. Children hear high-quality texts read aloud to them every day and due to this, develop their vocabulary.

At KRIII, the teaching of writing is writing is central to a broad and balanced curriculum. We facilitate writing for a range of purposes and for different audiences and aim to fully prepare the children for KS2. The content of our writing sessions is planned to build upon the children’s previous knowledge, recapping previous learning and introducing new learning in an exciting and memorable way.

When acquiring vocabulary and developing oracy skills we want our children to be able to express themselves with confidence, and to communicate their ideas clearly. We encourage children to articulate their thinking, be imaginative and to be successful. We intend for our children to build their knowledge and develop an increasingly wide range of vocabulary and grammar. The teaching of spelling is intended to show pupils how to understand the relationship between words, recognise spelling patterns and take with them a variety of useful strategies.

Policy documents and English plans

Little Wandle Letters and Sounds.

At KRIII we use Little Wandle Letters and Sounds as our synthetic phonics scheme.

We chose this scheme because it provides:

Excellent training for all staff to ensure consistency,
Every aspect of phonics and reading included in a detailed, thorough a systematic approach,
Engaging resources without distracting from the learning,
A comprehensive system for identifying and supporting children requiring extra help and useful support for parents.

The children have at least one daily, short session of phonics. We progress through the sounds or GPC's outlined by Little Wandle. Please see the programme overviews above to see the order.

Spelling in Year 2.

We are now using Little Wandles new Spelling programme for 2023/4 for our Year 2 spelling curriculum. It has been designed as a seamless link from the core Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme to teaching spelling in Year 2.

It includes:

Phase 5 review – planning to review and secure Phase 5

Bridge to spelling – planning to teach foundational skills for spelling

Spelling – planning to create confident spellers and complete your coverage of the Year 2 spelling requirements

Please see Little Wandle planning documents in the above attachments for an overview of the progression during Phase 5 Review and Bride to Spelling.

Everybody Read!

At KRIII we want all of our children to develop a love of reading. All of the children have access to reading for pleasure books which they can change as often as they like. These books may be too tricky for your child, or they may be too easy. Please share this book with them and discuss it. Ask them some questions like:

What made you chose this book?
What is the title of the book?
Who is the author?
What can you see in the pictures?
What do you think is going to happen next?
What happened at the beginning of the book?
How did the book end?

Here are some documents which you may find useful in supporting your child at home.