English

National curriculum guidance Y1-Y6 for Grammar

Phonics

Our children are taught phonics and reading through the application of Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised. This is a systematic, synthetic phonics programme that was validated by the Department for Education in July 2021. All teachers and teaching assistants have completed training modules provided by Little Wandle to ensure a whole school understanding of the approach. As a result, the programme is followed with consistency across the school with our Reading Lead Mrs. Hunter, supporting staff across the school with the implementation of the programme.

Phonics is the learning of individual sounds and then applying this to blending sounds to read words. Through daily lessons and repeated practice, a child’s phonic knowledge and skills become more automatic, leading them to become, over time, fluency and competent readers.

Fully Decodable Books

Collins Big Cat for Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised have devised fully decodable books matched to the Little Wandle programme progression.

In conjunction with daily lessons, children must-read books that are consistent with their phonic knowledge. These books are carefully and precisely matched to the child’s secure phonic level to ensure a reading fluency level of 90%. This automaticity allows the child to then focus on what they are reading, reading to increase memory and understanding of what they have read. These books are read in school on a regular basis and are also shared at home with parents and carers.

Support at Home

Each child is able to practise a decodable book at home. Suggestions are shared with parents and carers on how they can best and most effectively support their child’s reading at home. Alongside this, we encourage parents and carers to read to their child, even as they grow older, to encourage a love of books as well as developing vocabulary and discussion.

Parents and carers are also encouraged to complete the Home Reading Diary with positive comments about their child’s reading at home.

In this link you will find videos of how to correctly pronounce the sounds that each letter makes, the correct formation of each letter, and how to write capital letters.

Little Wandle for parents

Other resources

Phonics and Early reading policy

Grapheme mats phase 2,3 and 5

Phonics programme overview Reception

Pronunciation guide Autumn 1

Pronunciation guide Autumn 2

Grapheme information sheet phase 3 spring 1

Grapheme mat phase 2 and 3

Programme overview Year 1

Phonics terminology

Reading

Staynor Hall’s Reading Promise

SH Reading Knowledge Progression

SH Reading Spines

Links

• Pobble – http://www.pobble365.com/
• Literacy Shed – https://www.literacyshed.com/home.html
• Once upon a picture – https://www.onceuponapicture.co.uk/
• Vocabulary Ninja – https://vocabularyninja.wordpress.com/
• Phonics Play – https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/
• Teach your monster to read – https://www.teachyourmonstertoread.com/
• Reading Plus – https://student.readingplus.com/seereader/api/sec/login
• Letters and Sounds – letters-and-sounds.com
• Various author websites (David Walliams, Roald Dahl, Maz Evans etc)

Writing

Our writing curriculum is designed to allow pupils to develop the firm foundations of grammar and composition in order to attain high quality outcomes.

Most of our writing units are contextualised within our school topics allowing the children to use subject specific vocabulary and grammar to meet the needs of the purpose. 

Aims  

• Develop a love of writing and begin to craft stories to become an author.
• Encourage accurate use of composition (grammar and vocabulary
• Provide purposeful writing experiences  

Staynor Hall Writing Curriculum