English

Writing

Our vision is for children to be able to express themselves and communicate their ideas with the world. We aim to promote a love of writing at The Priory and equip children with the skills they need to write confidently across a range of genres. Oracy is at the heart of our curriculum as we encourage children to discuss ideas in Learning Partners and explore texts through drama and roleplay.

Our writing units are planned in 3–4 week blocks, with a clear and purposeful reason for writing designed to engage and motivate children. Each unit is supported by carefully crafted WAGOLLs (What A Good One Looks Like), which showcase the key skills and features children need to develop as writers.

We use engaging, high-quality texts to inspire children’s ideas, broaden their vocabulary and provide rich models of language and writing. Throughout each unit, children are supported to develop and apply their writing skills, building towards a purposeful Final Author at Work outcome that allows them to showcase their learning and creativity.

The build-up to the final writing outcome includes:

Genre identification
Exploring model texts or WAGOLLs (What A Good One Looks Like)
Sentence structure lessons taught through Colourful Semantics
Discussion with learning partners
Vocabulary lessons
Oracy-focused activities, including drama, role play and discussion
Punctuation and grammar lessons
‘Short burst’ writing, focusing on a previously taught genre
Handwriting starters

Below, you will find the writing assessment information for each year group.

Handwriting

Children in Reception and Year One are taught correct letter formation using the Little Wandle handwriting scheme. They take part in daily activities including fine and gross motor activities to support their writing readiness. Pupils in Year 2 take part in daily handwriting lessons focusing on correct letter sizing and preparing them to join letters. Pupils in Year 3 and 4 have handwriting starters 3 times a week to embed joined writing, whilst Year 5 and 6 compete handwriting starters twice a week linked to their spelling words.

Spelling

Spelling in Early Years and Key Stage One is taught through the Little Wandle scheme and pupils are expected to be able to spell many Common Exception Words (CEW) by the end of Year 2. In Key Stage Two pupils are taught discreet spelling lessons twice a week using the Emile spelling scheme.

Reading

We want all children to leave The Priory as fluent, enthusiastic and confident readers. We recognise that reading is fundamental to children’s learning, language development, imagination and future success.

We prioritise reading for pleasure to help our pupils develop into lifelong readers. We do this through daily storytime in every classroom, dedicated reading lessons, access to high quality texts and by embedding a culture of reading for pleasure across the school.

Our reading culture is developed through:

Well stocked book corners in every classroom
A vast collection of books in our Reading Corridor
Adults who promote a love of reading
A new whole school library
Daily storytime in every classroom
Scholastic book fairs
Whole school celebration of World Book Day
Visits from authors and storytellers
Visits to Wimbledon Library
Reading volunteers who come in to read with children
Class novels in Key Stage Two
Merton Library Ambassadors in the school
A weekly reading club in The Reading Den
Promoting the Summer Reading Challenge
Regular reading time in class
Parent reading every Friday morning
Accelerated Reader in Key Stage Two

Home reading

While at The Priory we encourage children to read every day for between 10 - 20 minutes. From Reception, every child is given a Reading Record to record their home reading.

In Early Years and Key Stage One, children will take two books home:

- A reading practice book matched to the child’s phonics stage, which they can read independently. Children should be able to read their practice book with developing confidence and fluency, without significant adult support.
- a sharing book that they can talk about and enjoy with their grown ups at home.This provides an opportunity for families to share stories together and develop a love of reading.

From Year 3, pupils will start to use Accelerated Reader to help them select real books matched to their reading level. They may also bring home a book to share from the school library.

Nagy & Herman, 1987

Whole Class Reading lessons

From Year 3, pupils will take part in Whole Class Reading lessons three times a week. They will explore their class novel or non-fiction texts related to the wider curriculum topics.

The lessons follow the structure:

- Clarifying vocabulary
- Reading fluency
- Paired reading
- Looking questions (literal or retrieval questions)
- Paired discussion of referential or evaluative questions

Reading Groups

Pupils in Reception to Year 2, will take part in guided reading groups three times a week following the Little Wandle Scheme. During these sessions, they will focus on decoding, reading fluency and comprehension.

Phonics

Phonics is “making connections between the sounds of our spoken words and the letters that are used to write them down.” (Little Wandle).

From Nursery, children are taught to read using the Synthetic Systematic Phonics scheme, Little Wandle, which has been approved by the Department of Education. All children in Early Years and Key Stage One will be taught to read using phonics. Children in Year 3 and beyond who are early readers will continue to receive phonics and early reading support through the Little Wandle scheme.

Phonics lessons are daily and fast-paced with sessions lasting between 20 and 30 minutes.

In addition to this, children in Reception and Year 1 will take part in guided group reading sessions with up to 6 children led by a trained member of staff. During these sessions, they will focus on decoding, reading fluency and comprehension.

Below you will find videos to demonstrate how each sound taught in Reception should be pronounced and a guide to how we teach children to blend sounds to read.