Gillingham Primary School

English

Intent

 

Reading

 At Gillingham Primary School reading is a priority.  Our aim, for all our children, is for them to read fluently and with understanding and progress appropriately across the school. We wish to develop lifelong readers who have a love of books and who understand the knowledge and enjoyment that they can provide. 

We, therefore, teach our children the skills they need to be great readers, give them the knowledge they need in order to understand what they read and provide them with opportunities to make links across their learning and respond with their opinions about what they have read. 

Children begin their ‘reading journey’ in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) by participating in daily phonic lessons following the Jolly Phonics Synthetic Programme (please refer to our Phonics Policy for more detail).  They choose reading books from our banded book reading scheme which are linked to their phonic knowledge.  Daily phonic lessons continue in Year 1 following the Jolly Grammar Pathway.  In Year 2 children participate in guided reading lessons (which enable them to talk confidently about their reading) and this extends into whole class reading lessons in years 3 to 6 (which focus on vocabulary development, reading skills, reading aloud skills and immersion in a wide range of texts).  The children continue to choose books from our progressive banded book reading scheme for independent reading.  Adults read aloud for pleasure from a more challenging class book every day and this acts as a stimulus for deeper thinking and prediction skills. 

We have an attractive and inviting library space, stocked with a wide range of picture books, poetry books, novels and non-fiction books, which actively promotes reading for pleasure.  Year 6 librarians regularly open the library at lunchtimes and enjoy supporting children in selecting books and reading books to them too. 

You can support your child through regular reading at home.  Reading to and with your child every day for just 10 minutes will make a huge difference to your child’s fluency, vocabulary and achievement in school. 

The Book Trust (https://www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/tips-and-advice/reading-tips/) has lots of ‘top tips’ for sharing a book with your child:

  • Ask your child to choose what they’d like to read.
  • If you can, turn off the TV, radio and computer so that you can enjoy the story without any other distractions.
  • Sit close together.
  • Take a look at the pictures. You don’t just have to read the words on the page.
  • Ask questions and talk about the book.
  • Have fun! There’s no right or wrong way to share a story – as long as you and your child are having fun

The ‘Bookfinder’ tool will also help you discover the very best children’s books https://www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/bookfinder/.

Please refer to the ‘English Intent Statement’ document for more details about how we teach reading.

 Writing

 

Our aim, when teaching writing, is for our children to view themselves as writers and enjoy the writing process.  We also support them to write with confidence and accuracy across the curriculum, enabling them to ultimately communicate successfully throughout life. 

Children begin their ‘writing journey’ in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) by participating in daily phonic lessons following the Jolly Phonics Synthetic Programme and writing skills are taught throughout the EYFS curriculum.  Children in Years 1-6 participate in daily English lessons following our GPS Writing Curriculum, which is based on the ‘Write Stuff’ approach.  A short video presentation below will explain this approach to you.  There is also a link to a document which will explain the SPAG (spelling, punctuation and grammar) terminology that our children regularly use in lessons. 

Please refer to the ‘English Intent Statement’ document for more details about how we teach writing.

 

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 Spelling

 

Our aim, when teaching phonics and spelling, is for our children to become independent spellers who are able to decode words independently when reading and communicate more easily and effectively when writing.  

Children begin their ‘spelling journey’ in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) by participating in daily phonic lessons following the Jolly Phonics Synthetic Programme (please refer to our Phonics Policy for more detail).  In Year 1 pupils access daily phonic lessons from the Jolly Grammar Pathway and our aim is for them to have completed Phase 5 of Letters and Sounds and be ready to move onto our Spelling Pathway.  In Years 2-6 pupils participate in weekly spelling lessons following our progressive Spelling Pathway which is in line with the expectations of the 2014 National Curriculum. 

Please refer to the ‘English Intent Statement’ document for more details about how we teach spelling.