My Child's Learning English Information
At Blessed Sacrament Catholic Primary School, English is taught on a daily basis in KS1 and KS2.
In EYFS, there are English opportunities built into daily continuous provision in order to develop their learning towards their Early Learning Goal.
We believe that English is a fundamental life skill enabling children to develop their speaking, listening, reading and writing for a wide range of purposes.
Phonics and Spellings:
Daily phonics lessons using Read, Write Inc, takes place in EYFS, Year 1, Year 2 and KS2 as required.
This is a lively and vigorous teaching of synthetic phonics. Children learn the 44 sounds in the English language and how to sound-blend words for reading (decoding) at the same time as developing handwriting skills and spellings (encoding).
From Year 2 children also have a daily spelling lesson. They complete the Read, Write Inc spelling programme. This is a robust, fast-paced, systematic spelling programme for children in
Years 2-6.
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In Key Stage 1 children are assessed at the end of Year 1 using a Government Statutory Assessment Tool known as the Phonics Screening Check. This screening check confirms whether the child has learnt phonic decoding to an appropriate standard and will identify sounds needing further consolidation in Year 2.
Teaching Sequence
EYFS – Daily phonics session and English opportunities during continuous provision.
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In KS1 and KS2 children are taught English daily, these sessions are mostly taught in the mornings. Within these lessons we use a wide range of techniques including text marking, drama, Learning to Learn, Talk Less, group work, editing and publishing. There are four key elements to our English lessons; Speaking and Listening, GPS (Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling), Transcription and Reading. These elements form the backbone of each genre studied. Throughout the year we will cover Writing to Entertain, Writing to Inform, Writing to Persuade and Writing to Discuss.
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Where possible links are made to the current Creative Curriculum Topic.
Writing Expectations
If your child is working at their Age Related Expectation by the end of their current year group, then they will be confidently evidencing these standards across the curriculum.
Grammar
Specific grammar and punctuation lessons are taught in all classes from year 1- 6. In every room in our school we display this useful grammar information for all children, staff and visitors to read.
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Our Pathways to Grammar Success is therefore reinforced throughout the school and children are expected to follow this in relation to their year group, for age related expectations.
Purpose for Writing:
​There are many purposes for writing. At Blessed Sacrament, we write to inform, to entertain,to persuade and to discuss: this allows us to express feelings, explore ideas, evaluate, problem solve and argue for or against an idea.
Skills and genre overview:
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We strive at Blessed Sacrament to embed a life-long love of reading into our children. Each classroom has a dedicated reading area and we celebrate reading throughout the year. Each Year Group has access to a range of books that can be used in conjunction with their Creative Curriculum Topic.
We use a number of schemes alongside this.
These include:
Pearson, Rigby, Collins, Oxford, Jelly and Bean.
We also have a KS2 reading programme called ‘Reading Plus’. Your child will be able to access their online file and read interactive books. Every child has been assigned a username and password which have been sent home. In conjunction with this, in class your child will access Reading Plus in a dedicated session daily.
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We have introduced Whole Class Reading from Y1 to Y6. In these lessons we focus on fluency and comprehension to further equip your child with the skills necessary to become more confident readers.
Reading Programmes of Study:
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Reading Vipers:
At Blessed Sacrament, in order to create strong, confident readers, we support children in developing their reading comprehension skills through the use of Reading Vipers. All children will work on VIPERS during class reading sessions, whether it is whole class reading, guided reading in Y1 or reading one-to-one with an adult.
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Handwriting:
Children in EFYS and year 1 learn to form letters using the RWI handwriting scheme. Once children enter Year 2 the children learn a cursive print using our very own handwriting script.
Please view our handwriting script and encourage your child to use this at home as often as possible.