English

Writing at Longwick

Intent

We believe that all pupils should be able to confidently communicate their knowledge, ideas and emotions through their writing. At Longwick, we want pupils to acquire a wide vocabulary, a solid understanding of grammar and be able to spell new words by effectively applying the spelling patterns and rules they learn. Through our writing curriculum, we will inspire them to write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences. All pupils will be encouraged to take pride in the presentation of their writing, in part by developing a good, joined, handwriting style by the time they move to secondary school.

We know that all good writers refine and edit their writing over time, so we want children to develop independence in being able to identify their own areas for improvement in all pieces of writing, editing their work effectively during and after the writing process.

Reading at Longwick

Intent

At Longwick, we believe all pupils should have the opportunity to learn to read regardless of their background, needs or abilities. Through our Reading Curriculum, we will endeavour to deliver a systematic, synthetic phonics programme which matches or exceeds the expectations of the English National Curriculum and Early Learning Goals. We aim to build a curriculum which develops a love of reading to help pupils know more, remember more and understand more. As part of our teaching, we will ensure that attainment of reading is rigorously assessed and monitored so that gaps may be addressed quickly and effectively for all pupils.

Key Documents:

Phonics

Letters and Sounds

We use TWINKL, the DfE approved whole school systematic synthetic phonics programme which has everything needed to make phonics a joy, helping our children to love reading and writing whilst guiding them towards fluency.

Phonics is the teaching of letters and sounds which makes up the decoding part of reading and spelling.

At Longwick we follow the six phases of the Department for Education's strategy for phonics: Letters and Sounds: Principles and Practice of High Quality Phonics. These are taught taught systematically through phases one to six throughout the Reception Year and in Years One and Two. The principles of phonics underpin all reading and spelling skills taught thereafter.

Teachers use assessment for learning and the Twinkl end of level assessments to track and review children’s progress. Children will progress through the six levels of Twinkl Phonics, beginning with Level one in Reception. By the end of the Summer Term, Reception children should be familiar up to the end of Level Three. By the end of Year 2, children should be proficient in their phonics knowledge and have completed Level Six of Twinkl Phonics.

Children in Year 2 who do not meet the required standard for phonics and need more support with ‘decoding’ and ‘word reading’ skills, will have opportunities to practice this using daily phonics sessions. Children in Year 3 and older who need further phonic intervention work will receive this through targeted interventions.