English
Key Performance Indicators English programmes of study: key stages 1 and 2 English Intent Statement Knowledge OrganisersReception Overview Year 1 Overview Year 2 Overview Year 3 Overview Year 4 Overview Year 5 Overview Year 6 Overview
Year 1 Progression Framework Year 2 Progression Framework Year 3 Progression Framework Year 4 Progression Framework Year 5 Progression Framework Year 6 Progression Framework
Phonics and early reading
To find out about Phonics and early reading, please visit EYFS/Key Stage 1 page.
Accelerated Reader
When your child has completed Read Write Inc Phonics they will move on to a reading programme called Accelerated Reader (AR). 
AR is a computer-based reading programme that will develop your child's independent reading. It works in a simple way; your child will pick a book at their own level and when finished they will take a short quiz on a tablet. If your child can pass a quiz about what they have read, then this tells us that they have fully understood the content of their book.
When your child joins AR they will undertake a reading test to assign them a reading level (Zone of Proximal Development). Your child will select a book from the library that falls within their ZPD. This reading level will guide your child towards choosing books at an appropriate reading level that are challenging without being frustrating. One of the benefits about using AR is that your child can choose their own books to read, rather than having one given to them. This will hopefully make reading a much more enjoyable experience as they can choose books that are interesting to them.
You can visit the AR BookFinder at www.arbookfind.co.uk to conduct a search for all available books with AR quizzes.
How much will my child read during the school day?
In KS2 children read independently for 20 minutes daily. During this time teachers work with groups of children to plug gaps in learning by using 'HeadStart' Primary to develop children's reading skills. Teachers work with slowest progress readers using age-related texts and key questions. Teachers follow a 'Read Aloud, Think Aloud' approach to provide a framework.
'Read Aloud, Think Aloud'
Think- Alouds have been described as 'eavesdropping on someone's thinking.' With this strategy teachers verbalise aloud while reading a section orally. Their verbalisations include describing things they are doing as they read to monitor their comprehension. The purpose of the think-aloud strategy is to model to children how skilled readers construct meaning from a text. Think-alouds are used as a guide for children in summarising, clarifying, visualising, questioning and prediciting while reading.
Teachers Reading Aloud
At Woodthorpe we know that reading aloud is one of the most important things that teachers can do and needs to be a frequent and regular part of each school day.
How can I help my child become a better reader?
As with anything, performance improves with practice. Encourage your child to read at home. Create a culture of reading in your household by reading with your child, starting a home library, visiting your local library or bookshop, letting your child see you reading and discussing the books that each of you have read. When reading with your child stop and ask questions to be sure your child is comprehending what is read. Reading with your child, no matter what the child's age, is an important part of developing a good reader, building a lifelong love of reading. Make reading and learning a family affair!
Top tips for reading at home Recommended Reads
At Woodthopre JI School we have introduced the Read Write Inc Spelling Programme from Year 2 to 6 for the following reasons-:
- To enable to allow us meet the spelling expectations of the National Curriculum 2014
- To raise standards in spelling
- To provide consistency and progression in the teaching of spelling
- To help support children to enable them to be more confident at spelling.
How does this programme support your child in learning to spell?
RWInc Spelling is an interactive programme which teaches spellings in a fun and engaging way. Each unit is introduced with a short video. It helps children to learn spellings with common patterns and uses rules in order to help them recall spellings as well as teaching exceptions to these rules.
Year 1 spellings Year 2 spellings Year 3-4 Spellings
Writing Aims
As stated in the English National Curriculum (2014) it is important that children develop the ability to:
write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences
- The Talk for writing (T4W) approach means that children will rehearse sentence and language patterns that they can then draw upon and adapt in their own writing, not only in English, but across the curriculum.
- T4W encourages regular discussion of vocabulary and the meaning of unfamiliar words which will help the children to broaden their own vocabulary.
- Children are encouraged to take ownership of their own ideas in writing and revisit their writing critically.
- Teachers model the high expectations through shared writing.
- Children learn to write confidently across both fiction and non-fiction which can then be applied across the curriculum
Planning Structure
Each unit of work follows a clear structure of imitation and innovation as well as including ‘Have a go Writes’ and ‘Time to Shine Writes’.
Have a go Write
A ‘Have a go Write’ is completed at the beginning of each unit and informs planning depending on what the children need to work out.
The main focus of the imitation stage is storytelling focused on a model text, which enables the children to explore text features, sentence structure, language patterns and how a specific text-type is composed. Model texts are provided by the English lead before a unit of work is completed.
Children use their in-depth understanding of the model text to write their own version.
Time to Shine Write (Invent)
The ‘Time to Shine Write’ is completed at the end of each unit of writing. The same Writer’s Toolkit as the ‘Have a go Write’ is given and stuck into Writing books. This provides a valuable assessment opportunity and shows the progress the children have made over the course of a unit.