English
We believe that English has a special place in education and society. A high-quality education in English will teach pupils to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others, and through their reading and listening, others can communicate with them.
Our aim for English at Stonebow is to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written language, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment. We aim to ensure that all pupils:
- read easily, fluently and with good understanding
- develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information
- acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language
- appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage
- write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences
- use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas
- are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate
How we do it at Stonebow
Our English curriculum is based on the outcomes set out in the National Curriculum Programme of Study for English. Writing happens in all areas of the curriculum, weaving in and out of every subject from EYFS to year 6. We provide opportunities for children to become confident and fluent writers, who can transfer their writing skills across all curriculum areas. Writing across the curriculum is a time for children to be imaginative and creative; drawing on their own experiences and from what they have read. Children apply their skills in spelling, punctuation and grammar to all pieces of writing. Our reading curriculum builds on our approach to early reading and phonics and is structured using VIPERS domains – Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation, Retrieval and Sequence or Summarise.
Read more about our approach to ‘Early reading and phonics’ …….
Reading at Stonebow
Scholastic Book Club for Kids. You can join this club free of charge and enjoy the fun on this website. You will need your parents permission to join. If you sign up use your bug Club username and password so that you will remember it.
To Login use the following Class Login
Years 1 & 2 sbow1-2 Password: stonebow
Years 3 & 4 sbow3-4 Password: stonebow
Years 4 & 6 sbow5-6 Password: stonebow
EYFS sbowyrec Password: stonebow
Early Reading and Phonics
Read Write Inc., developed by Ruth Miskin, provides a structured and systematic approach to teaching literacy. It is used by more than a quarter of the UK’s primary schools and is designed to create fluent readers, confident speakers and willing writers.
Read Write Inc – Our Phonics Scheme
The Government strongly recommend the use of synthetic phonics when teaching early literacy skills to children. Synthetic phonics is simply the ability to convert a letter or letter group into sounds that are then blended together into a word.
At Stonebow, we are using the Read Write Inc (RWI) programme to get children off to a flying start with their English. RWI is a method of learning based upon letter sounds and phonics, and we use it to aid children in their reading and writing.
Reading opens the door to learning. A child who reads a lot will become a good reader. A good reader will be able to read more challenging material. A child who can read more challenging material is a child who will learn. The more a child learns, the more he or she will want to find out.
The children are assessed regularly and grouped according to their ability. They will work with a RWI trained teacher or teaching assistant.
Reading
When using RWI to read the children will:
- Learn 44 sounds and the corresponding letter/letter groups using simple prompts
- Learn to read words using sound blending (Fred talk)
- Read lively stories featuring words they have learnt to sound out
- Show that they comprehend the stories by answering ‘Find It’ and ‘Prove It’
Writing
When using RWI to write the children will:
- Learn to write the letter/letter groups which represent the 44 sounds
- Learn to write words by saying the sounds and graphemes (Fred fingers)
Talking
When using RWI the children will also work in pairs:
- To answer questions
- To take turns talking and listening to each other
- To give positive praise to each other
Blending
Help your child learn to read words by sounding-blending (Fred talk) eg. c-a-t = cat, sh-o-p = shop. Children learn to read words by blending the letter-sounds that are in the Speed Sounds set (shown further down the page).
Help your child to say the pure sounds (‘m’ not ‘muh’, ‘s’ not ‘suh’ etc.) as quickly as they can, and then blend the sounds together to say the whole word.
Read Write Inc Books
Each week, the children in EYFS and KS1 will be given a Read Write Inc ‘Book Bag Book’ to bring home. They will keep this book for a week and it is recommended that they read it at least three times to develop their fluency and understanding. Once your child has decoded the words and can read it fluently, there are some questions at the back of the book to develop their comprehension skills. In EYFS, this will begin once the children confidently know enough sounds and can blend the sounds that they know to read words. The earliest books will be ‘sound blending’ books containing words rather than sentences.
More information and videos to help you support your children with their phonics learning can be found by following the link:
https://www.ruthmiskin.com/parents/
Finally, don’t worry if your child is struggling at first with their sounds and words, they will get there in their own time. If you have time (we know it is very precious!), we would urge you to try and read stories to your child before they go to bed. This will help develop a wider vocabulary which makes a vast difference to their quality of writing but it will also encourage them to enjoy a good story.
Phonics at Stonebow
In Read Write Inc. Phonics lessons children learn to read accurately and fluently with good comprehension. They learn to form each letter, spell correctly, and compose their ideas step-by-step.
Throughout the programme, children learn the English alphabetic code: the 150+ graphemes that represent 44 speech sounds. They rapidly learn sounds and the letter, or group of letters, they need to represent them, in three sets of Speed Sounds Lessons. Simple and enjoyable mnemonics help all children to grasp the letter-sound correspondences quickly, especially those who are at risk of making slower progress or those who are new to learning English. This knowledge is taught as ‘tricky’ words (we call them Red Words) and are practised frequently.
Phonic books are closely matched to children’s increasing knowledge of phonics and ‘tricky’ words so that, early on, they experience plenty of success. Repeated readings of the texts support their increasingly fluent decoding. A thought-provoking introduction, prompts for thinking out loud and discussion to help teachers ensure that children comprehend what they are reading. Teachers read aloud and discuss picture books with similar themes to those in the storybooks, so children build up background knowledge ready for the next storybook.
Reading Vipers
Reading VIPERS is our way of supporting children with their reading comprehension skills. All children work on VIPERS during class reading, whether it is reading as a class, in a small group, or one-to-one with an adult.
The VIPERS poster is displayed in all classrooms.
Up to the end of Year 2, the ‘S’ stands for ‘Sequence’. Once children move into Year 3, the ‘S’ stands for ‘Summarise’, which is a more demanding skill.
If we ensure that children are competent in all of these reading skills, we are covering all of the National Curriculum requirements and enabling them to be strong, confident readers. This acronym is just a great way of helping children and parents to remember what these vital skills are.
Question Openers
VIPERS can be used on any text that a child is reading, as well as on pictures, picture books and films! When any adult is listening to a child read, all they have to do is think of questions about the book/picture/film that cover all of the VIPERS, and there are great examples below of how you can create your own questions using the following question openers.
| EYFS – Y2 | Y3 – Y6 | |
| Vocabulary | What does the word ….. mean in this sentence?What does this word or phrase tell you about …..? | What do the words ….. and ….. suggest about the character, setting and mood?Find one word in the text which means …..Which word tells you that …..? |
| Infer | Why was …..? feeling …..?What do you think the author intended when they said …..? | How can you tell that …..?What impression of …..? do you get fromthese paragraphs? |
| Predict | What do you think will happen next? What makes you think this?What is happening? What do you think happened before? | Do you think ….. will happen? Yes, no or maybe?Explain your answer using evidence from the text. What does this paragraph suggest will happen next? What makes you think this? |
| Explain | Who is your favourite character? Why?Is there anything you would change about this story?Do you like this text? What do you like about it? | The mood of the character changes throughout the text.Find and copy the phrases which show this.How does the author engage the reader here?Why is the text arranged in this way? |
| Retrieve | How many …..?What happened to …..? | How would you describe this story/text? What genre is it? How do you know? |
| SequenceSummarise | What happened after …..? What was the first thing that happened in the story? | Can you summarise in a sentence the opening/middle/end of the story?In what order do these chapter headings come in the story? |
Spelling at Stonebow
The Teaching of Spelling
Research shows that the traditional spelling test is one of short term memory and does not support children in understanding the principles of spelling. Recent scans of the brain have shown that when children learn spellings for a test they are using a different part of their brain entirely from when they tackle spellings in the context of their writing. Children who perform well in spelling tests show little or no improvement in their spelling within other writing. Children who find learning spelling lists difficult, not only do not use the spellings correctly in writing but also find the task of learning spelling lists stressful and often feel unnecessary pressure on the day of the test. The pressure on parents to ‘drill’ their children on spelling lists as well as the expectation that every child should read regularly at home and complete other homework activities gave another reason for us to review our practice.
How will we ensure our children become successful spellers without a test?
In EYFS and Year 1 all children will continue to participate in a high quality, synthetic phonics lesson each day using the Read Write Inc. program. Children have time to practise and rapidly expand their ability to read and spell words. They are also taught to read and spell ‘tricky’ words, which are words with unusual spelling patterns or that contain graphemes (written sounds) that have not yet been taught.
As children become competent in using their phonological understanding to make sensible attempts at spelling words, for example that the word ‘beak’ could be spelt ‘beek’, ‘beak’ or ‘beke’, children need to move beyond phonics to learning about other strategies to choose the correct spelling. This broadening of understanding begins in Year 2 and supports children in rooting their understanding in the context of written text.
Children who have moved beyond phonetic spelling, will be taught using the Spelling Shed scheme. Spelling Shed’s approach to spelling involves the relationship between sounds and written symbols as well as using morphology to help spell through meaning. Each week, children will be introduced to a new word list where all of the words are examples of the spelling pattern for the week. The word list will be used to help the children explore and learn about the spelling pattern through different activities.
As well as the learning at school, the word list for the week will be assigned for each child on Spelling Shed which can be accessed through the school website for free or by an app available on App Store and Google Play. By logging on to Spelling Shed, children will be given the opportunity to practise and build their confidence in spelling through a game-like format. Children in Year 2 and above should have their own login details to access Spelling Shed. A handy parent guide is attached to this message and will also be uploaded to the school website. The word list each week will not be ‘tested’ but there will be an expectation that children log on to Spelling Shed and practise at home. If your child does not have access to the internet at home, please speak to their class teacher so that we can provide alternative arrangements.