English is a core subject at Vale School. It is broken into three areas: reading, writing and speaking and listening.
Reading
Reading is a very important life skill and we want all children at Vale School to enjoy books and reading.
Children are encouraged from the very beginning of Early Years to take a book home to look at and share with an adult, even before they are able to read for themselves. Alongside this sharing of stories, we teach a synthetic phonics program developed by Ruth Miskin called Read Write Inc.
The children begin to learn the initial sounds in Early Years, and as soon as they have mastered them, blend these sounds to make words. They continue through Year 1 and sometimes Year 2, coming off the programme as soon as they are ready. The children are taught as a class by the teacher and teaching assistants and are assessed every 6 weeks to ensure they are making progress in their reading.
When a child has completed the Read Write Inc phonics programme and has moved away from the structured reading scheme they can read ‘chapter books’ of their choice with guidance from parents, teachers and teaching assistants.
Alongside phonics in Year 1 and throughout the rest of the school, our main tool for teaching reading is as a whole class. We use class texts that are challenging (often linked to the theme being studied) to introduce children to new vocabulary and a wide range of authors. We also recommend specific books for children to read to ensure they read a wide range of genre. We recommend 100 books for KS1, 100 books for Lower KS2 (Years 3 & 4) and a further 100 books for Upper KS2 (Years 5 & 6).
We want all children to have access to high quality reading experiences both in school and at home. This can be reading with an adult, in a small group, or as a whole class. Reading aloud, either to a parent or to the class is a valuable activity and helps develop understanding of the text and how to use punctuation effectively.
Classroom adult volunteers
We are very grateful to the parents, grandparents and local residents who give their time to listen to children read at school. If you are able to give some time to help, please speak to your child’s class teacher.
Home school reading diaries
All pupils will be given a home/school reading diary so that parents and later children can record what they have read at home. In school, teachers, teaching assistants and parent helpers will record in the diary as well.
To make good progress in this important skill, children need to be reading regularly. Every day is best, but we do ask that every child reads with a parent at home at least 3 times a week and that this is recorded in their diary.
Writing
Grammar and Punctuation
It is important for children to learn the correct vocabulary used to describe language and punctuation. Teachers will use this language in lessons and we would encourage parents to reinforce this at home.
| Noun - a person, place or thing | Verb - is doing, being or having |
| Adjective - describes a noun | Adverb - describes a verb |
| Pronoun - replaces a noun | Conjunction - joins words |
| Proper Noun - name of the noun |
To enable children to use the correct grammar and punctuation in their writing, we teach it discreetly and then encourage them to use it in their own writing.
Spelling
In Early Years, the focus is on reading words and spelling high frequency words. Some words are phonetically decodable (e.g. splash) whilst other are not (e.g. was). These non-phonetic words are called Red Words at school to help children recognise that they have to learn these ones in a different way.
When children begin to write we do celebrate phonetically plausible attempts to spell a word. Over time the children are encouraged to learn which pattern they should use for each word. In KS1, children follow our spelling programme, learning groups of spellings each week. In KS2 children are taught using the Oxford Owl Spelling program which builds on the work from our phonics programme.
Writing is taught across all the subjects of the curriculum. Many of the foundation subjects are taught through one of our themes, and each theme has a strong emphasis on English.
All our writing fits into one of the 4 purposes for writing, taken from Michael Tidd’s work.
To further support children’s writing, we use Alan Peat’s sentence types. These are introduced in different year groups, and reinforced in following years.
| Sentence Type | EYFS | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 | Year 6 |
| BOYS | * | * | * | * | # | ||
| 2A | 1A* | * | * | * | # | ||
| Simile | * | * | * | * | # | ||
| Pairs | * | * | # | * | |||
| De:De | * | ||||||
| OI | * | ||||||
| If, if, if | * | ||||||
| Emotion word, | * | * | * | * | |||
| Noun, w/w/w | * | * | * | ||||
| Ad, same ad | * | # | |||||
| Double ly | * | # | # | ||||
| List sentences | * | * | * | * | * | * | # |
| Some: others | * | * | |||||
| Personification of weather | * | * | |||||
| P.C | * | ||||||
| The more, the more | * | * | * | ||||
| Short | * | * | # | ||||
| ing, ed | * | # | |||||
| Imagine | * |
* Main focus in the year
# Referred to in the year
Handwriting
At Vale School we aim that all children:
- have a consistent cursive style to ensure high levels of presentation.
- have a neat, legible style with correctly formed letters in cursive handwriting.
- develop fluency and speed whilst writing
As recommended by the British Dyslexia Association, we use a continuous cursive style of writing. Its most important feature is that each letter is formed without taking the pencil/pen off the paper. Consequently, each word is formed in one flowing movement.
The key advantages of this script:
- By making each letter in one movement, children’s hands develop a ‘physical memory’ of it, making it easier to produce the correct shape
- The starting and finishing points for all continuous cursive letters are easier to remember (they all start on the line and, other than a few exceptions, all finish on the line)
- As letters and words flow from left to right, children are less likely to reverse letters which are typically difficult (ie b/d, p/q)
- There is a clear distinction between capital letters and lower case
- The transition to joined writing is simple and occurs sooner, allowing children to concentrate on the composition of the writing, rather than thinking how to form the letters
- Words written in one set of movements, without the pen being taken off the paper, help the motor memory store spellings
- The continuous flow of writing ultimately improves speed and spelling
Our agreed continuous cursive script
Pre-cursive (before joining)
We use the following patter to help children remember how to form the letters.
| m | In Maisie Mountain mountain out | b | In down the laces to the heel, round the toe and out |
| a | In round the apple down the leaf out | f | In round the flower, down the stem, loop out and across the leaves |
| s | In slither down the snake out | e | In cut off the top, scoop out the egg and out |
| t | In down the tower out and across | l | In down the long leg and out |
| d | In round his bottom, up his tall neck, down to his feet and out | h | In down the head to the hooves over his back and out |
| i | In down the body, out and dot the head | r | In down his back, over his arm and out |
| n | In down Nobby, over his net and out | j | In down his body, loop out and dot his head |
| p | In down the plait, up and around the pirate's face and out | v | In down a wing, up a wing and out |
| g | In round her face, down her hair and loop out | y | In down a horn, up a horn, under his head and loop out |
| o | In all around the orange out | w | In down up down up and out |
| c | In curl around the caterpillar | z | In zig zag zig and out |
| k | In down the kangaroo's body, round his tail, down his leg and out | x | In down the arm and leg, off, up the leg to the arm and out |
| u | In down and under, up to the top, down and out | q | In round her head, up to the top, down her hair and out |
When learning our handwriting style, it helps to learn letters which are formed with a similar movement together e.g.
As well as the remaining letters - v, w, x, z
Continuous cursive script (joining letters)
Penhold, posture, paper and position
At school, when the children are ready, we teach them to use a dynamic tripod grasp detailed in the picture below.
We encourage children to sit with their upper body reasonably upright and squarely facing the writing surface, with feet on the floor and their non-writing hand supporting their work. Right-handers should rotate the surface slightly to the left. We look to sit left-handers next to each other or on the left of a right-hander so that elbows do not clash. Left-handers should rotate the writing surface slightly to the right.
Children experiencing difficulties with their handwriting will be supported to help them master the skills needed to have a neat, legible handwriting style.
Speaking and listening
When we speak in a public setting (in front of the class, in assembly, to parents) we remember SHAPE:
S = Speak in full sentences
H = Use your Hands well to express yourself
A = Articulate
P = Project your voice
E = Give Eye contact to your audience