English
ENGLISH AT MALMESBURY PARK PRIMARY SCHOOL
CURRICULUM INTENT STATEMENT
At Malmesbury Park, we feel that English has a pre-eminent place in education and society. Our children need to develop skills in reading, writing, speaking and listening so that they can express themselves creatively and communicate with others effectively. We ensure that pupils leaving school are confident, independent and literate learners. We offer an exciting, broad and balanced curriculum that develops the skills of each child to the highest level.
Literacy skills are developed across the curriculum. Spoken language underpins the development of reading and writing in our school and speaking and listening is an integral part of the whole of the school day. Reading is a skill essential for life, and it is vital that our children leave school able to read fluently, confidently and have a love of reading. We want to encourage children to become enthusiastic and thoughtful readers who understand and engage with what they are reading.
We feel that the key purpose of writing is to communicate meaning and therefore, all writing tasks have an identified and clear purpose. The writing process includes forming, articulating and communicating ideas. Children are given frequent opportunities in school to write in different contexts using quality texts as a model and for a variety of purposes and audiences. We aim to develop the children’s ability to produce well-structured, detailed writing in which the meaning is made clear and which engages the interest of the reader. We do this through in-depth study of a focus text that provides a balance between poetry, non-fiction and fiction. We a bespoke Handwriting Scheme in school to help children to develop fluent, legible and speedy handwriting.
Aims:
- Read easily, fluently and with a 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.
Phonics
Learning to read is one of the most important things your child will learn at our school. Everything else depends on it, so we put as much energy as we possibly can into making sure that every single child learns to read as quickly as possible.
We want your child to love reading – and to want to read for themselves. This is why we use Read Write Inc as our phonics scheme. Read about our approach to reading in our
Parents Guide To Reading at MPPS.
How will my child be taught to read?
We start by teaching phonics. This means that the children learn how to ‘read’ the sounds in words and how those sounds can be written down. This is essential for reading, but it also helps children.
Learn to spell well. We teach the children simple ways of remembering these sounds and letters. Ask them to show you what these are.
The children also practise reading (and spelling) what we call ‘tricky words’, such as ‘once,’ ‘have,’ ‘said’ and ‘where’.
The children practise their reading with books that match the phonics and the ‘tricky words’ they know. They start thinking that they can read and this does wonders for their confidence.
How will I know how well my child is doing?
We will always let you know how well your child is doing.
We use various ways to find out how the children are getting on in reading. We use the information to decide what reading group they should be in. Your child will work with children who are at the same reading level as them. Children will move to a different group if they are making faster progress than the others. Your child will have one-to-one support if we think he or she needs some extra help to keep up.
What can I do to help at home?
Once your child can confidently recognise sounds and can successfully blend them together to make words, they will bring home a RWInc book bag matched to the book they are learning in school. These books also contain guidance for reading at home. The children will read the same book at least 3 times to ensure successful blending of sounds, recognition of red words, understanding and finally, fluency and expression.
We also have a subscription to the RWInc Ebook library, which you can find at www.oxfordowl.co.uk. Your child will be given a password to access the book they have been allocated to read that week.
Where can I find more information?
Please visit https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/reading-schemes-oxford-levels/read-write-inc-phonics-guide/. Here you will find videos and FAQs for parents about how the scheme is taught and what you can do at home to support your child with reading.
Reading Books
Early readers will be given their 'learn to read' reading book from the Read Write Inc scheme. When they are confident in using phonics, they will move on to a colour banded Book Band book. Find out how this works with our
Book Suggestions
Are you wondering how to help your child to choose some new books? Try the following booklists for suggestions for your next visit to the local library or bookshop.
Need more inspiration? Want to try something new and up-to-date?
The Reader Teacher https://www.thereaderteacher.com/ and BookTrust (https://www.booktrust.org.uk/book-recommendations/booklists/)
Have lots of information and up-to-date book recommendations to support you with selecting books and reading at home together.