English
At Parklands Educate Together we strive to provide a high-quality education across the English curriculum areas.
The study of English develops children’s abilities to listen, speak, read and write for a wide range of purposes, including the communication of their ideas, views and feelings. Children are enabled to express themselves creatively and imaginatively, as they become enthusiastic and critical readers of stories and poetry, as well as non-fiction texts.
It should provide opportunities for all pupils, whatever their age, gender, ethnicity, attainment and background. Quality texts are chosen to reflect our diverse community including characters and plots from all backgrounds and abilities. Children gain an understanding of how language works by looking at its patterns, structures and origins. Children use their knowledge, skills and understanding in speaking, listening, reading and writing across a range of different situations and through cross curricular activities.
English is a Core subject of the National Curriculum. It is broken into three strands within the curriculum (Reading, Writing and Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar).
Reading
We use Unlocking Letters and Sounds which was validated by the DfE in December 2021. We begin teaching phonics in the first few weeks of term 1 in Reception and children make rapid progress in their reading journey. Children begin to learn the main sounds heard in the English Language and how they can be represented, as well as learning ‘Common Exception’ words for Phases 2, 3 and 4. They use these sounds to read and write simple words, captions and sentences. Children leave Reception being able to apply the phonemes taught within Phase 2, 3 and 4.
In Year 1 through Phase 5a, b and c, they learn any alternative spellings and pronunciations for the graphemes and additional Common Exception Words. By the end of Year 1 children will have mastered using phonics to decode and blend when reading and segment when spelling. In Year 1 all children are screened using the national Phonics Screening Check.
In Year 2, phonics continues to be revisited to ensure mastery of the phonetic code and any child who does not meet age related expectations will continue to receive support to close identified gaps.
Once children become fluent, confident readers, we use a programme called ‘Accelerated Reader’. This is an innovative reading management tool that motivates and assesses students’ reading progress. It allows students to choose books that match their interests and reading abilities – even after they have finished a systematic synthetic phonics scheme. After reading a book, students take a short online quiz that measures their comprehension and vocabulary skills. This personalised feedback helps teachers track individual progress, identify areas for improvement, and provide targeted support. Accelerated Reader promotes a culture of independent reading, encourages critical thinking, and helps our pupils develop a lifelong passion for reading!
At Parklands, we also believe in the power of whole class guided reading to enhance students’ reading comprehension skills and foster a love for literature. Whole class guided reading is an interactive and collaborative approach where our teachers lead a reading session with the entire class. During these sessions, pupils engage in rich discussions, analyse texts, and develop critical thinking skills. By exploring a variety of fiction and non-fiction texts together, students build their vocabulary, expand their understanding of different genres, and deepen their comprehension abilities. Whole class guided reading creates a supportive and inclusive learning environment, allowing every student to actively participate, share their thoughts, and develop their reading skills alongside their peers.
English Writing
Our progression in writing follows a well developed programme developed by Integra, the 'trading arm' of South Gloucestershire Local Authority who have been supporting schools for many years. They provide excellent guidance for teachers, with associated assessment to make sure children are taught at the right level and supported in their writing journey.
Early Years and KS1
The basis of good writing is good talk. When you visit places encourage your child to talk about what has been seen, heard, smelt, tasted and touched. Encourage children to share their experiences in as much detail as possible.
- Let children see you being a model writer! Let them see you writing notes, cards or letters to friends or relatives, a shopping list, an article for a magazine or maybe a story or poem for them to enjoy. Let your children see that you are not perfect! Making changes and editing what you write is a natural part of writing.
- Let your child write their own Christmas cards, thank you letters, cards or e-mails to friends or relatives, invitations to a party, a list of things they need to take on holiday, or a record of football results.
- Play word-building games like Boggle or Scrabble. Games like ‘Guess Who’ can also develop their descriptive vocabulary.
Create silly sentences or tongue twisters using alliteration (a group of words that all begin with the same sound). For example: Silly Sarah slipped on Sam’s salmon sandwiches or Monty Mouse marched merrily to the magic mountain. - Different types and colours of paper, a variety of ‘special’ pens and pencils, envelopes, stampers and various other stationary items can all help to motivate your child to write. Maybe you could even create a special writing corner or area.
- Cut out words from a newspaper or magazine. Can they use the words to write a sentence?
Encourage your child to rehearse their sentence out loud before they write it down.
Always encourage children to punctuate their sentences with a full-stop and capital letter. - Handwriting does not have to be boring! Let children practise writing letters in sand, water or paint, or use white boards or blackboards.
- Pattern books can be fun to do and allow children to practise mark-making. Children can also make letters using playdough, pastry or shaving foam.
- Let children write a small part of your shopping list. Let them be responsible for carrying their list and finding those items when you go to the supermarket.
- Use magnetic letters on the fridge to spell out a message. Encourage your child to write their name, spell words and organise the letters into alphabetical order. Engage with their writing through: – saying what you liked about it – asking where their ideas have come from – asking them to show you where a sentence begins and ends.
KS1 and KS2
- Help your child write a letter to their favourite author. Correspondence can often be sent to an author’s publisher (whose details can be obtained on the internet) who will pass it on.
- When you go on holiday, encourage children to write postcards to friends or relatives. They could record things that you do in a holiday diary which they can share with friends or relatives when they get home.
- After making a cake or doing a craft activity, challenge children to write the recipe or instructions for someone else to use.
- Write an information page or booklet about something they find interesting e.g. spiders, Dr Who, dinosaurs, cats, etc. Draw a picture and label it or write a caption to go with it.
- Encourage your child to learn weekly spellings and graphemes and words containing those graphemes taught each week in phonics alongside those harder to read and spell words! Write the spellings in sentences with accurate punctuation and practise high frequency words and handwriting.
- Provide your child with a comfortable place to work and exciting writing materials. A dictionary and thesaurus would also be useful.
Ask your child what his/her next steps are from time to time and help them work specifically on these (green for growth weekly marking in English will inform the child’s next steps). - Talk through their ideas with them before they start to write, for example, prompt them to think about how they intend to tackle a subject.
- Help them to reflect on their writing, particularly the effect they hoped to have on the reader. For example, is the reader sufficiently prepared for the ending? Have they introduced all the characters?
- Encourage them to read through their work, shaping their sentences for clarity and impact and checking their accuracy.
Integra also provides information for families, helping you at home with your children:
Here are some other helpful videos and tips:
Cressida Cowell - Top writing tips
Developing storytelling skills
Spelling
We use Spelling Shed as our programme for supporting spelling throughout the school. The scheme provides systematic progression for children, alongside online activities to make spelling fun. More information can be found using the link below:
