ENGLISH

FS and KS1

At Leverton, in EYFS the literacy area of learning is included within continuous provision and gives children opportunities to develop basic skills. In years 1 and 2, writing is taught using elements of the Talk for Writing model which involves talking the text, learning it and children writing their own versions. In the Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1, children are taught reading through a synthetic phonics program: Letters and Sounds.

Nursery: learn phase 1 and 2 of letters and sounds

Reception: Read storybooks and non-fiction books closely matched to their developing phonic knowledge

Take home Phonics storybooks to share

Read with fluency and expression

Work well with a partner.

The program is followed until every child can read fluently, confidently and with understanding. As well as whole group teaching, top up sessions take place to accelerate and consolidate phonics understanding..

By the end of reception the expectation is that all children will be ready to start phases 5 of Letters and Sounds

KS2

In KS2, English is taught using elements of the Talk for Writing model and texts are linked with their topic learning.

All year groups use cursive text for handwriting.

KS2 pupils also participate in weekly spelling lessons and have a weekly spelling test.

Phonics

At Leverton Primary School we use the Letters and Sounds programme to get children off to a flying start with their literacy. Letters and Sounds is a method of learning centred round letter sounds and phonics, and we use it to aid children in their reading and writing. It develops children’s speaking and listening skills and prepares them for learning to read.

Learning to read is the most important thing 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 put our efforts into making sure they develop a love of books as well as simply learning to read. We hold Reading Cafes every term where families are invited to join their children in a Reading session at school.

When using Letters and Sounds the children will:

learn that sounds are represented by written letters

learn 44 sounds and the corresponding letter/letter groups using simple picture prompts

learn how to blend sounds

read lively stories featuring words they have learned to sound out

show that they comprehend the stories by answering questions.