English Curriculum at Anglesey

 At Anglesey Primary Academy, English, the teaching of English is the foundation of our curriculum. Our main aim is to ensure every child becomes primary literate and progresses in the areas of spoken language, reading and writing.  As part of Lift Schools, we share the common vision that: 

Through an immersive journey, our pupils will build their 

knowledge, skills and passion for language

At Anglesey, we believe that the three strands of the language curriculum – spoken language, reading, and writing – are interwoven. Spoken language is the basis for literacy development, particularly in the early primary years. Children need oral language skills in order to be proficient in reading and writing and they need to be proficient readers in order to further develop their oral language and writing skills. We ensure that there are plenty of opportunities for children to talk, share experiences and explain their thinking. We use Read, Write, Inc. for the teaching of phonics across EYFS and Year 1, which enables children to develop knowledge of sounds and letters, ensuring they have opportunities to read at their phonic phase. This is accompanied by lots of listening to and sharing stories, rhymes, songs and poems and retelling familiar stories in their own words. We also try to activate prior knowledge and provide experiences so that children have the knowledge they need to understand what they can decode.  We follow the National Curriculum for the teaching of English. 

During English lessons, through using high-quality texts, immersing children in vocabulary rich learning environments and ensuring a carefully planned mastery approach to the English curriculum, we aim to enable all learners to develop a love of reading, creative writing and purposeful spoken language. We use Ark English Mastery  as a basis for our English curriculum.  English at Anglesey Primary Academy is not only a daily lesson but is at the cornerstone of the entire curriculum.  It is embedded within all our lessons and we will strive for a high level of English for all. 

At Anglesey our values run through the curriculum. 

Reading at Anglesey

To ensure our children read with skill we:


To ensure our children read with passion we:

Home Reading and Rocket Readers

We utilise a range of books from different publishers for our Home Reading Books. All books in EYFS and KS1 (Year 1 and 2) are organised by Phonic Phases so that children are reading books that match their phonic ability. Although books will also have a colour band, children will bring home books to read that match their current phonic phase of learning. Your child should be able to use their phonic knowledge to decode the words and read the books they bring home. If you have any concerns, please speak to your child's class teacher. Children will also have the opportunity to bring home a library book, from our school or classroom library, for pleasure - this is a book that the children individually select and may not be matched to their current phonic phase. Please enjoy time with your child reading their library book to them. 

All children are expected to bring their reading diaries into school daily. 

As an incentive for reading at home children can earn badges through the Rocket Readers scheme. Pupils will be awarded a different coloured badge every twenty-five times they read with a family member at home.

Pupils cannot receive more than 1 read each calendar day (e.g. if they have their diary signed twice on one day, it still only counts as 1 read).

If pupils read every day throughout the academic year, they can become exclusive members of the Reading Star Club and receive a reward for reading 300 times during the year! If children read every day for the whole year they will have 322 reads. 

Reading Documents

Writing at Anglesey

We us Ark English Mastery as the basis of our writing curriculum. As part of each English unit of work, teachers plan the spoken language, reading and writing objectives children need to achieve.  Teachers decide on the final writing outcome and 'plan backwards' from that to ensure children build the knowledge, skills and understanding they need to confidently create an independent piece of writing.  Teachers also plan opportunities for children to 'publish' some of their final written outcomes, which lead to their work being displayed, shown to another class, shared with parents, made into a book for another year group to enjoy or being shared on our school website.  We also have planned writing opportunities across the curriculum to further develop writing opportunities but also consolidate the knowledge that has been learnt over each unit.

Handwriting

Letter-join

We are now part of the Letter-join handwriting scheme and any of our pupils wishing to practise their handwriting at home can now log in to the Letter-join website on iPads and tablets as well as desktop and laptop computers. There you will find the same, easy-to-use handwriting resources as we use at school. You can login by clicking on the link opposite.

How to log in to Letter-join

DESKTOP AND LAPTOP LOG-IN

Simply go to www.letterjoin.co.uk 

and log in, using the Desktop log-in boxes, with these details:

User name: eg4964 

Password: home

IPAD AND TABLET LOG-IN

Go to www.letter-join.co.uk, select the Tablet Login button and log in using these details:

User name: eg4964 

Swipe code (starting at top left):

 Once logged-in, you will be able to watch how to form all the letters of the alphabet using the same style that we use at school. You can then trace over the letters and words on your tablet and print out the worksheets from your PC for real handwriting practice. 

Writing Documents

Spellings

At Anglesey we follow the No Nonsense Spelling programme from Y2 to Y6. The No Nonsense Spelling programme is a comprehensive yet accessible progression in the teaching of spelling. The focus of the programme is on the teaching of spelling, which embraces knowledge of spelling conventions – patterns and rules; but integral to the teaching is the opportunity to promote the learning of spellings, including statutory words, common exceptions and personal spellings.

 The programme is designed to meet the requirements of the 2014 National Curriculum with clear progression through blocks of teaching units across each  year from Y2 - Y6. 

No Nonsense Spellings Teaching Sequence

The programme has been written broadly following a teaching sequence for spelling, whereby each new concept is taught, practised and then applied and assessed. Frequently there is also a ‘Revise’ session before the teaching session. A typical teaching sequence is as follows:

Updated September 2023