English & Reading
Please find here our School Policy for English and the National Framework for English
At Garsington School, we aim to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written words and to develop the love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment and purpose. The effectiveness of English teaching determines the success of the whole curriculum.
Language is cross-curricular and is an essential element of learning in all areas of the curriculum and, indeed, for life. We believe that this is best achieved through exposing children to exciting, rich and varied experiences; to wonderful books and through providing inspiring writing opportunities.
The National Curriculum for English aims to ensure that all pupils:
Read easily, fluently, and with 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.
At Garsington CE Primary School, we use Read, Write, Inc. as our core phonics and reading scheme throughout Key Stage One. Training by nationally recognised instructors has ensured that our teachers and TAs are equipped to deliver this highly effective programme.
As children progress, we use a range of reading schemes. These include Oxford Reading Tree, Treetops, Project X and Rigby Stars.
We begin our reading and writing adventure in the Foundation Stage, where children are introduced to the first letter sounds / phonics and their corresponding graphemes. We use Read Write Inc. (RWI) which is a popular and proven synthetic phonics scheme to teach children the sounds in English, the letters that represent them, and how to form the letters when writing.
RWI includes reading books written using only the letters they have learnt at each level (and a small number of separately taught tricky / Red words) which allows children to quickly feel confident and successful.
Tricky words
In some English words, the spelling of the word doesn’t appear to fit with the phonemes that children have been taught so far. These words are taught as whole words rather than as a combination of sounds.
Tricky words include the, go, said, my, he.
They are also sometimes known as ‘red words’ or ‘exception words‘.
Miss Scaldwell, our Year 2 Class Teacher and Assistant Head, is the school Subject Lead for English. Please visit the class Topic Web pages to find out what each year group is studying in relation to Literacy each term.
