Peterchurch Primary School

English

Reading 

At Peterchurch Primary School, we believe that every child should have the opportunity to become a confident, fluent reader. We want pupils to develop a love of reading, through exploring a wide range of texts and genres, and to be able to discuss different authors and books; sharing their favourite with adults and their peers.

By creating reading rich environments and celebrations across the school year, we want to instil a love of reading in all children. Using engaging texts in Guided Reading sessions, English lessons and in learning across the curriculum, children will be exposed to a range of genres and styles.  

We aspire to enable all children to: 

  • enjoy reading across a range of genres
  • be able to succeed in reading lessons
  • use a range of strategies for decoding words, using their phonics learning as a basis
  • have a good knowledge of a range of authors
  • Learn new vocabulary and gain creative ideas from fiction texts.
  • After listening to inspiring stories, transfer ideas into their own writing and be motivated to use higher level vocabulary. 

We understand the importance of parents and carers in supporting their children to develop their word reading and comprehension skills, so we encourage a home-school partnerships to enhance the skills being taught in school

 Writing 

As a school we have adopted "The Write Stuff" by Jane Constantine to bring clarity to the mechanics of writing.  "The Write Stuff" follows a method called "Sentence Stacking" which refers to the fact that sentences are stacked together chronologically and organised to engage children with short, intensive moments of learning that they can then immediately apply to their own writing.  An individual lesson is based on a sentence model, broken in to three chunks:

  1. Initiate section – a stimulus to capture the children’s imagination and set up a sentence.
  2. Model section – the teacher close models a sentence that outlines clear writing features and techniques.
  3. Enable section – the children write their sentence, following the model

     

    "The Write Stuff" uses three key areas for writing: 

     

    The FANTASTICs which are an acronym that summarise the ideas of writing.
    The GRAMMARISTICs is a classroom tool that enables the teacher to drive forward key grammar learning.
    The BOOMTASTICs which helps children capture 10 ways of adding drama and poetic devices to writing in a vivid visual.

     

     Each year group will aim to complete two writing units per half term including both a fiction and non-fiction or poetry unit. Teachers will also plan separate one of sessions for writing using a writing stimulus to develop children’s love for writing, allowing further opportunities for their imagination to shine and to provide extra opportunities for independent writing

    Spelling

www.spellingshed.com EYFS and Year One will be taught spelling using the phonics program ‘Bug Club’. From Year 2, children transition to using the Spelling Program Spelling Shed. Each child will be given a unique log in, where they will be able to access and practise their weekly spellings through interactive online games. Children will be given a 15min lesson to introduce the new spellings each week. Full data tracking allows teachers to see at a glance how often children are practising and view their progress and attainment, providing intervention when necessary.