English

At Booth Wood Primary School, we strive to develop children who are fully literate, articulate, and prepared for their secondary education and later life. Through engaging lessons, our intent is to foster a love of literacy and language and an enjoyment of learning. We challenge children of all abilities and ensure they make good progress in all areas of the English National Curriculum. Our whole-school approach for reading comprehension, speaking and listening, grammar and writing, is designed to ensure progress for every child. They are encouraged to have a positive growth mind-set and develop the skills of perseverance and resilience. Through reading in particular, pupils are given a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. We celebrate children’s hard work and effort, alongside their successes. They are encouraged to revisit their work, make changes and develop their ideas to ensure they achieve their best. Built on the belief that language should be explored and enjoyed – not just learned – our whole-school approach to English with reading for pleasure at its core and grammar skills are seamlessly woven throughout.

Reading is a multi-strategy approach to understanding the written word. It is not simply the decoding of black marks on the page but involves the ability to read with understanding a wide range of different texts, including fiction, non-fiction, real world texts such as labels, captions, lists and environmental print. Competence in reading is the key to independent learning and therefore the teaching of reading is given a high priority by all staff. Success in reading has a direct effect on progress in all areas of the curriculum and is crucial in developing children’s self-esteem, confidence and motivation.

At Booth Wood our classrooms and school areas provide a print rich environment with a range of texts for the children to encounter. There are opportunities for pupils to experience print around them through classroom notices, labels and signs. These are discussed with the children and take a variety of forms such as single words, phrases and complete sentences. All classrooms have a class library of books which are well organised and easily accessible. All adults are outstanding role models for children in modelling both reading aloud and silent reading. A team approach is crucial to developing a reading culture within the school.

Phonics

In our school, we use the Read, Write Inc. (RWI) Phonics scheme to teach children how to read. Learning to read is the most important things 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 them 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. Years 1 and 2 are very important years in your child’s reading as they are assessed against national standards. Year 1 will sit their Phonics screening check and Year 2 will sit their national Key Stage 1 SATs.

Please access the resources below should you wish to know more. information below provides you with information about RWI and also useful websites and links to use with your child.