Reading
Whinfield Primary School has developed a curriculum which is ambitious and designed to give all pupils the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life.
In Reading the whole school curriculum has been designed very carefully in conjunction with all staff to ensure that the knowledge and domains (reading skills) are taught in an order which will ensure pupils know more and remember more. The mapping of the reading domains across the school shows clear progression in line with age related expectations.
In Reception, Year 1 and 2 children access daily phonics using the Little Wandle phonics programme. We want every child by the end of Year 2 to be able to decode and read fluently.
In Years 2-6 staff follow a whole class reading approach to teaching children to read and practice the comprehension skills of retrieval, prediction, inference, summarising and comparison. Alongside this vocabulary and the understanding of key words and meanings underpin our reading curriculum.
All pupils are encouraged to achieve their maximum potential and learn the importance of Reading. We develop reading across the curriculum and use our reading skills in subjects like history to read non-fiction texts. We encourage reading for pleasure.
Every class has a dedicated period of time during the day where the teacher will share a story, poem, or book with their class. Virtual author visits, World Book day, celebratory reading events across the year and weekly reading assemblies are part of the programme of events which ensures as a school we put reading at the heart of our curriculum.
A whole school overview is attached to this page detailing our curriculum in Reading.
Name: Mrs D.O’Callaghan
Subject leader for English
Click here to view the Reading overview.
Writing
Whinfield Primary School has developed a curriculum which is ambitious and designed to give all pupils the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life.
In Writing the whole school curriculum has been designed very carefully in conjunction with all staff to ensure that the skills taught are in an order which will ensure pupils know more and remember more. The mapping of the writing skills across the school shows clear progression in line with age related expectations.
Through an engaging, exciting and varied English curriculum, we allow our children to have the opportunity to write in a range of styles with clear understanding of audience and purpose. We appreciate that in order to become independent writers’ children need to be exposed to lots of different reading materials, both fiction and nonfiction. It is imperative vocabulary; authors tone and style are discussed. The children are encouraged to magpie words and ideas from what they have read as well as being encouraged to be creative and add own ideas and style. Separate lessons focused on grammar allow teachers to cover the finer points of the English curriculum so that children can then apply these skills in their writing. Being able to spell correctly and accurately is also an important part of the writing process. If a child can spell well and has good spelling strategies, this will make the writing process easier and more fluid for the child.
In all classes, learning is differentiated in order to give appropriate levels of work to each ability group. Writing is modelled and shared with the children. In UKS2, this includes streaming for grammar and writing lessons so that support can be better tailored to the needs of the children. Where appropriate, groups/individual children are supported by Teaching Assistants. Collaborative learning styles and opportunities for drama and speaking and listening are incorporated where appropriate.
Children are given specific teaching on the purpose and importance of editing in the writing process. All the children have the opportunity to up level and improve their work via editing stations and peer editing.
Children are taught to produce clear, well formed, legible writing that is consistent and neat in appearance. Teachers have high expectations in the presentation of work in all areas of the curriculum and monitor this closely. As children master joining and correct formation, the focus is then on writing neatly, consistently and at a reasonable speed. Teachers model correct handwriting at all times (when marking, writing on boards and modelling to children).
Name: Mrs D.O’Callaghan
Subject leader for English
