English

All children are taught English discreetly daily; this includes spoken language, reading and writing.

Spoken Language

Verbal skills are assessed for all children as they progress through the school. We encourage all children to become articulate and considerate in their use of language across the curriculum. Opportunities to develop these skills are included within the curriculum through drama, show and tell activities and English.

As a Voice 21 school, we teach the children the skills of speaking and communication from an early age. Developing learners who can reason together, have the vocabulary to express their knowledge and understanding is paramount to their future success.

Reading

Regular reading, with its twin aspects of word decoding and comprehension, takes place throughout the school, when the children are taught specific reading skills. Stories are read to the children in whole class groups suited to their ages. All Children have an individual reading book for reading homework, and are heard to read in school by an adult regularly and frequently in the younger classes. We encourage children to enjoy reading. We celebrate World Book Day in school and organise fun activities to encourage good reading habits.

Every classroom has a reading corner to encourage a love of reading.

Each class has a whole class reading book per term which is read together with the adults. These quality texts will allow the children to build their experiences and by the end of key stage 2 they will have read a range of quality texts – both classic and modern.

Explicit reading sessions teach and model life skills to comprehend a range of texts: vocabulary choice; retrieving information; questioning the text further; making connections with life experiences, other books, films and stories they know; summarising information that they have read.

Phonics

The school follows Sounds Write: a high-quality programme to teach all children to read and write in the most efficient and effective way.  

From when the children arrive in Reception, phonics is explicitly taught daily, following a researched and proven method. 

This continues with daily phonics sessions in year 1 and in year 2. Children are given reading books to take home in which they can practise their decoding skills. 

Writing

The writing curriculum at Higham-on-the-Hill Primary School is designed with the learners at the heart, ensuring that they have many opportunities to flourish and succeed in all areas of writing. Writing, as a lifelong skill, must allow children to share thoughts, ideas and feelings. 

From when the children arrive in Reception, they are encouraged to learn to write through a process of drawing, scribbling, tracing letters, and eventually writing letters and words. They also learn to see how sounds become words.  

Spelling

In Key Stage 2 (years 3 – 6), a rigid cycle is followed to ensure that children are taught how to spell correctly: methods of learning including “unpicking” tricky words, learning about prefixes and suffixes; learning about where a word comes from and how this affects its spelling; homophones (words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings); plus a list of words that are a statutory requirement.  

Spelling sessions happen as a part of a writing cycle, part of a foundation subject and discretely.  

Homework gives further opportunities to practise and embed spelling patterns.  

Extended Writing Cycles

Children are introduced to different genres of writing: both to entertain and to inform. All writing cycles begin by looking at an example of a genre of writing: this clarifies the reason for learning and the audience that the text will address.  

This is followed by several weeks practising and becoming experts in writing certain sentence types. This overlearning allows the children to flourish in their extended writing. Interwoven into these weeks are recall activities on prior learning including correct grammar terminology and use of a range of punctuation.  

Each cycle finishes by the composing and presenting of three texts: one guided by the adult and two independent writes. These independent writes are often shared and celebrated with an audience.  

Handwriting

Presentation and handwriting should reflect the pride that our children feel in their work, and as a school we want to enable our children to present their thoughts and work efficiently and neatly.  

Mark making and letter formation is encouraged from reception upwards. Children are taught to form their letters following pre-cursive letter formation so that the transition to cursive writing is smooth.  

Handwriting sessions in classrooms are delivered explicitly and as a part of the wider curriculum. Children are given opportunities to apply their skills. Spelling tests and handwriting activities are carried out regularly. Children with legible, joined handwriting and using a 'tripod' grip, are granted a pen license which allows them to write in pen.