Pannal Primary School

To be understood and to understand is a key skill which underpins all aspects of learning. Speaking and listening is therefore an essential part of every lesson.

Our children have the opportunity to develop their confidence and vocabulary through this aspect of our curriculum. The development of vocabulary is enhanced by activities in the classroom and the reading of high-quality age appropriate texts. Children have opportunity to share their ideas, express their opinions and views as well as listen to each other.

Speech and language strategies are used to support children with additional needs.

Early Reading and Phonics 

Early Reading and Phonics

At Pannal, we promote a love of reading and a curiosity for language by equipping our pupils with the skills to develop confident and fluent reading.

We enjoy a variety of reading to help our children develop fluency and understanding:

- independent reading

- 1-1 reading to an adult (at least once a week) in KS1

- story/book sharing daily at snack time in KS1

- home time story in EYFS

- from Year 2 upwards, whole-class guided reading

- reading buddies with older children

At Pannal, we follow a systematic approach to the teaching of phonics using Bug Club Phonics planning and teaching software. Children implement their learning through reading phonically decodable books resulting in children learning to read and providing foundations for future learning.

Phonics is taught daily in discrete lessons throughout EYFS and KS1 where existing knowledge is revisited and built upon.

Phonics is taught in a mixture of whole-class and group teaching across EYFS and KS1 where children are taught age-related expectations and where differing needs of children and cohorts are met. As ‘Pannal Shaped’ colleagues, we appreciate the need to adapt our teaching to best suit the needs of our year groups’ priorities and differing cohorts we may encounter each academic year. The need to adapt our teaching to suit children’s knowledge and understanding has increased as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic disruption. Our priority is to ensure children have secure phonic knowledge and the necessary skills to support them in accessing the next stage of the curriculum.

We assess and track children’s phonetic development throughout EYFS and KS1 and we use this information to inform our teaching and provide additional support. At the end of Year 1, all children take a National phonics screening assessment and any child who does not achieve the pass mark will receive additional support and re-take the screening at the end of Year 2. Children’s progress in phonics is closely monitored in EYFS and KS1 and this is continued into Year 3 and KS2. In KS2 Barrington Stokes phonic books are used.

Please find below a video demonstrating how to pronounce ‘pure sounds’ and some documents outlining the vocabulary and strategies used to support the teaching of phonics. At the bottom of the page, there are some slides which can be used to help practice the recognition of phonemes and graphemes and the reading of words.

Oxford Owl: How to pronounce pure Sounds

Reception

Year One

Year Two

Progress in reading

Teachers and parents work in partnership to teach and help the child to practice reading. We encourage parents of older children to continue sharing books together; reading to children of all ages has huge benefits. Younger members of our school read with older children bringing our school community together. 

Rhymes and Phonically decodable reading books are used at first. Children then progress through the coloured book bands in order to read a wide range of books and secure fluency and comprehension before moving onto the next level. 

Children are taught through a variety of strategies including small group and whole-class activities where the focus is on comprehension skills. Children use increasing difficult texts as they progress through the school to improve these skills.  

We formally record a child’s reading fluency three times a year and other reading skills. Children are monitored as they progress through the book bands. For children who need extra support with their reading, they are listened and supported with their reading more regularly by an adult. In addition, we have a range of reading books to support our readers to aid confidence. These include an intervention scheme of phonically decodable reading books used throughout KS1 and 2 and high-interest low ability texts for KS2 readers.  

We take part in World Book Day and our older pupils take part in a Shakespeare workshop. 

If you need ideas for books for your children to read. There are two links below to help.

A list of recommended books by age

Booktrust - lists by theme

We aim to offer a high quality education in English that will teach our children how to communicate effectively through writing and speaking.

Our writing curriculum is organised around audience and purpose. Children are taught to write in a range of styles, including stories, poems, information, letters, newspaper reports and instructions. Much of the writing is linked to something the children have experienced or books they have read. Sometimes the writing is linked to other curriculum areas, such as history or science. We endeavour to provide meaningful writing opportunities for the children.

Short focus activities support skills such as grammar, vocabulary, spelling and punctuation. National curriculum expectations for each year group are planned for and covered through a range of writing

The national curriculum is the foundation of our curriculum. Children are taught the processes of writing from the beginning. The transcription skills (spelling and handwriting) for writing are taught both discreetly and within the writing sessions. Children plan their writing orally and more formally. The drafting process is embedded in the writing stage after which children have the opportunity to evaluate and edit their work. Children have frequent opportunities to read their work aloud. The writing of all our pupils is valued and feedback is given by teachers and other children to help improve a piece of work.

Grammar and punctuation are taught explicitly in discreet teaching sessions as well as linked to a text. In each year group, new Grammar terminology is taught and previous terms are reviewed.

Phonics sessions are taught daily in Key stage 1. In Key stage 2, spelling sessions are three times a week. We follow the Bug Club Phonics progression of phonics in EYFS and Key stage 1. Spellings are organised into sound families (where possible) throughout Key stage 2.

Children’s writing, grammar knowledge and spelling ability are assessed against age related expectations.