English
English @ Ashwell Primary School
At Ashwell School, we deliver English starting with the EYFS framework in Nursery and Reception and then moving to Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 National Curriculum Programmes of Study across Years 1 – 6. (Please see below: Year groups on a page and the programmes of study from the National Curriculum).
Please see below for more details about how we deliver each core area.
Phonics @ Ashwell School
At Ashwell School we have adopted the Twinkl Phonics DfE validated programme.
Twinkl Phonics is a DfE validated full systematic, synthetic phonics programme. It contains everything needed to deliver phonics teaching to children from the very beginning of learning to read and write to full fluency. It delivers GPCs in a clear and rigorous way so that skills are built progressively over time, ensuring that children have a secure base from which to develop.
Twinkl Phonics is a scheme based on Letters and Sounds. It follows the same sounds order throughout Nursery and Reception and through the early weeks of Year 1. Teaching of Phase 5 and 6 GPCs and suffixes have been spread out in Twinkl Phonics to give more even coverage throughout Year 1 and 2. This is to ensure that children have ample time to secure new learning before moving on to the next sound. All the sounds covered in Phase 5 and 6 of Letters and Sounds are taught during Levels 5 and 6 in Twinkl Phonics.
Coming Soon:
- Ashwell Phonics Policy
Home Reading: Please refer to our detailed Ashwell parent reading guide below for an in-depth look at reading at Ashwell. This includes lots of tips on how you can support your child with their reading at home.
Reading Scheme: At Ashwell School, we follow the Oxford Owl Reading Scheme. A reading scheme is a series of books that have been carefully written to help children learn to read. When your child is learning to read, it’s important to give them books that are at the right level of challenge. To find out more about this scheme please see: https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/reading-schemes-oxford-levels/
Please also see the Herts for learning progression in reading skills document below for more information on how your child is taught to develop their reading.
Digital Reading Records: At Ashwell we use the online Boom Reader (formally)GoRead Reading App which is a digital reading record. Please see the parent guides below for help with any part of it before contacting your classroom teacher:
Guided Reading: At Ashwell we teach specific reading skills through both whole class and small group (carousel) lessons. All classes from Early Years to Year 6 follow the same teaching style sequence tailored for their year group to ensure the children can move from year group to year group seamlessly and progressively. These lessons incorporate reading skills, including: pre-reading, teacher discussion groups, follow-up tasks, grammar and punctuation skills and a love of reading activities.
Writing: At Ashwell, we believe that every child is a writer. We are passionate about developing every child’s knowledge, motivation and confidence in their writing. We have chosen HFL Education’s ESSENTIALWRITING as the basis of our writing curriculum from Nursery – Year 6. This is an ambitious and progressive writing scheme which provides our children with opportunities and tools to write for a range of specific purposes and authentic audiences. As a result, our children feel inspired and ready to write highquality outcomes within the classroom but also have the knowledge, strategies and confidence to choose to write in their own lives.
New - School writing unit overview can be found in the documents below.
Spellings:
Ashwell School uses the ESSENTIAL spelling resource to teach spellings in KS2 (Years 3-6).
This spelling resource is different to other spelling schemes. It focuses more on the teaching of spelling so that children understand how to apply patterns, strategies and knowledge to other words and not just a list of words given for that week. It also provides links to prior knowledge and tracks back to related objectives so that teachers can give targeted support to children who are not yet able to spell words from their year group programme of study. In short, ESSENTIALspelling empowers children to build words- they are shown how to become spellers for life, rather than remember spellings for a week.
ESSENTIAL spelling follows the cycle of Review, Teach, Practice and Apply.
ESSENTIALspelling places a large emphasis on the Review stage of the teaching sequence. This is not ‘what did we learn last week?’ but instead: “What do we already know that might help us to spell words in this sequence?” The Review session is vital because it gives pupils the chance to build connections between existing knowledge and new knowledge.
The Review section always tracks back to prior learning and the Teach section introduces new learning as well as strategies for tackling spelling. The premise is that unless children are supported towards age-related spellings, their learning gap will grow wider. Every sequence has steps to support the children who have small gaps in their previous learning -as well as those who have not secured the foundations needed for any given sequence.
The Practise section includes activities that can be undertaken independently by children during the lesson or even at home. The emphasis here is on exploration and word building, rather than practising a prescribed list of words.
Then the Apply sections follow a regular pattern of children discussing their learning and spelling words in the context of short dictations.
Overall, this resource is designed so that children can build on prior learning, make connections with existing knowledge and learn strategies that will help them develop their spelling competence. Pupils are encouraged to articulate their learning throughout the sequence. It is through explaining what they have learnt about the patterns and processes of spelling that they will improve their ability to spell accurately.
A key strength of the scheme is the fluid nature of it, rather than being a ‘one-size fits all’ approach. Above all, ESSENTIALspelling is designed to put the joy of teaching and learning spelling back into the classroom!
Handwriting:
At Ashwell, we are very proud of our pupil’s handwriting and take particular care in our handwriting style. We use Letter-join’s on-line handwriting resource and Lesson Planners as the basis of our handwriting policy as it covers all the requirements of the National Curriculum.
Handwriting is a basic skill that influences the quality of work throughout the curriculum. By the end of Key Stage 2 all pupils should have the ability to produce fluent, legible and, eventually, speedy joined-up handwriting, and to understand the different forms of handwriting used for different purposes.
All children take part in several handwriting lessons over a week and some additional core group work as needed. We teach a cursive to continuous cursive handwriting script style from Year 1 – 6.