English
Reading at Epsom Downs
Early Years Foundation Stage
Language and literacy activities are built into the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum and are an integral part of all learning alongside personal, social and emotional development and physical development. Activities such as singing, story-telling, craft and outdoor learning help to reinforce development in these skills and increases every child's understanding of the world around them.
Phonological awareness and rhyming activities, singing and listening to stories are considered essential for children’s literacy development. Letters and Sounds, phase 1 is introduced through rhyme time and stories with children. Core rhymes and stories are a feature of the literacy learning in the Foundation stage and offer rhyme, rhythm and repetition; prompt cards and prop boxes are being developed to ensure an environment rich in language and words. This feature extends into year 1. Practitioners know how important stories are and take great pleasure in reading stories to children (individuals and groups). In the summer term, Nursery are introduced to the phonemes through our RWI scheme and this continues into Reception, where children will read books using their phonics knowledge.
Key Stage One and Key Stage Two
Read, Write, Inc
Read, Write, Inc is the programme we use to help children learn to read and spell sounds in words. The books they read link to the sounds that they know. Children in certain year groups will be bringing home Read, Write, Inc Book-Bag books. Children so enjoy the opportunity to share a book with an adult that they know or love.
The reading expectation at Epsom Downs is that children in Rainbow Unit and KS1 will read for 10 minutes a day; those in KS2 will read for 15 minutes a day. Daily reading needs to be recorded in this planner with a comment and signature.
Phonics:
Read Write Inc. Phonics is a whole-school approach to teaching literacy for children aged 4 to 9 that creates fluent readers, confident speakers and willing writers. Interactive lessons full of partner work, role-play and drama integrate phonics with comprehension, writing, grammar, spelling, vocabulary and handwriting. Your child will be re-assessed in reading every 6 to 8 weeks to track his/her progress.
Spelling:
Read Write Inc. Spelling is a 15-minute-a-day programme for Years 2 to 6. Using a proven approach underpinned by phonics, fast–paced lessons and an online subscription, Read Write Inc. Spelling prepares children for the higher demands of the statutory spelling assessments in England. Your child will be assessed in weekly tests throughout the year.
Fresh Start:
Read Write Inc. Fresh Start is a catch-up and intervention programme with proven results for 9 to 13-year-olds still learning to read. A proven pedagogy and step-by-step approach gives students the skills to read accurately and fluently with good comprehension, to spell correctly and compose their ideas for writing step-by-step.
Read Write Inc. parent information
Whole Class Guided Reading:
Guided reading is planned for weekly by class teachers, using high quality core texts, many that match our wider curriculum. Texts have been chosen to inspire, engage and excite our children across a range of genres. The language within our core texts is rich and varied, exposing children to high quality sentence types, which we firmly believe also supports their writing. Guided reading sessions comprise the following:
- Vocabulary analysis and 1st read – teachers choose 6-8 adventurous words that the children will encounter in the passage. These will be defined, discussed and, where possible, have actions assigned to them (to aid memory recall). These ‘Star’ words are then read in context within the passage. The 1st read is where the teacher models exemplary reading aloud, with expression and dynamism, often exploring themes and encouraging thoughtful discussion to ensure all children have understood the sense of the passage.
- Fluency read – teachers use the same passage from the previous day and conduct a session where fluency is the key. Teachers model exemplary reading aloud – again, with expression and control, but this time, the children will ‘echo-read’ the same passage to practise fluency and confidently reading aloud. Teachers may read the narrative sections of a passage and ask the children to read the speech of a character aloud. Words may be be analysed, spelling patterns acknowledged and author skills discussed, all the time, focusing on the effect of these on the reader. Every child has his/her own copy of the text so that access to the text is for all.
- Comprehension – teachers create a series of questions based on the focus passage covering a wide range of domains: retrieval, inference, deduction, summarising, predicting, word-choice and clarification skills. These questions will have varying answer types, to expose children to a varied range of ways to prove comprehension: tick boxes, numbering statements, finding and copying direct quotes, ordering events and short/longer answer responses. The teachers have a live-marking session where answers will be discussed and any adjustments made so that children fully understand the best way to prove their understanding.
- Extract reading – this session focuses on an extract that has been specifically chosen at the level of the children. It is an opportunity to expose children to a range of genres and text types (including non-fiction or graphic novel) in order to provide a wide range of subjects or topics to discover. Extracts often link to other curriculum subjects, but they may also be stand-alone extracts chosen for their interesting subject matter. Again, children answer comprehension questions about the text to prove their understanding.
Reading for pleasure:
We passionately advocate reading for pleasure. We have a superb, well-stocked library with a huge range of literature: contemporary and classic fiction, non-fiction, graphic novels, diversity and inclusion and picture books. We also have a wide selection of book-banded books aimed at readers of all levels. Children will go into the library frequently to change their reading books to take home to share and classes plan library sessions where children read for pleasure together in the calm environment of our reading tent. We have a yearly Book Week which is a much-anticipated week of fun based on a chosen text. Parents are invited in to read as families during this week and teachers also plan paired reading sessions, where children of mixed year groups share books together. We have very strong links with a local care home – Rosebery Manor where we take some children to read to the elderly residents. This is a lovely opportunity to share our love of reading with our wider community. We have the Scholastic Book Fair in several times a year where children can buy from a wide range of books. Funds raised from these fairs provide hundreds of pounds-worth of free books for our school.
Individual reading:
Every week, each teacher/ TA in the Early Years and Key Stage 1 hears each child read. This is recorded in home learning planners with targets recorded accordingly. Parents are supported to read with their children at home through the use of regularly changed school books, home-school communication in home learning planners and newsletter updates. TAs are also deployed effectively to support children’s reading. Throughout KS2, children are given opportunities to read to an adult or independently. Children who are reading at a level below their age-related expectation will be listened to more frequently to support their fluency and comprehension.
IDL Spelling:
The IDL Literacy Intervention is a speaking-computer-based multi-sensory system which supports learners to increase their reading and spelling ages. Individual children will be given a login for this programme if s/he needs to practise. Your child’s login is in his/her planner.
Writing
Our writing approach across the school is called ‘I Am A Clever Writer’ (IAACW). It is an approach based on the key skills children need to learn in each year group and has explicit progression so that these key skills are thoroughly embedded and built upon year-on-year. These key skills are always visible in the classroom so that children know explicitly what makes them a ‘Clever Writer’.
Our Working Walls always support our writing by displaying key elements of our learning throughout the week.
Every class has a set of high-quality core books that cover a variety of genres and topics – always linking to our wider curriculum. These genres also include picture books, poetry, non-fiction texts and film clips or shorts. All have been carefully chosen to stimulate interest, passion, creativity and scope for teaching or embedding the specific key skills.
Text and media examples across the school:
Teachers use these resources to write a ‘model example’ text which is shared with the children to start the week. The key skills within the model text are discussed and the children are introduced to high quality, advanced vocabulary (Star Vocabulary), often assigning actions to help define them. The model text is always ambitious and challenging, but accessible to all our learners.
Every day, with each piece of writing, teachers and TAs are live-marking. Children are being exposed to instant feedback as they write. Adults have important conversations with children about how well they have used a skill, but they also discuss improvements that need to be made to ensure essential skills are used correctly. Basic skills, handwriting and spellings are always a focus. By using the live-marking approach, teachers are immediately aware of how to move the learning forward and children can experience bespoke learning, as feedback is tailored to their immediate needs.
Our units of writing are usually one or two weeks long and the expectation is that children will write every day. Not only will children write every day – they will have resources prepared (if necessary) to ensure that they are independent writers, no matter what their ability. All children are able to be successful with the IAACW approach.
The week finishes with a ‘Star Write’ – a final piece of extended writing showing all the skills that have been taught or embedded during the week. There is always great excitement on ‘Star Write’ day as children are very keen to showcase their ‘Clever Writer’ skills, with many pieces being displayed around the school and with children sharing their successes.
See examples below of Star Writes across the school, from the start of our writing journey in Reception through to Year 6:
Our IAACW approach is fostering a love of writing across the school allowing our children’s creativity to flourish and their confidence to soar as they become adept at using their tools to make them real-life writers.
Handwriting Formation Upper Case
Handwriting Formation Lower Case
Common exception words and statutory word lists:
In line with the new curriculum, year group spellings have been split into half termly tests. Each list is a focus within the class for a half term and is sent home to parents and accessible on the website. For years 2 to 6 the link to this list is at the top of this page.
Year 1 & 2 Common Exception Words
Statutory National Curriculum Spellings
