English
English @ Ashwell Primary School
At Ashwell School, we deliver English starting with the EYFS framework in Reception and then moving to Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 National Curriculum Programmes of Study across Years 1 – 6. Our delivery of this, is largely supplemented by planning from the Herts for learning suite of materials.
Please see below: Year groups on a page and the programmes of study from the National Curriculum.
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 love of reading activities.
Writing: The children will take part in daily English lessons that cover all areas of writing and grammar. Teachers use the Herts for Learning Long Term Plans as a master guide on what units they need to deliver to their classes to ensure progression in their writing skills. Each teacher then tailors this master long term plan to create their own one for their class based on their current class topics to develop writing units that inspire a love of writing for their children.
New - School writing unit overview can be found in the documents below.
Spellings: At Ashwell we follow our own spelling scheme that has been designed in conjunction with our Herts for Learning English Advisor to ensure progression from Year 1 to Year 6. Your child will be assigned as either a green, yellow or purple speller with specific weekly words to practice. There is fluidity in their group and they will move according to their needs at any point in the year. Each class teacher will send home a highlighted grid of their spelling words each half-term according to their weekly dictation results.
Handwriting: All children take part in handwriting lessons and core group work as needed. We teach a cursive to continuous cursive handwriting script style from Year 1 – 6