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At Semley CEVA Primary School, we believe in a holistic approach to teaching English. We aim to develop our children’s love of literature by nurturing a widespread love of reading for pleasure and basing our teaching of the English curriculum on a rich variety of high-quality texts. Language is celebrated in all classrooms, where children are immersed in a communication enabling environment full of rich vocabulary. 

Our children are immersed in a story based English curriculum which is based on high quality texts carefully chosen by their class teachers. These books are selected not only to engage the children but also to model key reading and writing objectives. Teachers select books by authors the children already know and love and also use this opportunity to introduce new storytellers to them. The books chosen allow the children to learn how to develop their writer’s voices in a wide range of genres which are mapped out on our Semley English Curriculum Overview. Our bespoke English curriculum is written so that our children are taught the National Curriculum English objectives in a stimulating manner and through real authors. Our classes experience a ‘hook’ to launch each new English unit which is designed to excite, inspire and intrigue them. This may be a real or staged experience, a drama activity or an opportunity to explore the local area. Each unit focuses on two or three key grammar, spelling, punctuation or vocabulary skills which support the fiction or non-fiction genre being taught. The children have opportunities to practice these grammar skills and then apply them in short burst writing pieces. They also have the opportunity to deepen their understanding of character and motivation through drama activities.

Throughout each unit, the children return back to their key text to see examples of the grammar skills they are learning in a real text (book look) and to absorb the vocabulary of a story teller or a non-fiction writer. Visual literacy (film clips, picture books etc.) and real experiences (drama workshops or a linked activity) will also add to the richness of our English curriculum. These grammar skills will be combined for their Final Writing Outcome which will be modelled clearly in the main text of unit. Each English unit is personalised by the teachers to ensure their class follows the Reading and Writing skills progression for their year groups. Where necessary, teachers support individual or groups of children by including teaching objectives from the previous year which need to be prioritised before covering their year groups’ objectives. Writing is also celebrated in all the foundation subjects. Each term, the children will write a developed piece of writing in response to an experience in a foundation subject or as an opportunity to showcase their learning. This gives the children the opportunity to talk and write as historians, geographers, scientists, theologians, designers and artists as they progress through our school. Children who are reading and writing at greater depth will have opportunities to develop a mastery of their year group’s English curriculum objectives. As well as practising the greater depth SPaG objectives, they will receive additional writing challenges such as being asked to  write from a different perspective, style or with a change of formality. We use a variety of methods to give immediate feedback during our English lessons. We also assess each short burst piece of writing against the key grammar, vocabulary, spelling or punctuation skill being practised. Where appropriate, we formally assess a non-fiction and fiction writing outcome for each child every term. These pieces help inform our judgement of the progress our children are making and their current attainment in Writing.

Every opportunity is taken to nurture a love for reading for pleasure at Semley School. Each class has a welcoming reading corner where children can independently browse and enjoy high quality fiction and non-fiction books. Teachers and children enjoy recommending stories to each other and choosing class books together. A highlight of the Semley year is World Book Day which forms the centre point of a week of reading celebrations including a costume parade and a special evening called ‘Books at Bedtime’. We take great care in helping the reading fluency of all our children progress – from reception to Year 6. We have developed our own Semley School levelled reading scheme which includes engaging books from a wide range of new and exciting authors and publishers and includes books which are high interest for all ages. All children are heard to read regularly by their teachers which ensures they are all reading at a level which is appropriate to their fluency and which also develops their comprehension skills. This allows all children to be supported and challenged in their reading on a personal basis. Having a whole school reading scheme has the additional benefit that when our year 6s leave for year 7, their reading level feeds directly into the secondary school reading programmes - many of whom also use levelled reading schemes. Each class teacher closely monitors the reading progress of all the children in their class and regularly identifies the lowest 20% of their class for extra reading support as Priority Readers. These children receive additional individual reading time on a regular basis to help boost their fluency and comprehension.

Within English lessons, children receive a weekly reading comprehension session which is either linked to the key English text they are reading or is an opportunity for them to practise key reading skills which are important for the genre they are currently being taught. These objectives are carefully chosen from our Reading Progression document and ensures a full coverage of the National Curriculum requirements. Throughout the school, we use the VIPERS comprehension question based approach to focus on the key comprehension skills of Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation, Retrieval, Sequence or Summarise. Teachers monitor the children’s progress by hearing them read individually and against the reading objectives taught in comprehension lessons. This information is then used to make a formal judgement of the children’s progress and attainment against the national expectations for reading each term.

Phonics

From their very first days as Wrens, our children follow the Unlocking Letters and Sounds systematic synthetic phonics programme. This follows the progression of the 2007 Letters and Sounds framework, with the addition of some KS1 National Curriculum objectives.

Through UL&S children will learn the 150+ graphemes that are represented by the 44 phonemes of the English language along with common exception words (CEWs) in a planned, progressive way. This is achieved through daily phonics lessons, reading practice using fully decodable books matched to the child’s phonic knowledge and daily handwriting practice. 

We begin teaching phonics in the first few weeks of term 1 in Reception and children make rapid progress in their reading journey. Children begin to learn the main sounds heard in the English Language and how they can be represented, as well as learning ‘Common Exception’ words for Phases 2, 3 and 4. They use these sounds to read and write simple words, captions and sentences. Children leave Reception being able to apply the phonemes taught within Phase 2, 3 and 4. Please find a copy of the Phase 2 ‘Actions, Images and Letter Formation’ document below.

In Year 1 through Phase 5a, b and c, they learn any alternative spellings and pronunciations for the graphemes and additional Common Exception Words. By the end of Year 1 children will have mastered using phonics to decode and blend when reading and segment when spelling. In Year 1 all children are screened using the national Phonics Screening Check. 

In Year 2, phonics continues to be revisited to ensure mastery of the phonetic code and any child who does not meet age related expectations will continue to receive support to close identified gaps. Currently, our Year 3 children are also revising phase 5 to ensure that they are secure. For further details please see the Unlocking Letters and Sounds progression document below.

To ensure no child is left behind at any point in the progression, children are regularly assessed and supported to keep up through bespoke 1-1 interventions. These include GPC recognition and blending and segmenting interventions. The lowest attaining 20% of pupils are closely monitored to ensure these interventions have an impact. 

We promote a 'phonics first' approach to reading and in both our guided reading sessions at school, and in the books children take home, texts are very closely matched to a child's current phonics knowledge so that every child can experience real success in their reading.  In the crucial early stages of reading, we use books from Ransom Phonics Reading Stars. These will be closely matched to the children’s phonics ability - meaning they will be already able to read 95% of the words and will achieve real success in their reading. Re-reading books is critical in helping children develop their confidence and fluency. Accordingly, we will only be changing books for children who are still on the UL&S reading scheme when the books have been read and enjoyed three times. When the children have completed the UL&S reading scheme and have progressed beyond decodable texts, they will move onto our banded reading scheme which runs all the way through the school and contains a wide selection of fiction, non-fiction and poetry texts for the children to enjoy allowing them to become avid, expert readers.

Handwriting

We believe that it is essential for children to develop a natural and legible handwriting style which will enable them to write effortlessly and be able to concentrate on the content of their writing. Handwriting is built into the Unlocking Letters and Sounds lessons and also is taught as a discrete lesson in all classes. We use the UL&S letter formation and begin to teach the children to join cursively when they are ready in year 1. 

Spelling

Unlocking Letters and Sounds also gives our children a fantastic start to their writing by teaching them the 150+ graphemes that are represented by the 44 phonemes of the English language along with common exception words (CEWs) in a planned, progressive way. We finish the scheme by Christmas in year 2 and then the children  start their discrete spelling lessons using a research-driven spelling program called SCODE. SCODE is a dyslexia-friendly system which teaches children the advanced English phonics code, engages them the etymology of the English language and utilises the latest research into reducing the load on working memory. We recognise that some children find learning spelling rules more challenging than others, and so, some children will first need to ensure they are secure with the words that come up most frequently in the English language - these form our Tricky Word List One and Tricky Word List Two which are attached in the document section below.

Please click here to watch some of our super star Robins and Doves show you how to say the PHASE 2 sounds.

Please click here to watch some of our super star Robins and Doves show you how to say the Phase 3 sounds.

HOW WE SAY LETTER SOUNDS

One of the most important ways to help your child learn phonics and begin to read is to support them with pronouncing their letter sounds and blends of letters correctly. If you click on THIS LINK, it will demonstrate how we say each letter sound. Essentially do not add 'uh' at the end of each letter sound!