English

Reading, writing, phonics, spelling and speaking and listening are key to success later on in life. That is why they are such important skills at Woodlea.

We encourage the children to foster a love of reading so that even when they leave Woodlea, they have the reading bug!

Reading

To try and encourage all children to read as much as possible, we buy into the Hampshire Library Service. This is a great service which means that the library is always stocked with the most up to date books and that books are changed regularly – so the children will never get bored of the books available in the library.

At playtimes we have our trolleys of books for children to share outside. The children have really been enjoying the books that have been on offer outside – and we always are grateful to our children, parents and carers who kindly donate our outdoor books and magazines.

Reading support at home is crucial and children change their home reading books each week so they have something new to share at home.  We encourage all parents and carers to spend some time each day sharing books and stories. Support from parents makes a critical difference in outcomes for children.

The reading schemes that we currently use are Oxford Reading Tree, Dandelion Readers and Collins Big Cats.  We also build into our schemes a large range of real books featuring a variety of genres and styles that we 'level' using Book Bands.  This way we can ensure every child is offered an appropriate book that will capture their interest and imagination.

Please see our leaflet for ideas on how you can support your child with their reading at home

If you have any questions about reading levels or your child's reading books don't hesitate to contact your child's class teacher.

Phonics

Phonics is a method of teaching children to read using their sounds. They are taught how to recognise the sounds that each individual letter makes, identify the sounds that different combinations of letters make and blend these sounds together to make a word. The children are then able to use this knowledge to ‘de-code’ unfamiliar words. This is the first important step in learning to read.  At Woodlea Primary School children from Reception to Year 2 have a discrete phonics session daily and in Year 3 they will have a phonics session daily until Christmas.  We use PhonicsPlay (www.phonicsplay.co.uk) to support our teaching of Letters and Sounds. Children are encouraged to apply their phonic knowledge to their reading and their writing.

Phonics works best when children are given plenty of encouragement and learn to enjoy reading and books. Parents play a very important part in helping with this. Phonicsplay has free access to a number of games that can be used at home to reinforce what your child has learnt in school. If you would like to know what Phonics Phase your child is working at please do not hesitate to ask your class teacher.

If you would like to find out more about teaching children to read using Phonics please watch these videos ( https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/home/reading-owl/expert-help/phonics-made-easy ). On this website you can also find exemplifications of how each sound is said, ensure you take the time to pronounce the sounds correctly as this is essential for your child’s learning. 

Writing

Writing is given strong emphasis with a great variety of written work taking place through different forms; narrative, creative, descriptive, accounts of experiments etc. We ensure that the children participate in extended pieces of writing on a regular basis within their English lessons as well as through subjects such as History and Geography to ensure they are able to build the strength and stamina needed to be successful writers. Within writing comes handwriting, spelling, vocabulary, grammar and punctuation.  Please see our attached handwriting script to support your child at home to improve their handwriting skills. Please also see below for our spelling leaflet with practical ideas on how to support your child at home with spelling.    

Speaking and listening                  

Speaking and Listening is a very important part of English and takes place in many forms. Children are encouraged to communicate orally with clarity in a variety of situations both within their English lessons as well as in other subjects such as maths where we encourage the children to use their reasoning skills verbally.  Discussion is regularly encouraged so that children have an opportunity to listen to and explore the experience of others. Children are also encouraged to read to teachers, to peers such as their learning buddies, at assemblies and in whole school productions.

 

Here you can find information on how we teach.

 Reading Leaflet        Statutory Word Lists for KS2 (spelling)         Handwriting Style

                            Great Reads KS1                                Challenging Reads KS1

                             Great Reads Y3 & 4                            Challenging Reads Y3 & 4

                             Great Reads Y5 & 6                           Challenging Reads Y5 & 6