English

Our outstanding English Leaders, Mrs Johnson and Mrs Jagger, who focus on Literacy across the school, work with all staff to ensure that standards are high and that all pupils strive to achieve their very best. The focus is always to ensure that children are supported with the skills they need to continue their progress.

Phonics programme

At Ryhall CE Academy we use 'Read Write Inc'. A designated slot in the timetable is reserved daily for this reading and phonics programme. Children are assessed every half term and placed into groups according to their reading ability - with fluidity in grouping to allow for children to be appropriately supported in their reading development.

Children are taught to:

Read and write letters and sounds quickly
Decode new or tricky words effortlessly using their phonic skills
Read with fluency and expression
Understand what they have read
Work effectively with a partner ensuring they are given lots of opportunities to formulate and discuss their ideas
Spell and handwrite easily

Reading and Writing

Reading is vital in developing children’s reading and writing skills. All children across KS1 & KS2 participate in daily Shared Reading lessons which focus on enhancing and developing children’s reading and comprehension skills. In addition to this, Guided Reading takes place in small groups, reading with children of a similar ability. For more information in how you can support your child at home with reading, and how reading is undertaken at Ryhall CE Academy, please view the attached documents below.

Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling (SPAG) has continued to develop as a key focus in the teaching of English. Each year group, irrespective of mixed age teaching, delivers a wide range of specific SPAG skills. These are vital tools which support children to deliver accurate and grammatically sound pieces of writing.

We develop aspiring writers by teaching it daily. The children learn to write for a variety of purposes by writing in different styles such as: recounts; non-chronological reports; narrative; play-scripts etc… The aim is to make lessons purposefully interactive with a real focus on partner talk. Teachers modelling and sharing writing are also key features of lessons. In addition, we ensure that children also have opportunities to write across the curriculum with our focus on cross-curricular themes and activities.

Handwriting

We use the Letter-join handwriting scheme and any of our pupils wishing to practise their handwriting at home can now log in to the Letter-join website on iPads and tablets as well as desktop and laptop computers. There you will find the same, easy-to-use handwriting resources as we use at school.

User name and Password available from the school.

Once logged-in, you will be able to watch how to form all the letters of the alphabet using the same style that we use at school. You can then trace over the letters and words on your tablet and print out the worksheets from your PC for real handwriting practice.

Phonics

We follow the Read Write Inc programme to teach phonics and use a wide range of resources to support our teaching in this area. We use fun rhymes and actions to learn the sounds required for children to develop the necessary skills for reading. These sounds are split into three sets and the children learn a set at a time at their own pace and according to their ability. Rhymes and actions are used to introduce each sound until the children learn to read the sound. The children then move onto reading the sound within a word before moving onto writing the word and using it within context.

The children also learn the common exception words (CEW) for their year group during spelling and phonics sessions.

Phonics is taught every day for 20 minutes as a whole class session. We have found that teaching it as a whole class allows for the skills taught in these sessions to be more transferable to other lessons. Teaching assistants and teachers lead phonics interventions for any children that need extra support or to catch up from a particular session or learning of a specific sound.

When the children reach Key Stage Two, if phonics sessions are still needed, they are taught by both teachers and teaching assistants alongside the spelling program.

During the academic year, beginning in the Autumn Term, we run 'Phonics for Parents' workshops - these are informal sessions which help parents and carers to give the right support to their child in reading at home. We hope you can join us.

Phonics glossary

Phonics Glossary - a guide for parents

Phoneme - The smallest unit of sound. There are approximately 44 phonemes in English. Phonemes can be put together to make words.

Grapheme - A way of writing down a phoneme. Graphemes can be made up from 1 letter e.g. p, 2 letters e.g. sh, 3 letters e.g. igh or 4 letters e.g ough.

GPC - This is short for Grapheme Phoneme Correspondence. Knowing a GPC means being able to match a sound to the correct letters and vice versa.

VC – Vowel (a, e, i, o, u) followed by a Consonant (b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z)

CVC – a word with a vowel, then a consonant, then a vowel e.g. c/a/t = cat

Digraph - A grapheme containing two letters that makes just one sound (phoneme).

Trigraph - A grapheme containing three letters that makes just one sound (phoneme).

Oral Blending - This involves hearing phonemes and being able to merge them together to make a word. Children need to develop this skill before they will be able to blend written words.

Blending- This involves looking at a written word, looking at each grapheme and using knowledge of GPCs to work out which phoneme each grapheme represents and then merging these phonemes together to make a word. This is the basis of reading.

Oral Segmenting - This is the process of hearing a whole word and then splitting it up into the phonemes that make it. Children need to develop this skill before they will be able to segment words to spell them.

Segmenting - This involves hearing a word, splitting it up into the phonemes that make it, using knowledge of GPCs to work out which graphemes represent those phonemes and then writing those graphemes down in the right order. This is the basis of spelling.

Syllable – a unit of pronunciation with one vowel sound with or without surrounding consonants e.g. there is one syllable in step, two syllables in water and three syllables in inferno.

Phonics websites - A guide for parents

Oxford owl: A useful website for parents and teachers. It contains a wide range of e-books and fun games and activities for the children to play.

Phonics Play: school subscriptions are temporarily valid for pupils to use from home - ask your child's class teacher for login details.

Phonics Games - Topmarks

CBeebies - Alphablocks: Watch as the letters of the alphabet tell stories and make words using phonics. Play the learning game, watch clips and print colouring pages.

The School Run: A website designed for parents which gives examples of past papers for the national Phonics Screening Test.

Year 1 Phonics Screening Check

The Year 1 Phonics Screening Check is a national check of children's phonic knowledge that all children in England are required to complete. The check takes place during one week in June.

The check requires children to read a list of forty ‘words’ (some are real and some are nonsense words) to their teacher. The 40 words are divided into two sections – one with simple word structures of three or four letters, and one with more complex word structures of five or six letters. The teacher administering the check with your child will give them a few practice words to read first – including some non-words – so they understand more about what they have to do. Each of the non-words is presented with a picture of a monster / alien, as if the word were their name (and so your child doesn't think the word is a mistake because it doesn't make sense!).This is done 'one to one' in a quiet place and will usually take between 4-9 minutes to complete. The results of the check are reported to parents at the end of Year 1.

What does my child’s score mean?

Your child will be scored against a national standard. A threshold (usually around 32 marks out of 40) is set each year. Children who do not meet the threshold will be provided with extra support in Year 2. They will then take the check again at the end of Year 2 and the result will, again, be reported to parents/carers.

How can I help prepare my child?

You can help your child prepare for their Phonics Screening Check by going over the phonics they’ve learned in Reception and Year 1. Read new books and stories with them where they will be introduced to new words that they’ll have to sound out, and review the phonics sounds and rules.

Spelling

Spelling and word knowledge are key components in the process of learning to read and write. Learning to spell well is extremely useful if we want our children to become confident writers. If they are constantly stopping to think about how words are spelt while they write, it can interrupt the flow of their thoughts, taking them away from what we want them to be thinking about: their choice of words and how they construct those words into sentences that communicate exactly what they want to say.

In the Foundation Stage and Year 1, children are taught to use their phonics knowledge to help them spell by segmenting a word and choosing the grapheme for each sound. For example, tree can be segmented into t-r-ee. They also learn 'tricky red words' such as 'she' by sight and common exception words for years 1 and 2.

From Year 2 to Year 3, children begin to follow a spelling programme, as well as learning the common exception spellings and word lists appropriate for their year group.

At Ryhall, we use No Nonsense spelling resources to support with this. Throughout all written work, children are taught to proof read for errors, use dictionaries to support their spelling, develop mnemonics for aiding memory and learn about how to use etymology and morphology to help with spelling. We also use home spelling lists, word banks, spelling mats and other resources to support the correct application of spelling. Additional teaching is facilitated where required for individuals or small groups.

We would be grateful if you could support your child at home by discussing the meaning and uses of the words in the list, learning to read them and spell them.

Please see the information on No Nonsense Spelling as well as the common exception words for KS1 and spelling lists for KS2.