Skip to content ↓

English

Phonics and Early Reading at Staplegrove Church School

We teach phonics using the 'Read, Write Inc.' scheme. The school is supported by the team at Ruth Miskin through training and development support to monitor the progress and attainment of children. You can find out more about 'Read, Write Inc.' here.

Children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 are taught phonics daily, working in groups based on the sounds that they know and what sounds they need to learn next. Children are assessed half-termly so that we closely track their progress and ensure they are working within the correct group.

Where children require additional support with their phonics learning, we use the 'Read, Write Inc.' scheme's intervention programme.

Children are sent home with books which match the sounds that they are learning. This enables them to consolidate the learning that they have completed in school. We ask that parents read with their child 5 times a week in order to support with this.

Reading at Staplegrove Church School

In Key Stage 2, we teach reading through a daily whole-class reading lesson. We use the 'VIPERS' approach, which develops children's understanding of key reading skills - understanding Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation, Retrieval and Summarising. Children work with their class teacher to read a text and then apply their VIPERS skills to deepen their understanding of the text.

We begin to develop the skills and understanding of VIPERS to children in Early Years and Key Stage 1 through whole-class book talk sessions.

When children have completed the 'Read, Write Inc.' programme, typically at the end of Year 2, they become free readers. This means that they are able to choose their own reading books. We use the Accelerated Reader programme to monitor children's progress in reading and ensure that they are reading books of an appropriate difficulty.

More detail about our approach to reading can be found in our 'Reading at Staplegrove' document, below.

Our approach to teaching reading at Staplegrove Church School

Recommended Books for Parents

Writing at Staplegrove Church School

At Staplegrove Church School, we aim for writing to exploit cross-curricular links wherever this is possible.

Children start writing from Reception class, working in focused groups and writing during in their continuous provision. Sequences of writing lessons are structured in the same way across Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 so that children experience consistency. Children will always develop an understanding of the features of a genre of writing and practise these skills before they produce their own piece of extended writing.

Children are given opportunities to edit and publish their final pieces of writing, with consideration always given to the audience and purpose.

Our approach to teaching writing at Staplegrove Church School

Useful websites: