English at Oakworth
We firmly believe that reading and writing cannot be separated, and they intrinsically link to each other.
Teaching of English at Oakworth is taught daily in a discrete lesson, as well as being an integral part of our creative curriculum. In our teaching of English, we follow the CLPE Power of Reading approach across school, providing our children with many purposeful opportunities for reading, writing and discussion. Each English unit is taught by studying a high-quality text where writing opportunities are derived from. This approach not only develops children’s love of reading, but ensures that writing is put into context, something which we are highly passionate about.
Here are some of the fantastic books the children have been studying this year.
Reading at Oakworth
Reading is at the heart of our curriculum and the children are encouraged to read widely through our reading scheme and year group libraries. Each child has a book banded reading book that matches their phonetic ability and a chosen library book.
Guided Reading
Our Guided Reading sessions take place daily in class and cover a wide variety of both fiction and non-fiction books. These sessions help to advance the children’s comprehension, inference and retrieval skills.
Reading for Pleasure
Each week, we spend time reading for pleasure in our classrooms. When we read for pleasure, we are able to choose the books we wish to read and enjoy, we can choose to share a book with a peer, choose to read topic books related to the wider curriculum or listen to an adult in the classroom reading aloud. Additionally, all classes have a class novel and adults regularly read aloud to the children to further promote the love of reading.
Library
Each year group has a shared library where the children visit on a regular basis. Books can be borrowed from the library so children can enjoy reading these at home with family and friends.
What is Phonics
‘Phonics is a way of teaching children how to read and write. It helps children hear, identify and use different sounds that distinguish one word from another in the English language.
Written language can be compared to a code, so knowing the sounds of individual letters and how those letters sound when they’re combined will help children decode words as they read.
Understanding phonics will also help children know which letters to use when they are writing words.’
National Literacy Trust, 2020
Phonics at Oakworth
Phonic awareness helps the development of reading by segmenting and blending sounds. We follow the Letters and Sounds phonics programme, with the teaching of phonics beginning in Nursery and predominantly concluding at the end of Year 2, once the teaching of Phase Six is completed.
