English
At Churcham Primary School, we believe that skills in speaking, listening, reading and writing are essential to everyday life. It is vital that children develop well in all of these areas during their time in primary education as it provides them with a strong set of skills as they move into secondary school. The English opportunities we provide, enable the children to express themselves creatively and effectively.
Reading:
At Churcham Primary School, we believe that every child can be a reader. Our aim is that all children are engaged, capable and confident readers that have the knowledge and skills for future learning enabling them to achieve and make sense of the world around them.
We prioritise reading and teaching staff encourage the children to apply their reading skills as they work across the curriculum. Children are encouraged to read regularly at home and are praised for reading to their parents/carers at home.
We follow the ‘Little Wandle’ phonics programme and all children across EYFS and KS1 receive daily phonics sessions. Children in KS2 also access ‘Little Wandle’ daily phonics lessons if they are not yet secure with their phonics. ‘Little Wandle’ is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme. Children are encouraged to sound words out to help them read words, but they are also encouraged to develop their ability to read words from sight and to read fluently with expression.
Children in EYFS/KS1 read in a group situation, three times a week. ‘Big Cat’ phonics books are used in these group reading sessions. KS2 children also have weekly group reading sessions. These group reading sessions enable children to improve their reading skills and comprehension skills in a small group situation. Throughout our group reading sessions, children develop a range of reading skills through the use of ‘VIPERS’. In addition to the group reading sessions, we have trained volunteers/members of staff that listen to readers that we are targeting for more support/challenge.
We also want children to be exposed to a range of books and we want to develop a real love for reading. Our library has recently been developed and is continually being updated. It contains a large range of engaging fiction and non-fiction books. The children enjoy using the library area and the school librarians work hard to keep the library organised.
Writing:
At Churcham Primary School, we are committed to providing a high-quality writing experience that instils a love of writing and explore rich language with our learners. As a whole school family, we are committed to learning, respecting, and growing together—nurturing each child’s unique strengths and celebrating their individual journey.
Our pupils are given the tools to be able to communicate their thoughts, ideas and emotions effectively.
At Churcham Primary School, we adopt ‘The Write Stuff’ scheme – established by Jane Considine – from Reception to Year 6. This scheme brings clarity to the mechanics of writing through immersion in extraordinary vocabulary and clear and concise systems in which the writer can engage their imagination.
Our ‘sentence stacking’ lessons are delivered by breaking the skills up into learning chunks (3) and then breaking down each chunk into sections: initiate, model and enable. Churcham Primary School defines initiate, model and enable as:
Initiate – A stimulus to capture the children's imagination and set up a sentence.
Model - The teacher models a sentence that outlines clear writing features and techniques based on the current learning chunk.
Enable – The children write their sentence following the model and have the opportunity to 'deepen the moment'.
Each learning chunk encourages resourcefulness and resilience and children are challenged to ‘deepen the moment’ which requires them to become an independent learner and draw upon previously learnt skills and apply them to their writing during that chunk.
As well as our core English lessons, the children also have access to handwriting lessons where they focus on how to form and then join the letters correctly. These skills are taught discretely but teachers will make links between these skills in the current English work/across the curriculum.
Spellings
For our weekly spelling lessons, we use ‘Big Spellings’. Big Spellings" is a differentiated spelling programme designed to tailor spelling instruction to each child's individual ability rather than their age. It features phonics-based learning and High Frequency Words (HFWs), progressing from simple sounds and CVC words to more complex vocabulary. The curriculum supports whole-school implementation and promotes independent learning through weekly personalised lists, testing, and initial assessment tools. With its structured progression and inclusive approach, "Big Spellings" helps build strong foundational literacy skills across varied learning levels.
Useful websites:
Phonics:
https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/ -This website will give you some key information on how we teach phonics using the Little Wandle programme.
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/phonics/balloon-phonics-cvc-game -This will help your child to start to identify the initial/middle/end sounds they can hear in words.
https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/resources -These games will help prepare your child for the Year 1 Phonics Screening Assessment.
Reading:
https://www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/-Take a look on here for tips/advice on encouraging reading at home and there are also some great book recommendations.
https://childrens.poetryarchive.org/explore/?theme=131 -A great website to help engage your child with the world of poetry!
https://shop.scholastic.co.uk/reading-spine -This website has a wonderful list of recommended books for your child to read.
https://www.sats-papers.co.uk/ks2-sats-papers/ -Year 6 parents: you can access practice SATS papers online here.
Writing:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/zv48q6f - Fun videos and information given to help children understand subject terminology. The website will also help your child to understand how to construct sentences with correct use of punctuation.
https://ictgames.com/mobilePage/spookySpellings/index.html -This website will help your child to learn to spell the common exception words.
https://www.funenglishgames.com/writinggames/instructions.html -Your child can have a go at completing some writing tasks on this website. It will also help your child to know the difference between the different writing genres.
Please contact the headteacher if you have any questions about how we teach English at Churcham Primary School.