English Parents Information Evening

Assistant Head and English Subject Leader– Miss Anna LeeEYFS and KS1 Leader – Miss Lucy Courtney-Diggins

Aims of the Session –

• Provide and overview of reading, writing and spelling initiatives and teaching across the whole school –

including brief familiarisation with national expectations.

• Provide guidance to parents on how to support their children at home.

• Provide information on up-coming literacy initiatives and changes.

• Question and Answer Session.

New Primary Curriculum 2014

.

Reading and Reading for Pleasure

"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that

you learn, the more places you'll go.“

Dr Seuss

What do levels look like?Level expectations by year

groupH/O 1

Phonics and Reading in the EYFS and Key Stage 1 at

St. Andrew’s (Barnsbury) C. E. Primary School

EYFS and KS1 Phase Leader: Miss Courtney-Diggins

Where does it start?

The EYFS Development Matters states:• When children are ready provide

regular systematic synthetic phonics sessions. These should be multisensory in order to capture their interests, sustain motivation and reinforce learning.

What do we use at St. Andrew’s to provide regular systematic phonics sessions?

Key things to know about how phonics is taught and how to give your child the best start in reading and writing:

• Phonics is taught every day for 20 minutes at 9.05-9.25 and then applied through all areas of learning where applicable throughout the day

• Letters are taught as the sound that they make – this makes initial reading and writing for children much easier, the names of the letters are told too but not focussed heavily on

• Actions are taught for each new sound to support children remembering each sound and differentiating between sounds in a fun way

Structure of each phonics lesson:

• Recap of sounds previously learnt -what sound is this?-what words begin with this sound?-How do you write this sound? (Formation)

• New sound taught (recommended by Letters and Sounds) with action (recommended by Jolly Phonics)

• Tricky words and High Frequency words recapped and taught through a quick game

• 6 differentiated activities set up for the children to do to apply what they have learnt

Photographs

Activities and Games for parents and carers to take home

Useful games and websites:Programmes available on the London Learning Grid:• Busy things• Espresso• Purple Mash

Useful websites:http://jollylearning.co.uk/overview-about-jolly-phonics/http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/alphablocks/www.foundationyears.org.uk/http://missmernagh.com/tag/tricky-words/

Phonics Screening Test – Year One

What is the phonics screening check?The phonics screening check is a short, light-touch assessment to confirm whether individual children have learnt phonic decoding to an appropriate

standard.It will identify the children who need extra help so they are given support by their school to improve their reading skills. They will then be able to retake the check so that schools can track children until they are able to decode.

  Who is it for?

The screening check is for all Year 1 pupils in maintained schools, academies and Free Schools - and children in Year 2 who previously did not

meet the standard of the check in Year 1.

H/O Two – Sample phonics screening

Parent Reading and support in KS1 and Foundation Stage

Key Stage 2 Reading

• Children encouraged to read for pleasure and to read regularly to an adult at home

• Nothing has greater impact on a child’s performance in English than regular reading

with adults at home and at school. This should be a combination of both being read to and reading with an adult and discussing

the book.

Guided Reading

In Key Stage 1 and KS 2 Guided reading is ‘small-group’ reading instruction designed to provide differentiated teaching

that supports students in developing reading proficiency. The small group model allows key stage 2 children to be taught in a way that is intended to be more focused on

their specific needs, accelerating their progress.

What kinds of questions should I ask?H/O 3 – TASK and AF Question Stems

Expectations

Children should be reading regularly at home, ideally at least 30 minutes a day. They should be heard reading by an adult at

home at least three times a week, and notes and comments recorded in their home reading diary record book.

Children should also have a reading book which is brought home daily. This could be a school reading book, a book from

home or a library book.

Additionally – All classes visit the local library at least

once fortnightly(York class visit weekly)

School Library

Access to the Islington Education Library

Recommended Book List – H/O 4

Writing, Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar

Writing is one of our focus areas as a school.We aim to –

• Offer rich and engaging writing opportunities across the curriculum.

• Support children to build their skills in writing by developing their vocabulary, and usage of appropriate

grammar and punctuation.• Setting children targets and next steps to build on

between sessions.

Writing

H/O 5 – level descriptors for writing and writing exemplars.

Creative Writing

Exciting weekly extended writing session, where engaging writing opportunities are

provided and high quality writing is analysed and produced.

Children’s work is thoroughly marked and levelled and given a next step to allow the

child to build skills, or address areas of difficulty.

Focused across writing genres, so helps children remain familiar with different text

types.

SPELLING LOG BOOK and READING RECORD BOOKS

• These books are for recording words each week, using the focus sounds from the work in

class. Children can select their own, or have words selected by the teacher, to learn each

week at home for a weekly spelling test.• Spelling and handwriting sessions occur three

times a week in KS2 and daily in KS1

Handwriting

• A new handwriting policy has been adopted in school using the PENPALs handwriting

scheme. It is a semi cursive handwriting programme taught explicitly daily in KS1 and

three times a week in KS2.

GRAMMAREnd of KS2 Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar test ( SPaG) and end of KS1 for

2016*Weekly grammar sessions*Focus on creatively

embedding grammarthrough daily English teaching.

H/O – GRAMMAR POLICY AND PROGRESSIONACT ACTIVITY – SAMPLE QUESTIONS FROM SPaG

Any Questions?