Years 1 & 2 curriculum

OUR READING CURRICULUM INTENT

We want all children to have the understanding, that reading is something for everyone not just the few: they will be taught to fluently decode as well as comprehend.  All children in our school will develop their self-concept as readers and develop a clear picture of their personal “reading identity”. We want all children to derive pleasure from reading, be it immersion in the escapism of fiction or acquiring new knowledge and critical thinking skills through non-fiction.

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go. ― Dr. Seuss,  

Reading

The essential aim of our reading curriculum is to instil a love of reading that will stay with the children throughout their lives. We know that children who are fluent, confident readers will be more able to access the whole curriculum and will achieve better outcomes in all areas of the curriculum. 

In school children will have regular opportunities to read for pleasure and to an audience.  They will be encouraged to read to celebrate and extend their learning.

Through a planned programme of teaching reading will progress from decoding to fluency, to comprehension, through whole class reading and modelled/ shared reading.

A home-school reading partnership is fostered through the school, whereby children are encouraged to bring books home to share with their families.  As well as promoting reading, this gives the school and parents an opportunity to regularly communicate about children’s reading.

• In Y1, children follow the progression within Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme. Quality 30-minute phonics sessions are taught daily and there is a review session on a Friday.
• By the end of year 1, children will have been taught up to the end of phase 5.
• Children in year 2 recap any gaps in their phonics knowledge in phonics lessons
• Y1 lessons are 30 minutes long.
• The ‘grow the code’ charts used during writing sessions to encourage children to apply their phonic knowledge when spelling.

How do we assess phonic knowledge?

• At the end of each week, we teach a review session which recaps the learning. There are also whole review weeks (pre-planned and bespoke review weeks to address gaps identified by the class teacher’s ongoing formative assessment).
• Children identified as showing signs of not meeting age related expectations are immediately identified and daily Little Wandle ‘keep up’ sessions are put in place.
• The children are assessed every six weeks using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessment tracker.
• Children in year 1 complete the statutory Phonics Screening Check in the summer term.
• Children who do not meet standard in the Phonics Screening Check in Y1, will complete this in Y2. Support continues to be put in place for these children.
• We use a Little Wandle fluency assessment to identify those children who are ready to exit the Little Wandle programme

Reading practice sessions

• Children in year 1, year 2 (and beyond if appropriate) apply their phonics knowledge by using a fully matched decodable reader in a small group reading practice session.
• These group sessions are 30 minutes long and happen two/three  times a week.
• The sessions follow the model set out in Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised. The sessions focus on decoding, prosody and comprehension.
• The children then take the same book home the following week to ensure success is shared with the family.

Reading for pleasure  

Alongside daily teaching of phonics, reading for pleasure is an important part of our Early Reading offer. We ensure children develop a love of reading and are exposed to a range of interesting and relevant authors. We promote a love of reading in the following ways:

• Daily teaching of poetry, which includes performing and learning a range of poems by heart. The children are encouraged to illustrate the poems in their poetry journal and share the poems at home.
• Daily story time.
• Book areas within the classroom which have a careful selection of books, including books by a focus author.
• Alongside children’s decodable reading book, children also take home a ‘sharing book’ each week.  Children select their own book from a range of authors.

We have cosy book corners with a wide range of fiction, information books and poetry books. To encourage a love of reading children have the opportunity on a daily basis to read on their own or with a friend.

We also have a beautiful library. Children are able to borrow library books and gain experience of how a library works.

BREADTH OF STUDY AND PROGRESSION IN READING

We carefully plan the different text types we are going to study in our English and Reading lessons, to ensure full coverage of the curriculum, alongside the children's interests and our topics.

OUR YEAR GROUP READING LISTS

Each age phase has drawn up a list of carefully selected texts, that they will be using across each curriculum cycle as a focus for their teaching and class readers.

These are not the only texts read: other books are also enjoyed throughout the year (for example when reading whole class stories for pleasure, in whole school events and competitions, Whole Class reading lesson extracts)

The books are chosen through taking in to account:

• • Topic themes and English objective coverage
  • Age range, ability, varied genres and interests of the classes
  • Tackling the “Plagues of Reading”, which help children engage with high level texts, which present challenges to the reader

Phonics session 1

Phonics session 2 - part 1

Phonics session 2 - part 2

At St. Peter’s we strive to deliver the 2014 National Curriculum through an inspiring and creative approach. We believe that all children need access to good role models of spoken English and therefore we expect all adults to use correct Standard English in their daily spoken and verbal interactions. Grammar, Handwriting, Punctuation and Spelling are integral to every subject across the curriculum so we focus on it continuously.

Resources

Every classroom has relevant supportive resources, that the children can use to support their understanding such as grammatical terminology poster, phonics mats, topic spelling banks etc. Teachers in KS2 and at the end of Year 2, use the No Nonsense Spelling Scheme to support their lesson delivery. Children in KS2 have a spelling journal to record their exploration and practising of rules and patterns, which also contains a “Have a go sheet”. This encourages children to experiment independently with tricky spellings and gain scaffolded feedback to find the correct spelling.  Classes also have dictionaries and iPads for children’s use. Children in UKS2 also use a GCP Grammar Practice book as part of their homework routine at various points during the year, to reinforce their understanding of grammatical concepts and apply the knowledge. Children in LKS2 may also use Fluent in Five style lesson starters, to reinforce and apply conceptual knowledge.

Handwriting

Handwriting is taught separately to phonics. The focus is initially on the correct formation of individual letters but in accordance with our Little Wandle phonics scheme, handwriting is taught discretely. In LKS2 every Friday, children are directly taught handwriting patterns linked to the spelling rule of the week to give focused practice and as children progress to UKS2, they are given opportunities to practise all the handwriting joins through final presentation drafts and focused practice linked to spelling rule practice. Teachers use the Nelson scheme as a basis for the way in which we teach cursive handwriting and we form letters.

Modelling

Children are encouraged to use correct terminology from Reception to Year 6 and all adults remind children and reiterate the correct grammatical way to pronounce or write. When writing, we model correct spellings, Standard English grammatical structures and syntax. Cursive handwriting is used in modelling at an appropriate point in development in Year 2 onwards.

Teaching and Assessment

Children are tested on GAPS in KS1 (Year 2) and KS2 (Year 6). In KS1 GAPS is taught within the English curriculum with explicit links to the GAPS NC objectives. GAPS may be taught discretely or within the English lesson. Importance is put on the embedding of the GAPS teaching in to their writing and the application of skills so we develop our pupils as good writers with support on passing the SATs later in the year.