English is taught at Altrincham CE Primary School through the use of high quality literature in all its forms.

From the beginning, children are immersed in a world of pictures and words through the use of multimedia texts, rich in meaning, including stories, poems, news and information, lyrics and historical sources both on paper and online.

We have curated a bespoke Reading Spine which outlines the essential literary diet we want every child to experience, fostering a love of literature that will not only be the bedrock of future learning, but will become a joy for life.

Phonics

Phonics is taught systematically throughout EYFS and Key Stage 1, using our accredited scheme, Phonics Bug.

Phonics teaching introduces children to all the individual sounds used in English to make words, and the main written representations of these sounds.   This is divided into 6 phases.  

While they are in Nursery and Reception, our children experience a wide range of Phase 1 learning opportunities, supporting auditory development and recognition of environmental sounds.  This ensures they are ready to learn to match the sounds they hear to the symbols that represent them in writing (this is known as grapheme-phoneme correspondence, or gpc).  During Reception and Year 1, the children are systematically taught to identify, blend and write the letters (graphemes) that represent sounds in words. The books that children read independently as they learn to decode are carefully matched to the phonics teaching taking place in lessons.  The reading books that children bring home offer an opportunity for them to share success, to demonstrate and practise what they have learnt in school.  Parents are encouraged to support their children's reading at home; to this end, we hold workshops and share materials and we provide regular updates on progress.

In addition to reading books which match the sounds learnt in phonics lessons, the children bring home a sharing book, which will often contain text beyond their ability to read for themselves and can be read aloud and shared with an older reader at home.  In this way, comprehension skills are developed and children build a rich and exciting vocabulary whilst enjoying quality literature.

Reading into Writing

 We aim to inspire a life-long love of language in all its richness.

The texts we use in lessons are chosen to challenge and enchant the children, to thrill them and make them question; we believe passionately that children learn best when their learning has a context and are 'hooked-in.' This philosophy of learning transcends English and underpins everything we do at Altrincham.

The key texts used to inspire writing are often chosen from the "Pathways to Write" learning package, and can be seen in the central, pink area of the Reading Spine.  These texts have been carefully chosen so that children's knowledge and prior learning in other areas of the curriculum can be put to good use, reducing "cognitive load" so that children can focus on the craft of writing.

Our English framework places value on oracy skills; children are given a wealth of opportunities to respond to texts and develop their ideas and opinions, then articulate them in "scholarly sentences".  Children are taught to use the conventions of discussion and debate and use drama as a vehicle to explore the characters and worlds they find themselves in, building confidence along the way.

Quality Texts also provide a valuable platform for teachers to develop children's comprehension skills. Through the interrogation of images and language, we develop skills in inference and deduction, discuss why authors choose the language they have used and make connections with other texts and authors we have encountered.

Children follow a process which starts with listening and speaking, then brings together the different strands of English in a meaningful and contextualised way.  Children begin to 'read as writers', exploring how grammar and sentence construction can be employed to create an effect and similarly, how vocabulary sits alongside to engage the reader.

Vocabulary is vital and children learn that words are not only the building blocks of the sentences we create, but a tool to express our ideas and emotions.

At Altrincham CE Primary School, children write when they are ready and their reading and enjoyment of a quality text means they have developed the necessary skills and empathy to produce something which is purposeful and meaningful to them. Children are taught the skills of drafting, proof-reading and editing; they learn that the best authors rarely settle for their first attempt. Instead, as writers, we polish and edit in order to achieve our purpose and have impact on readers, working with our peers in the class to improve and refine.