English

READING

Reading is one of life’s most essential skills. At Moorcroft Wood Primary School, we hope that all children will develop a love of books, enthusiasm for improving their reading skills and grow to be confident, competent readers. Reading is happening all the time in our classrooms and across school. It is not only taught in Phonics and English lessons, but children are practising and using their 'reading' constantly across all subjects too.

Pupils have opportunities to undertake guided, shared and independent reading throughout the school. A diverse range of books and a staged reading scheme are available for pupils to take home to read.

As a school, we utilise Reciprocal Reading strategies. Reciprocal reading involves a dialogue between the teacher and children. It is a group activity where the leader first models a number of effective reading strategies which the children learn to use for themselves independently. It is an interactive teaching technique and is suitable for all readers. Reciprocal reading has four key strategies that the children will become familiar with and can use in not only guided reading session, but also other areas of the curriculum.

Predict	What are we going to read about in the text selection? (Inference)
Clarify	Which words and phrases so we need to find the meaning of? (Word meanings)
Question	Can we ask questions to help us learn more about the text? (knowledge and understanding in context)
Summarise	What are the main ideas in this section? (Putting it into words)

Home Reading at Moorcroft Wood

Children, who partake in the phonics programme, will take home an RWI Book Bag reading book matched to the RWI level they are currently working on in school. They will have read a different RWI text with an adult in school and the book they take home will reinforce the learning that has taken place in class. Children will change their RWI Book Bag reading book at least once a week.

Children who do not need to continue to follow the phonics scheme, will bring home a colour banded book from their suitable colour banding. These will be changed once a week, but can be changed more frequently if the child has read it on several occasions and has had their reading diary signed by an adult.

If you want further information about the curriculum content your child is covering please call the school office to arrange an appointment to see the subject leader.

Reading Progression of Skills Document.pdf

Supporting Your Child at home

Reading at home and daily practice is vital in helping to improve your child's future reading and learning. At Moorcroft, we know how important it is for teachers and parents to work together to give your child the best start.

Reading together at home is one of the easiest but most important ways in which you can help your child. As you share books you are helping improve your child’s reading skills and also showing them how important and enjoyable reading is.

The more a child reads, the quicker they will develop as readers. It is often recommended that beginning readers spend 15 or 20 minutes reading each day (in addition to the reading they do at school). However, the amount of reading a child does is most important, not the amount of time they spend doing it.

We have put together some parent guides to help support your child with their reading at home.

We will also be sending these home, so please look out for these in your child's book bag.

Reading with your Child

EYFS Tips for Parents and Carers

Developing a Love for Reading

We are having a real push in school in developing the love for reading as we know that when children develop a love for reading, it can impact their understanding and love for the whole curriculum.

To encourage children to read regularly, we have launched a new reading rewards system called Rocket into Reading. The more the children read, the more prizes they will win! Alongside this, we have introduced a Reading Suitcase and Reading Raffle system, where not only are there prizes for the children, but for parents too! For further information about these please see the letter below.

MCW Rocket into Reading Letter.pdf

WRITING

Intent

We take children through a journey in order to improve them as writers. We want children to be driven to write by purpose. These include: to create, to entertain, to express, to persuade, to inform and to record. Writing is a creative art and a form of expression that allows pupils at Moorcroft Wood Primary School to have a voice and express themselves. Our writing process is blocked into units of work. Firstly, children are exposed to a particular quality text where they learn about particular key features and techniques, being exposed to what makes it a quality example. The second stage of writing is the point where the children are taught the punctuation and grammar skills needed in order to create a final piece of writing. Most grammar, punctuation and vocabulary elements are taught in context of the text. This allows the metalanguage of grammar to be ‘caught as well as explicitly taught’. During this stage of writing children may also carry out incidental pieces of writing in order to show understanding of character, setting or plot or grammatical skills taught. The final stage of writing is where the children explore and record their ideas through drafting, editing and proofreading, their final independent piece of writing based on their studied genre. We teach the spelling content and lists taken from the National Curriculum. We also promote 'Penpals' handwriting which children practise regularly.

I am a Clever Writer

At Moorcroft Wood Academy we have just started our exciting journey using 'I am a Clever Writer as a basis for teaching writing skills. We ensure our children write everyday, practising newly taught skills discreetly before layering them with previously taught skills.

I am clever writer is a clearly structured approach to teach writing, where each strand of writing is broken down into small steps to allow pupils to experience success with their writing. Teaching sequences are carefully planned to ensure time for consolidation and the development of a skill relating to the' I am a Clever Writer Checklist'.

The teachers create a Wagoll (what a good one looks like) based on the text/visual literacy that is being shared to model how to include the features in their own writing. At the end of the sequence of learning an extended piece of writing called a Star Write is completed where children bring together all the skills they have been taught that week. The strands taught match the requirements of the national curriculum and become increasingly more complex throughout the year as the children become more skilled. This approach allows teachers to teach specific skills discretely and ensure they are layered to give our children the tools they need to be confident writers.