English

The National Curriculm

Purpose of study
English has a pre-eminent place in education and in society. A high-quality education in
English will teach pupils to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their
ideas and emotions to others and through their reading and listening, others can
communicate with them. Through reading in particular, pupils have a chance to develop
culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. Literature, especially, plays a
key role in such development. Reading also enables pupils both to acquire knowledge and
to build on what they already know. All the skills of language are essential to participating
fully as a member of society; pupils, therefore, who do not learn to speak, read and write
fluently and confidently are effectively disenfranchised.
Aims
The overarching aim for English in the national curriculum is to promote high standards of
language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and
written word, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for
enjoyment. The national curriculum for English aims to ensure that all pupils:
? read easily, fluently and with good understanding
? develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information
? acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic
conventions for reading, writing and spoken language
? appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage
? write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a
range of contexts, purposes and audiences
? use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly
their understanding and ideas
? are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations,
demonstrating to others and participating in debate.

 

In Year One at St Julies

Spoken Language

In Year One we aim to build on what the children have learned in the Early Years Curriculum.  The learning oppotunities that the children are given reflects the importance and value of spoken language.  

Spoken language is key to children's development both cognitively and socially and underpins the development of reading and writing.  The chidlren are encourgaed to use talk through play, talking groups, focused learning tasks and class discussions and adults will encourage them to use and develop a wide range of vocabulary.

 

Reading

The children are taught to read using a synthetic phonics approach via the Floppy's Phonics Scheme.  The scheme takes the children through different levels of phonic sounds which begin to be taught in daily sessions in reception class and continue througout Year 1. 

Floppy's Phonics Online | Oxford Owl

A useful website for you to check out is Phonics Play- https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/

Together with phonics the children will take part in weekly guided reading sessions with an adult; sharing a book in a group and learning about how books work, discussing stories and characters and prediciting what might happen next. They will also develop their knowledge of the Year 1 Common Exception Words (CEW),  These are a list of 45 high frequency words that the children are expected to be able to read by the end of Year 1.  A list of these can be found at the botton of the page.  

We encourage perents to support their child's reading development by sharing the books that are brought home three times per week.  On Monday's and Friday's the chidlren will bring home a phonetically decodable book that they can read to you and on Wednesday's they will bring a 'reading for pleasure' book from our Infant Library which can be shared together.  We also encourage the children to read using our phonetically decodable online book resource Bug Club.

In class the children have a daily Storytime session with the teacher in which they are encouraged to listen to and join in with a range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry books, including those from our Year 1 Bookspine.  This is a list of books that the children will become very familiar during the course of the year.  A full list of the Year 1 Bookspine can be found at the bottom of the page.

 

Writing

In Year 1 the children are given many oppotunities to write through play and during focused taught learning.  The children will be encouraged to use the phonics sounds they have learned to write words, they will also be expected to write the common exception words (CEW) with incresing accuracy.  The children expected to be able to write all 45 words correctly by the end of Year 1.  We also practise these in our weekly spelling quizzes.

In reception class the children are introduced to the handwriting style we develop at St Julie.  We continue to develop this through Year 1 and we ask you to support the children with this at home as much as possible.  To help during the year we will send home a handwriting booklet for the children to preactise as part of their homework.

 

You will find useful documents you can use to support your child at the bottom of this page.

 

 

 

 

 

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