At Forest Primary school, we believe that a quality English curriculum should develop children’s love of reading, writing and discussion. It is our intention that all children will leave Forest Primary School with the skills necessary to succeed in the wider world; able to articulate their opinions, gather information, read for pleasure, respond thoughtfully to the ideas of others and write clearly for a range of audiences and purposes.
We value the importance that English has in education and in society. A high-quality education in English teaches pupils that Literacy is one of the most important tools children will ever need; it is a vital way of communicating in school and in public life, therefore the golden thread that runs through every subject, to make children competent in a key number of literacy skills and give them the opportunity, support and disposition to use them in a diverse curriculum.
Developing children into fluent and able readers who are able to read for information, learning and pleasure is a key priority for us at Forest school. Effective communication through all areas of the curriculum remains a key priority for us at Forest.
Forest is a Read Write Inc School where children learn to read accurately and fluently with good comprehension. They learn to form each letter and spell correctly by learning the English alphabetic code of 150+ graphemes to represent 44 speech sounds alongside non-decodable words known as red words.
Guidance on Read Write Inc. Phonics Book Bag Books
The core Read Write Inc. Phonics storybooks are the best option for home reading: children read the story three times at school and read it again at home to build their confidence and fluency. Book Bag books are supplementary books for children to practise sound-blending. Each book corresponds with a core Read Write Inc. Phonics book. It has a similar theme and the same graphemes.
Listening to your child read:
Three things to do
- Ask your child to read the sounds and words before they read the story. They will enjoy teaching you to read these words too.
- When your child reads the story, encourage them to read the word in Fred Talk if they hesitate or read it incorrectly. Praise them when they succeed.
- Read back each sentence or page to keep the plot moving - your child’s energy is going into reading the words not the story.
Three things not to do
- Don’t read the story to them first.
- Don’t ask your child to guess a word by looking the pictures.
- And, importantly, please try not to become irritable if your child ever struggles! Keep smiling!
Phonics Virtual Classroom
The phonics virtual classroom is a great way to help your children practise and secure their phonics skills. Our virtual phonics classroom can be accessed through your child’s SeeSaw account. Every week your child’s virtual classroom will include the sounds learnt that week.
Information on using Virtual Classroom
Find more free parent resources on www.ruthmiskin.com
Children in Year 2 and KS2 are introduced to a new spelling list weekly and have a weekly lesson revising previous spellings and practising new spelling patterns.
Spelling Shed provides parents with:
- A game-like format that helps builds your child’s confidence in spelling
- A full spelling curriculum that is level specific and provides weekly online and offline activities
- Phonics based lists for your early learners
- The ability to track your child’s progress and see what words they are frequently misspelling
https://www.spellingshed.com/en-gb/parents
MFL
Learning and using languages enables learners to engage and identify with different cultures and societies and to develop their understanding of how languages work.
Learners should build secure knowledge of the following:
- How languages work: their structures and conventions, variations in use, and changes over time
- How languages, literature and the media enable different ways of thinking and give access to ideas and experiences from different cultures and historical periods
