We teach writing through the ‘Talk for Writing’ three stage model of imitation, innovation, and invention. We commit staff development time in our school development plan to continually revisit this method and assess the impact.

Our writing intent is to:

• Enhance children’s speaking and listening abilities: children are taught to use complex terms and rich vocabulary in their spoken language, using this when they are constructing sentences in writing across the curriculum.
• Create a linguistically rich school: we will expose children to a large range of different genres by different authors.
• Teach children how to recognise and write a range of text types: children internalise language patterns and recognise key features of different text types and story plots.

We prioritise the teaching of ‘word reading’, ‘reading comprehension’ and ‘reading fluency’ and recognise the integral part it plays in the fabric of all our lives. We regularly provide development opportunities for teachers to develop skills and expertise in up-to-date methods to provide high quality teaching of reading in EYFS, Middle Phase and Upper Phase. All children being able to read for pleasure and not just necessity is our goal.

Our reading intent is to:

• Teach reading using proven research: Current research is disseminated to staff through staff development meetings and passed on to parents at annual meet the teacher meetings, parent meetings and via the school’s website.
• Ensure all pupils can read with expression, volume, phrasing, smoothness, and pace. This is in line with Prof Timothy Raskinski’s ‘multidimensional fluency scale’.
• Assess children regularly so we can close the reading gap: We use NFER reading assessments to assess across the school. This is supplemented by the standardised diagnostic Salford Reading Test, which is used for children with special educational needs.
• Provide high quality texts: We offer books across the different ages and stages of the children in our school through a well-stocked library with efficient Reading Ambassadors and through an array of reading schemes which match our phonic programme.
• Promote reading through a ‘prolonged’ approach: Teachers are seen as readers by the children. They share what books they are reading on their classroom doors and can talk to children about the books in the school library as they have read them.

Phonics is taught every day in the Nursery, Reception and Year 1 classes. We use the Read Write Inc. systematic programme to teach the 44 phonemes in the phonetic alphabet and the+ 200 graphemes. We have fidelity to this one scheme.

This scheme also teaches blending (green words) and tricky words which do not comply with the pattern of blending (red words). Uniquely, RWInc. uses rhymes to link the graphemes to the phonemes which has a quick impact on emergent writing. We understand that phonics is only part of the picture when teaching children to read for pleasure.