English
English at Bowker Vale is led by our team that includes Mrs Jacob, Mrs Kershaw, Mrs Makwana, Mrs Atkins and Mrs Pendleton.
Our English lessons are all based upon 'quality texts', which are a range of books and other media carefully selected to inspire our children.
During English lessons, skills relating to reading, writing and spoken language are taught and applied. Grammar is taught in context throughout English lessons. In addition to this, children take part in a daily reading session. Spelling, phonics and handwriting are taught explicitly in short sessions, as well as being referred to throughout the curriculum.
Writing
How we teach writing at school
Through the English curriculum at Bowker Vale, we help develop the skills and knowledge that will enable children to communicate through written language and equip them with the skills to become lifelong learners.
We give children at Bowker Vale the opportunity to:
Write in a variety of different contexts and for different audiences and purposes
Plan, draft and edit their writing to suit the purpose
Be aware of the conventions of writing including grammar, punctuation and spelling
We teach the children that a 'good writer' thinks about...
Punctuation (including capital letters) .,!?()"" - ...
Vocabulary (interesting adjectives, verbs etc) and imagination
Different sentence types
How to organise a piece of writing
Different styles of writing
Cohesion- checking that their writing makes sense
Every year group also has their own set of non- negotiables that children are expected to use as a minimum in their pieces of writing. Click on the year group to view their non- negotiables.
Top tips for writing at home with your child:
Make writing fun by using your child's hobbies or interests.
Provide children with different authentic writing opportunities e.g. writing to a family member, writing a shopping list.
If your child is a reluctant writer, try a short writing activity first.
Be a writing role model.
Check that you child has used all their year group non- negotiables correctly.
Reading
At Bowker Vale, we believe that being a successful reader is essential for all our pupils. Children who read every day will develop better vocabulary and comprehension skills. This has a massive impact on a child’s achievement in all other areas of the curriculum. Our main aim is for children to foster a love for reading and books. We celebrate this love for reading throughout the year with different events and celebrations, which the children really enjoy.
From Nursery to Year 1, reading is taught in guided sessions with the class teacher. From Years 2 - 6 whole class reading is taught in a specific teaching sequence. We give pupils time to unpick texts and talk about what they have read. Reading strategies and the skills to answer different types of questions are also explicitly taught, giving pupils the confidence to become fluent, independent readers.
At home
We want children to develop their confidence, fluency and expression when reading at home (and to have fun). For this reason they will bring home books that are at or just below their reading level that they should be able to access, practice their fluency and enjoy.
Nursery - Y2
We have a wide variety of different types of books, which are by the phonemes they have learned in their phonics lessons. The children are supported by the teachers and teaching assistants to choose a book that matches what they have learned in phonics. This means the child should be able to read the book aloud to the adults at home. The children are also encouraged to choose a book to take home to read with their family. This book may be above their reading level, but ensure the children are exploring and hearing a variety of different stories from different authors. These books are from a wide range of schemes, publishers and authors.
Years 3-6
At Bowker Vale we use a reading programme called Accelerated Reader. The only way to become really good at understanding what we read is through practice. Reading is a skill, so the more that we do it then the better we will become, which is why we hope that this new system will encourage pupils to read even more than they did before. At 4 different points during the year your child will take a Star Reader test. From this test they will be given a ZPD, which is the range of books which are at their current level. Once they have finished a book pupils will then take a quiz on the book to check their understanding.
We also have a subscription to myON. MyON is a fantastic digital platform, allowing pupils unlimited access to approximately one thousand e-books. Children are able to use a computer or tablet to select age and ability appropriate books which mostly link into Accelerated Reader quizzes. If needed, your child can listen to the story as it is read aloud to them.
This is an excellent resource to enhance your child’s reading experience (both fiction and non-fiction). Teachers will be able to track reading times and progress. Your child can use a computer, iPad or tablet to login to myON. Always ensure that you use www.myon.co.uk.Alternatively, you can download the myON app to enjoy reading some books offline. Your child’s login details, which allow them to read at home, can be found at the front of their reading diary.
Try and read with your child as much as you can. Listen to them reading aloud and also read to your child, so that they understand how to use expression and the correct pace. Checking that your child understands what they have read is also very important. Click on the links below for some resources for supporting reading at home.
Here are also some recommended reads that you can enjoy with your child at home. We may have many of these books in school, but you will also find them in your local library.
Suggested Reading List
Phonics
At Bowker Vale Primary School children's initial route into early reading is through the teaching of systematic, synthetic phonics.
Children in Early Years Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 follow the synthetic phonics approach, using the ‘Supersonic Phonic Friends’ scheme. It is an approach to teaching phonics in which individual letters or letter sounds (phonemes) are blended to form groups of letters or sounds, and those groups are then blended to form complete words. Children also use actions from the scheme to help them remember letter sounds.
Our daily phonics sessions are fast paced and fun, involving lots of speaking, listening and games. The emphasis is on children’s active participation. They learn to apply their phonic knowledge for reading and writing activities and in their independent play.
Supersonic Phonic Friends is divided into six phases, known as The Basics and Higher Levels, with each phase building on the skills and knowledge of previous learning. There are no big leaps in learning. Children have time to practise and rapidly expand their ability to read and spell words. They are also taught to read and spell ‘tricky words’ – words with spellings that are unusual or that children have not yet been taught. These include the words ‘to’, ‘was’, ‘said’ and ‘the’.
Our guided reading books are also linked to the phonics phases and teachers select books carefully in order to match them to the childrens' phonic ability.
It is important that your child learns to pronounce the phonemes (letter sounds) that we teach so that they can master the skills of blending to read and segmenting to spell words. Please click here to watch a video of the correct pronunciation of phonemes.
When learning to read and write it is important children learn to pronounce the sounds letters make correctly. Please click on the links below for videos on how to pronounce letter sounds correctly.
Please click here for a video on how to pronounce letter sounds correctly.
Please click here for a video on how to pronounce digraphs correctly.
The Basics 1
The Basics 1 begins in Nursery. This phase paves the way for the systematic learning of phonics. During this phase especially, we plan activities that will help children to listen attentively to sounds around them, such as the sounds of their toys, musical instruments, sounds in the environment and to sounds in spoken language. Children in Nursery learn to identify, talk about and replicate these sounds. We teach a wide range of nursery rhymes and songs and read good books to and with the children. This helps to increase the number of words they know – their vocabulary – and helps them talk confidently about books. The children learn to identify rhyme and alliteration. These skills continue to be developed throughout KS1 and KS2.
Please click to play a guess the sound game.
Please click to play an animal sounds game.
The Basics 2 (RECEPTION)
Phonemes are introduced in a systematic way, along with a few 'tricky words' which can't be read phonetically.
Set 1 – s a t p
Set 2 – i n m d
Set 3 – g o c k
Set 4 – ck e u r
Set 5 – h b f ff l ll s ss
Please click to play buried treasure. This game will help your child learn to blend and read words. You just need to click on the letter you would like to practise with your child.
Please click to play a word and picture matching game.
The Basics 3 (RECEPTION)
By the end of Phase 3 the children will know one way of writing down each of the 44 phonemes.
Set 6 – j v w x
Set 7 – y z zz qu
Consonant diagraphs – ch sh th ng
Vowel diagraphs (and trigraphs) – ai ee igh oa oo ar ur ow oi ear air ure er
Please click to play buried treasure. This game will help your child learn to blend and read words. You just need to click on the letter or digraph you would like to practise with your child.
Please click to play a sentence substitution game. You just need to select a sentence then see if your child can swap some of the words to make a new sentence.
The Basics 4 (YR1)
This phase helps children to blend and segment words with adjacent consonants e.g. truck, help.
It is very important that these phonemes are pronounced clearly and correctly so that children are able to blend them together.
Please click to play Dragon's Den. This is a blending to read game.
The Higher Levels 5 - Choose to use (YR1)
Weeks 1 – 4 – New phonemes introduced including split digraphs - a_e e_e i_e o_e u_e
Weeks 4 – 7 These weeks introduce the idea that some graphemes can be pronounced in more than one way. E.g. the ch grapheme can be pronounced in each of these ways, check, chef and school.
THE HIGHER LEVELS 5 - SWITCH IT SPELL (YR1)
Weeks 8 – 30
This part of Phase 5 is all about learning that some phonemes have more than one spelling. E.g. the /ee/ phoneme in meet, treat, Pete.
Please click to play sorting and sound spotting games.
Please click to play a sentence substitution game. You just need to select a sentence then see if your child can swap some of the words to make a new sentence.
Spelling curriculum - in Years 2-6 the children follow the National Curriculum for spelling.
Year One Phonics Screening Check
A national Phonics Screening Check was introduced in 2012. It is meant to show how well your child can use the phonics skills they’ve learned up to the end of Year 1, and to identify students who need extra phonics help.
The check involves reading up to 40 real and pseudo (pretend) words using their phonic knowledge and takes only a few minutes to complete. The phonics check takes place each June, you will be informed of your child's result and whether or not they have reached the expected standard (this is usually a score of between 32 and 34 out of 40). If your child does not reach the expected standard they will have some extra help with phonics during Y2 and retake the screen the following June.
If you have any questions about the phonics screen please speak to your child's teacher.
Handwriting
Here at Bowker Vale we are very proud of our pupil’s handwriting and take particular care in our cursive/joined-up handwriting style. We use 'Letter-join' as the basis of our handwriting policy that covers all the requirements of the National Curriculum.
Handwriting is a basic skill that influences the quality of work throughout the curriculum. At the end of Key Stage 2 all pupils should have the ability to produce fluent, legible and, eventually, speedy joined-up handwriting, and to understand the different forms of handwriting used for different purposes.
We aim to make handwriting an automatic process that does not interfere with creative and mental thinking.
As a catalyst to speedy handwriting we encourage parents and carers to use the 'Letter-join' resources at home. A username and password will be given to your child by their class teacher.
You can also find rescources and information on this website to help with handwriting at home.
https://www.teachhandwriting.co.uk/index.html
Please see below for how we form our letters at Bowker Vale. Children start all of their letters from the grey dot.
Spelling
The improvement of spelling is a focus for teaching and learning across the school. At Bowker Vale Primary School we aim for all children to achieve the highest possible standards of spelling. We want children to spell well and to achieve satisfaction and pride in spelling well. Whilst we do not want a fear of incorrect spelling to undermine children’s willingness and motivation to write using a broad range of ambitious vocabulary, we expect teachers to set clear expectations for children, so that words previously taught are spelt correctly and that children have a range of strategies to help them spell unknown words. We recognise that spelling is a fundamental part of the writing process and believe that when spelling becomes automatic, children can focus on their skills of composition, sentence structure and precise word choice.
Children are taught phonics and spelling from Nursery through to Year Six. Have a look at the spelling rules and patterns taught from Year Two to Year Six.
How you can help at home
Please help your child to learn their spellings. They will be tested weekly and their results will be sent home with the new spellings for the following week.
Bowker Vale Spelling Strategies
