Brompton Westbrook Primary School

English

At Brompton Westbrook we take great pride in developing keen readers, avid writers and pupils who love to perform using the spoken word.

Phonics and Early Reading

Here at the school we use a systematic, synthetic phonics programme to teach  early reading and writing this is called Read Write Inc.   Like all phonics schemes, it teaches children the sounds in English, the letters that represent them, and how to form the letters when writing.  Read Write Inc. Phonics includes reading books written using only the letters they have learnt at each level (and a small number of separately taught - these are called trickywords). The children quickly feel confident and become successful readers.

Our phonics lead alongside reading teachers regularly assess children to ensure that they are reading the correct level of books to continue their reading learning journey.

Watch a short video here to explain more about the RWI scheme and here for a short clip about phonics.

If you would like videos to watch with your child at home to support their phonic learning and knowledge please speak to your child's class teacher..

Reading

Once our children have mastered how to learn to read we encourage their reading habits to thrive to become voracious readers.  Reading is taught every day, all classes share a story time together and the children have reading books to read independently.  Teachers use the VIPERS strategy to improve reading skills and foster understanding.  Children learn new vocabulary, infer answers, they predict and explain, they retrieve information and sequence and summarise.

Through the use of the Renaissance Learning Accelerated Reader programme, children are motivated; teachers can monitor and manage students’ 'independent reading practice.'  Teachers and students love to watch as the development of a true love for reading flourishes.   Renaissance also provide a digital library of over 6000 online books via Myon

Please note if your child is 'quizzing' at home, tries to logon to AR and is asked for an ID number please enter RP-17646486.  You will only need to do this once.

We are well stocked with a range of reading books - phonic ones for early reading practice and wide range of other texts that our children love - we regularly listen and consult with pupils to ensure that we are buying the books that they want to read.

The school has a well though out Book Spine - a list of high quality texts of all types (from classic novels, poems and picture books to blogs and e-learning books.  This Book Spine starts with the core texts read in the nursery and continues right through the school.  The list is of course evolving as authors write exciting new texts but the most up to date version can be found here.

Children across the school volunteer to be reading ambassadors, they love to read and want to share recommendations, help their peers and ensure that everyone at Brompton-Westbrook gets to read books they love.  They help to share information during celebration assembly and set challenges for children across the school.

Adaptations are often needed to learning to meet children's needs.  Please click here to see our Adaptive plan for the teaching of reading.

Writing

We love writing at Brompton Westbrook and we especially love using high quality books and texts to inspire our writing, giving us ideas and helping us to develop our own voices as authors. Children get opportunities to practise their writing skills through a wide-range of opportunities, such as reports, play scripts, stories, lists, newspaper articles, poems etc. Children are taught spellings, punctuation, grammar and handwriting skills specifically and we use a range of resources to support this, such as Purple Mash and Nelson.

We understand that writing is complex and is made up of many skills and that each of these skills requires specific teaching. The link between speaking and writing is a strong element of our practice and we know that ‘if children can’t speak it, they can’t write it’. Spoken language and oracy is the new focus in our writing curriculum in order to build vocabulary for all learners and prepare our children with the tools they need in order to be successful in their writing. Words are powerful - using the right words makes for better communication and effect. Vocabulary and the use of language are taught explicitly within and across the writing process and are also unpicked in its daily use in the classroom.

Our school also strongly believes in the importance of teaching children not only to have the skills to write, but to enjoy and feel motivated to write too. We try to make writing ‘real’ and purposeful for the children through exciting hooks and interesting writing opportunities and activities, which often link to cross-curricular topic or high-quality text. Through this approach, we intend for children to develop a love of writing that they will carry with them throughout their school life and beyond.

Please click here to see our writing skills progression overview.

Please click here to see our grammar overview.

Adaptations are often needed to learning to meet differnt children's needs.  Please click here to see our Adaptive plan for the teaching of writing.

 Speaking and listening

Children are encouraged to speak and read aloud as soon as feel confident enough to do so.  From joining in with nursery rhymes in FS1 to (writing and) sharing instructions and performing for assemblies in UKS2.  Speaking and listening are modelled by teachers so that children hear appropriate grammar and diction.  Speaking and listening is a "golden thread" that is included in all of our curriculum.

Our English sequence of learning is simple - start with the basic skills and revisit / develop these so that pupils become fluent and confident readers, writers and orators.