English
Reading
Our aim at St. Sampson’s is for all children to be able to read well. We want to foster a love of reading in every classroom. In order to achieve this:
- Every classroom has a well-stocked, attractive and organised reading corner to allow children to choose books to read independently.
- The two school libraries are used well by staff and pupils to give children even more choice. Year 6 children are able to become librarians.
- Children are read to every day from high-quality texts, which they enjoy discussing and exploring as a class.
- Guided reading lessons are taught weekly in all year groups to develop fluency and comprehension skills.
- Reading at home is logged using Kluwell Reading Records in FS2/KS1 and BoomReader (a digital reading record) in KS2. This reading is celebrated in assemblies and children receive a book to take home and keep for every 25 reading logs.
- KS2 children have a ’50 books to read before you leave St. Sampson’s’ recommended reading list. They receive a badge for every 10 books read.
- Reading is an important part of lessons across the curriculum.
- Children who are at risk of falling behind are able to catch up quickly due to interventions such as TRUGs and Rapid Readers.
Writing
Our aim is for every child at St. Sampson’s to be an enthusiastic, confident writer. We use the Talk4Writing model to plan and teach writing. Each unit begins with children learning model texts orally, exploring them through comprehension activities, boxing-up the structure and understanding the tools that the writer has used. The children then innovate their own version of the text-type, using shared writing and feedback from their teacher to improve, before applying what they have learnt independently. Throughout this process, grammar and punctuation objectives are explicitly taught. Children have the opportunity to practise these in short-burst writing activities before applying them in their independent work.
Children’s writing is continually assessed throughout the year, enabling teachers to plan next steps for individuals, groups and the whole class.
Writing opportunities are planned for across the curriculum: children apply what they have learnt in a range of subjects.
The Rising Stars Spelling scheme is taught weekly in Years 2-6. This scheme teaches the children spelling rules and strategies for their year group’s curriculum objectives. Each unit has five parts: introduction; teach; practise; apply; review. Words from the compulsory spelling lists in KS1 and KS2 are taught weekly on a rolling programme.
We want all children to have handwriting which is legible and joined. We teach cursive joined handwriting from Year 1 to Year 6 and children apply this in all subjects. We believe that presentation is important and children are encouraged to take pride in their work.