English at Lyndhurst is about fostering an enjoyment of, passion for and engagement with literature of all kinds. We do this by teaching skills through quality texts, demonstrating that literacy opens doors in all areas of life! We maintain high standards across all strands of the English curriculum with the aim that all children become confident readers, writers and speakers.

Phonics

Phonics is taught from EYFS and throughout year 1. Children learn new phonemes each day and participate in small reading groups 3-5 times per week with an adult, practising their decoding skills and learning the skills of fluency and comprehension.

Reading

We believe it is essential to nurture positive attitudes towards reading and books, so that children find it a pleasurable and purposeful activity. We therefore encourage reading every day both in and out of school. All children are given a school planner each term to record their reading choices and offer thoughts, opinions and to develop their reading tastes. Our new school library offers an impressive range of reading material to suit all preferences and reading abilities!

We know that there is a positive relationship between reading enjoyment and attainment across curriculum subjects and we teach children to decode and understand, and therefore to find enjoyment in reading. This contributes to children’s identity, their engagement with the world and their future success. 

Once children have learned to decode words independently, from year 2 they continue to practise fluency with 1:1 reading and learn deeper comprehension skills through weekly guided reading lessons where they encounter the full range of text types and are taught to retrieve information, to infer, and about the layout and structure of different genres.

Writing

At Lyndhurst children are taught about the skills and tools of a writer and develop knowledge of the writing process. They are given regular opportunities to write for real purposes and across a range of genres and text types. As with reading, we know that children who enjoy writing achieve well in this area and we foster a writing for pleasure culture across the school by studying a diverse variety of texts. Grammar knowledge and skills are embedded within English lessons and practised as part of the above writing opportunities. 

Spelling is taught twice per week in discreet sessions, and embedded within English lessons from year 2-6. Children are taught the full range of spelling rules, as well as where those rules do not apply. They learn to make connections using etymology (the origin of words) and morphology (the parts of words) to support their understanding of the complexities of spelling.

At Lyndhurst we use Letterjoin to teach handwriting 2-3 times per week in dedicated sessions, starting with mark making in EYFS, continuing to printed letters in year 1 before being introduced to cursive in year 2. By the end of year 6 most children are able to join fluently and quickly and use pen where appropriate. 

Pupils will learn both the correct grammatical structure of our language and how to use our language to inform, entertain, persuade, and discuss. They will have the chance to write extended pieces and to publish their work. Within units of learning, pupils will use drama to rehearse ideas and to develop their use of prosody. Pupils will be taught and have the chance to practice their spelling and handwriting discreetly.

Creating opportunities to write at home is a great way to promote a love of writing: diaries, letters and postcards are easy ways to engage children. If your child is reluctant you may find that having a special pen or notepad helps. Writing doesn't have to be on paper, using a computer still helps with composition and sentence structure.

Remember, if your child is making spelling or grammatical errors don't flag them all up. Instead, pick 1-2 things that you can ask your child to double check.