Swaffield School

English

Our aim is to ensure that highly effective strategies and techniques for teaching writing are employed consistently so all pupils write confidently and creatively.
We aim for all children to develop reading strategies to ensure that they can read texts suitable for their age range and to enable them to build a solid understanding of the texts they are reading.
We continue to promote reading for pleasure across the school. 

Visit our Curriculum page which gives details of Swaffield's 2023/2024 curriculum for each year group.

Please contact the School Office if you have any questions about the English curriculum and they will pass this onto the relevant teacher who will be in touch.

As writers we:

  • Write with fluency and detail in a range of topics and styles
  • Use our imaginations to make our writing interesting for others to read
  • Use ambitious vocabulary
  • Vary our writing style and use a range of different structures
  • Write neatly, spell correctly and use punctuation

As readers we:

  • Know all our letter sounds and names
  • Like to read a variety of different texts
  • Understand a wide range of vocabulary
  • Find meaning in texts
  • Read for study and pleasure
  • Learn through reading

As language specialists we:

  • Listen carefully to others and respect their views and opinions
  • Speak clearly to others and use a wide range of vocabulary
  • Follow the rules of spoken English, for example using the correct tense and verb agreement
  • Retell stories in interesting and imaginative ways
  • Enjoy conversations with adults and our friends
  • Are confident speakers
  • Can read and write fluently

Supporting Your Child At Home

Help at home gives children the best support in reading and writing.

Here is guidance for what you can do at home to support and improve your child's literacy skills before starting school and throughout their years at primary school.

Phonics

What is Phonics?

Phonics is a way of teaching children how to read and write.
It helps children hear, identify and use different sounds that distinguish one word from another in the English language.

At Swaffield School, we are following the Little Wandle (Letters and Sounds) Programme.  Phonics is taught every day in Reception to Year 2 as a 20 minute fast pace lesson. The children in the year group are split into 3 or 4 groups, depending on the sounds that they are currently learning.

These are useful websites to support with reading at home:

Swaffield Phonics Workshop

You can see the presentation from our phonics workshop for parents here. 

Key Vocabulary in Phonics

Phoneme – smallest unit of sound e.g j o g

Grapheme – written symbol and the letters

Blending (supports reading) – putting sounds together / start with oral blending – robot hands

Segmenting (supports with writing) - splitting sounds e.g h-o-p, ch-i-p

Useful Documents for parents

Sound card - view/download a copy here

Phase 2 - 5 sound mat poster - view/download a copy here 

Pronunciation Guide Autumn 1 - view/download a copy here

Pronunciation Guide Autumn 2 - view/download a copy here

How Can You Help Your Child at Home?

  • Go through the sound card every day - download a copy here
  • Read with your child for 10 minutes
  • Play Phonics games e.g blending and segmenting. Here are some useful websites for this:

Phonics Play - https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/ 

Phonic Bloom - https://www.phonicsbloom.com/ 

Topmarks - https://www.topmarks.co.uk/english-games/5-7-years/letters-and-sounds  

Extended Writing

All children from Year 1-6 in the school have many opportunities for a range of extended pieces of writing. 

How does Extended Writing work?

The National curriculum puts a big emphasis on the whole process of writing. Children are given time to plan their writing effectively, draft, edit and re-draft before producing their final piece. At Swaffield we enable all children to work through this process to ensure that when it comes to the extended writing session, the children’s finished result is of a high quality.

Spelling, punctuation and grammar remain as a big focus throughout Key Stage 1 and 2. At Swaffield, children are exposed to a wide range of grammatical terms from an early age and are given the tools to confidently apply their grammatical knowledge within their spoken and written language.

The importance of ‘Talk’ for Writing

We strive to give children as many ‘talk’ opportunities as possible in order for them to develop good language skills and a broad vocabulary. This involves teaching children the skills involved in listening and responding appropriately in class and during small group discussions. Your child will be given ‘talk homework’, when appropriate, which gives them a talk topic to discuss with you.

What to expect from Swaffield English lessons

  • An engaging, challenging lesson that focuses on a variety of adventurous vocabulary and grammar
  • Experience of writing different text types chosen for extended writing e.g. stories, letters, newspaper articles, diary entries and poetry
  • A chance to read quality texts to influence writing
  • A range of drama-related activities to develop spoken language and to familiarise pupils with certain texts
  • Planning opportunities involving discussion eg. creating story maps
  • Working with a partner and helping one another to make improvements
  • Talk-partner time to develop children’s spoken language and broaden their vocabulary
  • Opportunity to earn a special pen license awarded during special celebratory assemblies

Reading

Please visit the Reading and Books page for more information about reading at Swaffield, and reading lists by Year group.

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