English

Our Reading schemes at Yardley Wood Community Primary School are Read, Write Inc and Accelerated Reading. Read, Write Inc is the phonics programme we use, which teaches children the phonetic knowledge to be able to read independently and become fluent readers, whilst Accelerated Reading promotes reading for pleasure and motivates pupils to practise and develop their reading and comprehension skills. (Have a look at our Read, Write Inc https://www.ydlywood.bham.sch.uk/read-write-inc/ and Accelerated Reader https://www.ydlywood.bham.sch.uk/accelerated-reader/ pages for more information on how we teach Reading).

To develop skills for becoming proficient writers we use a genre led Talk for Writing programme in which children learn how to write in different styles, for different purposes and for different audiences. We use Letter Join to practise handwriting and Spelling Shed for developing spelling skills. 

At Yardley Wood Community Primary School, Reading and Writing are taught as separate subjects and have different school leaders responsible for them: 

• Miss Eggerton leads early Writing
• Miss Fryer leads embedded Writing
• Mrs John leads Key Stage 1 Reading including the Read, Write Inc programme
• Mrs Thornley leads Key Stage 2 Reading including the Accelerated Reader programme          

Key Stage 2 Reading

At Yardley Wood Community Primary School, we believe in encouraging an ethos of enjoyment, challenge and an understanding of texts. Reading is fundamental in allowing children to access a rich and varied curriculum, whilst providing them with a strong foundation to build their academic and life successes: reading provides the opportunity to develop not only academically, but culturally, socially and emotionally too.  We want children to immerse themselves in the exciting world of fiction to spark their imagination, to get lost in the magical world that is created, lose themselves in the plot of a novel and let their imaginations run wild. Providing them with a range non-fiction texts, evokes their curiosity and quenches their thirst for facts and knowledge. Through regular comprehension sessions and exposure to high quality texts, we aim to: deepen children’s understanding; extend their knowledge of a wide range of vocabulary; and equip them with a range of skills necessary to become independent and active readers.

Early Writing

Vision and aims:

Developing confident mark makers and early writers through Scribble Club, Drawing Club and Curious Quests

Building communication – Strong vocabulary, imagination and creativity through Language for Learning, Story dough and varied continuous provision.

Nurturing a love of story using great literature

Foundations of writing

Physical development

• Fine motor: threading, tweezers, playdough, finger rhymes to strengthen hand muscles
• Gross motor: climbing, sweeping, painting on large surfaces
• Grip development: fist grip, palmar grip, tripod grip

Mark making

• Explore marks with a range of tools: chalk, crayons, brushes, sticks
• Understand that marks can represent ideas or objects
• To talk about the meaning of their marks to adults
• To show increasing control when making marks
• Begin to be more comfortable holding a mark making tool
• To use marks to express ideas

Phonological awareness

• Hearing sounds in words
• Linking sounds to letters
• Segmenting and blending

Composition skills

• Oral story telling
• Idea generation
• Sequencing ideas
• Writing a simple sentence

Teacher creativity and passion.

• If the teacher doesn’t love it neither will the children. Allow flexibility if a book doesn’t work for teacher or the cohort; change it.
• Scribble Club and Curious Quests are new schemes for the school, some texts are yet to be decided