English
Welcome to the English section of our school website.
At Highfields Academy, we understand the need for all children to have good level of reading and writing ability as this underpins many of the other subjects taught within the school. Literacy is taught daily and encompasses reading, grammar, spelling rules and patterns (from Year 2-6) and writing. Children also have regular opportunities to practise their oracy skills through the reading of their own writing, poems, class discussions/debates, school plays etc.
Reading
Phonics is taught daily in Reception and Year 1, with some children in Year 2 also receiving phonics lesson. We use the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds scheme. All children receive three reading group reading sessions per week (decoding, prosody, comprehension) using a phonic reading book linked to the class phonic sessions. Some children may also have the Keep-up sessions. Children in Year 3 and 4 may also have the Little Wandle Rapid Catch-up intervention sessions.
Y2 - Y6: In these year groups, we have daily reading lessons. Two of the lessons are whole-class reading lessons per week linked to a class book. All the books have a diverse/inclusive nature so that all our children have the opportunity to identify with characters that represent them.
The other three lessons are also whole-class, and use quality, age appropriate texts that provide comprehension questions linked to different reading areas: retrieval, inference, prediction, vocabulary, summarising and sequencing.
Writing
From the Spring Term 2023, we have adopted the Pathways to Write scheme (details below). The scheme is split into six units, each lasting 4 - 6 weeks. Each unit is split into three sections: Gateway, Pathway and Writeaway.
Gateway
This is an opportunity to 'hook' the children into the context for learning and to assess previously taught Mastery Keys.
Pathway
Mastery Keys: These are introduced with each unit of work, along with a range of opportunity to practise and apply them in different writing taksks.
Feature Keys: These writing skills are linked to the style of writing that they children are going to use for their final (Writeway) piece of work for each half term e.g. letter, explanation, narrative, report etc.
Writeaway
Pupils are given a task in which they plan, write, check, edit, re-draft and do a final published version. This is then used to assess their understanding and application of the Mastery keys taught during that half-term.
Spelling and Handwriting
All children from Y2 - Y6 have daily spelling and handwriting sessions. The spelling patterns and rules are taken from the National Curriculum.
Documents
- Year group Literacy Information Leaflet
- Top Tips for Reading with your child at home
- How to help your child with reading
- How to help your child with spelling
- Literacy Subject Policy
- Highfields Academy spelling programme
- Highfields Pathways to Write scheme