At Monkton we believe that English is at the heart of all children’s learning, as such, our curriculum prepares all pupils to lead an enriched, fulfilling life by teaching the skills they need to communicate effectively and confidently with others.
Reading
As a staff and school, we are dedicated to creating children who are fully equipped with both the skills and desire to become lifelong readers, which in turn allows them to fully engage with the world around them both now and in the future. All children at Monkton are exposed to a range of high quality texts and authors across the curriculum and reading skills are taught explicitly in year groups. As our children’s’ confidence in their reading ability grows, so their love of reading is nurtured.
Reading Lessons’ (Years R-2)
Children are introduced to a wide range of texts including picture books, by the teacher as a whole class initially. The teacher selects a text which is relevant and can be shared and enjoyed as a whole. Children who may be struggling may receive pre-teaching of a text in order to make them already familiar with it and each text is shared, discussed and children are invited to join in, initially focusing on recognition of key words. Through the teaching of systematic phonics, our aim is for children to become fluent readers by the end of Key Stage One. This way, children can focus on developing their fluency and comprehension as they move through the school.
Reading Lessons’ (Years 3-6)
Reading is taught in a variety of ways, as a whole class, daily lesson, with additional time in the daily timetable for individual reading independently, both with a reading buddy and an adult.
This allows for staff to quickly identify and support children who are struggling and might need a little extra support.
Reading is both valued and celebrated at Monkton, with World Book Week, visiting authors and rewards and schemes such as Buster’s Book Club as well as termly certificates. Our well stocked, beautiful library and class book corners offers our children the opportunity to enter different and magical lands,
as Dr. Seuss wrote:
You can find magic wherever you look. Sit back and relax, all you need is a book!
Phonics and Spelling
To ensure the delivery of high quality, systematic phonic work for all children, in Reception and Key Stage 1 phonics is timetabled to be taught daily in planned sessions based on the “Letters and Sounds” programme. Children are taught to segment and blend words and apply their learning for reading decodable and tricky words. A wide range of activities are used by practitioners to help children achieve the goal of fluent word recognition.
Children may be ability grouped in order to maximise individual learning. This may continue in Key Stage 2, with spelling groups crossing Key Stages if needed, to ensure the needs of each child is met.
From year 2, we use the ‘No Nonsense’ spelling programme. Daily and weekly spelling lessons ensure that we build on children’s’ prior phonic knowledge. Spelling groups are differentiated to enable all children to make progress. We conduct an exciting Spelling Bee competition once a year from years 2 through to 6 to raise the profile of spelling.
We are confident that the vast majority of our children will finish their studies with us in year 6 as confident spellers, readers and writers. Students are able to transfer their SPaG knowledge directly into their writing.
Writing
At Monkton, children engage with a range of high quality, enriching and age appropriate texts through our creative curriculum, Curriculum Maestro. Writing opportunities are carefully planned for to ensure a range and balance of writing genres in all year groups. Early writers will call on their own experiences and, as children progress through the school, they develop further by exploring a range of text types. These include extended stories, poetry, diary entries, reports, discussion and many more. Cross-curricular writing opportunities allow children to immerse themselves into different cultures, periods of history and fantasy worlds. As children move through the school, children are encouraged to reflect upon, edit and seek to find ways to improve their own writing.
As children progress through Monkton they become increasingly proficient at using a range of literary techniques, which they are able to apply skilfully. Children understand and apply their knowledge of a range of text types, which both engage and inform the reader. Our writers as authors are able to independently reflect on their, and others’, writing, and suggest improvements.
English National Curriculum
For further information about the English Programme of Study followed as detailed in the National Curriculum please follow this link:
At Monkton CEP School we also have an open door policy so that any more specific questions can be directed towards your child's class teacher or the English Coordinator Mrs L Warner.
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