Reading, writing and speaking with confidence at Cedars Manor

Read about our English Long Term Plan

Intent

At Cedars Manor School, we strongly believe that reading is at the heart of a high-quality English curriculum. Through teaching English, we equip children with key life skills to communicate effectively. Language is fundamental to making meaning and expressing our views and opinions, so it is crucial for children to learn to communicate fluently in both spoken and written form. Our curriculum develops a love of reading and lifelong learning for all pupils. To ensure all pupils develop confidence in spoken language, we have a separate focus on oracy (which you can read here). 

Implementation

Phonics & Early Reading

Phonics, synthetic and systemic, creates a key foundation to early reading. In Reception and Year 1, we use a programme called Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised. All teaching staff are trained to deliver this programme, using resources specifically provided for this rigorous scheme. Daily phonics sessions, interventions and books carefully matched to individual phonic understanding, enables pupils to rapidly become confident readers. 

Reading Skills

Reading skills are taught daily. Our prompt, ‘VIPERS’ - Vocabulary, Infer, Predict, Explain, Retrieve, Sequence (KS1)/Summarise (KS2) supports child focused on 6 core reading comprehension skills. Comprehension skills are taught in a variety of ways and across subjects throughout the school. A range of high-quality texts and authors are chosen to study throughout the year. Oral and written work is based on shared texts in their English lessons. This supports the pupils to experience a wide range of texts and different genres across each year.

Wider reading opportunities are encouraged across a range of events and activities to promote a love of reading. Author visits, library time, story time, World Book Day and our Book Vending Machine, all promote a love of reading and excitement among the pupils. 

Writing

At Cedars Manor, our aim is to support children to communicate through their written word, enjoying writing for a range of purposes and audiences. Shared and guided writing takes place regularly in classrooms as a whole class and in small groups. This forms part of the taught learning journey which starts with a modelled example of writing through to a final published piece. Children have opportunities to work through and refine the writing process, including plan, draft, edit, proof-read and publish their work.

Children are supported to write in a fluent, joined style which is neat and attractive. This allows children to communicate meaning through writing quickly and effectively. The Oxford Owl Nelson Handwriting scheme is used to support the teaching and learning of handwriting. 

Impact

As we believe that reading is key to all learning, the impact of our reading curriculum goes beyond the result of statutory assessments, to develop a love of reading and learning. Pupils thrive from the reading curriculum sharing insights and understanding with each other. All children take a reading book home each day and share this reading with others. We aim to promote confident, fluent writers. Ensuring that the written work is read by someone else and frequently ‘published’ in school, adds meaning to their writing. Assessing their own work against success criteria continues to raise standards at Cedars Manor.