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English and Phonics

At Kells Infants School we know that the development of English is the cornerstone of what we do. Children need to be able to read and write sucessfully in order to achieve in school and as the foundation for all future endeavours. 

Our Reading lead is Mrs Pennington and she supports all staff delivering phonics and provides on-going coaching and training for all reading teachers. Mrs Figes oversees writing and works closely with Mrs Pennington, since children learn the basics of writing through our phonics scheme.

We have adopted the Read, Write Inc scheme and use this to teach early reading and writing (phonics) and for the development of English up to Year 2.

We are proud that the vast majority of children leave school in Year 2, having passed the phonic screening check and who have developed the fluency required to embrace the next stages of their learning.

Information about Read, Write Inc can be found using the link below. There are a number of useful videos which parents can access to help them understand our scheme and provide support. Look out for the sound pronunciation guide video:

https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/reading-schemes-oxford-levels/read-write-inc-phonics-guide/

We have a focus on Reading for Pleasure as we know that the popularity of reading as a pastime has declined with the increase in electronic devices which are often situated in bedrooms and other spaces in the home where reading used to take place. We want our children to enjoy books with a parent and family member and for them to cuddle up and enjoy a sneaky read in bed , even when they should be sleeping! Our free lending library will support this and we will encourage all children to borrow books from school for reading at home.

We pledge that all children will be able to choose a book in school for their own personal reading time and that they will hear an adult read a story most days. 

Children who read widely are more successful in school, have a wider vocabulary and better wellbeing. we also believe reading improves concentration and attention. It is the key to the future for our children.

We have recognised that writing is less strong than reading in school and we have made adaptions to our curriculum to support this. Additional Writing sessions are built into the school day. Completed peices of sustained writing will be recorded in a special writing progression book which will travel with the child into Monkwray Juniors. We will use the Talk for Writing approach to constructing extended written pieces as we believe this supports our pedagogic principles. Model texts provide a good scaffold for children to initially imitate and then innovate using their own individual style and flair. 

Pupils in the Nursery learn to re-tell stories orally and are encouraged to use marks to express communicate their own writing. The books shared with class each week are listed below. We encourage parents to share tehse stories with their children too, many of them can be found on You Tube.