English at St Philip Howard

We follow the National Curriculum and 'Herts for Learning Long Term Planning' framework to ensure coverage of all genres. Units of planning from Herts for Learning, Curriculum Maestro and a range of other selected resources are adapted to plan units and lessons. Lessons are differentiated, supportive, engaging and challenging; all the while ensuring the National Curriculum standards for English are met.

Teachers regularly assess to ensure that children are working at age related expectations. Some children are supported through scaffolding resources and others are challenged to use a greater depth of understanding. Cross Curriculum links are made where possible to enrich learning.

We teach phonics using the Bug Club Phonics programme. This programme is a balanced approach to the teaching of reading using systematic synthetic phonics. In systematic synthetic phonics the graphemes and corresponding phonemes are taught just before the introduction of words that contain these letters. To read these words, children are taught to pronounce the individual phonemes (sounds) associated with the graphemes (letters) they see, and then to blend them together (synthesise) to form the word.

We follow the Herts for Learning Essential Spelling programme from Year 2 onwards. This is a whole class approach to teaching spelling that enables all children to succeed. This programme focuses more on the teaching of spelling so that children understand how to apply patterns, strategies and knowledge to other words not just a list of words given each week.