I am Mrs Faulkner and I am the subject leader for English.

At Bridge Hall Primary, our main aims for Literacy, are to develop an enjoyment of
reading and fluency and precision in writing.

We have developed a teaching programme for our children that helps them make progress in daily lessons, in stages that aid them to become reflective readers and writers. Our teaching programme demonstrates our knowledge of teaching the children using a variety of techniques that allow challenge and enjoyment to be experienced by the learner.

Letters and Sounds

At Bridge Hall Primary, phonics is taught every day in EYFS and Key Stage One. Phonics sessions are entirely made up from games, songs and actions and sessions are taught for 20 minutes each day.

Reading

Each Key Stage 1 class runs phonics alongside Guided Reading and Shared Reading in order to help our children develop the vital skills in reading, especially comprehension, inference and fluency skills.

The children in EYFS and Key Stage 1 have 1:1 reading with their class teacher, support staff or volunteers. Developing a love for reading and allowing them to experience a diverse range of reading is extremely important to us, which is why our children are taught through a variety of mediums.

Key Stage Two have daily guided reading lessons, where inference and comprehension skills are at the forefront of every lesson. All staff have been trained in a scheme called Leicester Inference which teaches the children the skills they need to be effective readers. The skills necessary are: Prediction skills, how to ask relevant questions, how to use their background knowledge, inference skills, how to visualise a text/scene from a book, and how to understand new vocabulary.

Writing

We have adopted the Talk for Writing method for teaching our children how to write. Talk for Writing enables children to imitate the key language they need for a particular type of text orally before they try reading and analysing it. Through fun activities that help them rehearse the tune of the language they need, followed by shared writing to show them how to craft their writing, children are helped to write in the same style. 
 
Talk for Writing works with any genre of writing and each term children will work with a fiction (story) and non-fiction (instructions, diary, explanation etc) text.

Grammar

Grammar lessons are incorporated weekly and follow the Talk for Writing model of this but also use materials from Rising Stars. Children are also given Grammar practice during non-negotiables before lessons commence as well as weekly homework tasks.  

Interventions

Interventions for children at Bridge Hall Primary, aim to help children bridge gaps in their learning and tailored made to fit the child’s specific needs. All interventions that are run, are do so by experienced Teachers, support staff or skilled outside agencies.

Here is a list of the interventions we have available at Bridge Hall Primary:

Letters and Sounds interventions

– TELL phonics

Reading interventions 

– Leicester inference for Key Stage Two for comprehension

– SEN support teacher for Key Stage One for small group activities for guided reading and comprehension boosting

– Extra 1:1 reading

– Reading recovery for Key Stage One and Lower Key Stage Two

English Curriculum Overview