English

At Hill Avenue, we are dedicated in providing children with an inspiring, engaging
and high-quality English curriculum.

English: reading, writing and oracy is the ‘driver’ or the purposeful planned ‘passenger’ that impacts on accessing teaching and learning across the curriculum, in all subjects, and is fundamental to children’s educational success, as well as being a subject in its own right. Through the development of key skills, our aim is for all children to be fluent in the English language, to read with fluency and be able to communicate orally and through their writing, whilst developing a strong understanding of grammar, punctuation and spelling.

The writing journey at Hill Avenue

National Curriculum

Following statutory guidance from the National Curriculum, the planning processes have been established. The reading skills will link closely to the writing journey. Our aim is every week/two-week block there will be a planned, clear journey of skills. The planning will be structured and broken down into five stages which support the cognitive development of our children. The stages are: immerse, implement and imitate, innovate and improve. Children we be exposed to high-quality texts, as well as culturally diverse examples that show representation of our children, taking into account their relative starting points and the socio-demographic factors, writing for a range of purposes and audiences, covering different genres which will lead to a variety of written outcomes.

From EYFS to Year 6

Children at Hill Avenue will embark upon their writing journey in EYFS developing early writing skills, mark-making, handwriting, spelling, punctuation, grammar, composition and beginning to understand the audience and purpose. These foundations are then built upon in Key Stage One and Two through the teaching and learning opportunities as part of their English journey. Children are provided with learning about a range of genres and their key features, delving into the and effect, as well as exploring writing for different purposes and audiences. From texts they have been exposed to and have read, children can examine author’s styles and craft, taking inspiration and develop their own writing style, to produce accurate, high-quality writing outcomes. As part of the planning process children will also be given opportunities to orally rehearse as well as draft, edit then publish their final outcomes for writing.

Key skills

Whilst appreciating and valuing our local dialect and colloquialism, staff will role model and use Standard English as spoken language as it is paramount in a child’s development when learning. We aim for all children to be confident and articulate effective communicators which will in turn positively impact on development of their vocabulary and grammar. These skills (speaking and listening) will continuously be developed through talking partners, drama and performances.

English – Reading, Writing and Oracy - the knowledge and skills of this subject help support and prepare children for every phase with primary school., it is also our vision, for children to continue to succeed into the next phase of their education and beyond.

As a school we base our handwriting provision around Letter Join.

The youngest pupils are taught short handwriting lessons on a daily basis, which will include the following:

• enhancing gross motor skills such as air-writing, pattern-making and physical activities

• exercises to develop fine motor skills such as mark-making on paper, whiteboards, sensory trays, iPads, tablets, etc.

• becoming familiar with letter shapes, their sounds, formation and vocabulary

• correct sitting position and pencil grip for handwriting

Teaching progresses from five short, to two longer lessons per week in upper Key Stage 2

• continuing with gross and fine motor skills exercises

• strengthening handwriting, learning and practice

• numerals, capitals and printed letters; where and when to use, learning and practice

• KS1 SPaG exercises.

If you would like to support your child at home please follow this video. If you have any issues please call the school office and we would be more than happy to help.

Reading and Phonics

Being able to read is one of the most important skills that children will learn during their early schooling and has far-reaching implications for lifelong confidence and well-being.

At Hill Avenue Academy we are committed to the delivery of excellence in a child’s early reading journey, which we do through the teaching of a tailored phonics scheme. We aim to develop each child so that they are able to read with fluency as well as develop a love of reading that will stay with our children for all of their lives.

At Hill Avenue Academy we follow the systematic approach laid out through the DfE recognised Floppy’s Phonics scheme, which we have adapted to meet the requirements of the National Curriculum. Children in the Early Years and KS1 will receive effective, high-quality daily lessons which ensures progression and whilst building on prior knowledge.

Reading at Hill Avenue

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go".

"Fluent and Comprehensive Readers"

At Hill Avenue Academy we aim to make all of our pupils fluent and comprehensive readers by the time they leave us to embark on their secondary school journeys. We firmly believe in developing a culture that encourages a desire and love for reading. We encourage reading in all areas of the curriculum covering a mixture of genres. Each week, we carefully select books that are current and rich in vocabulary as well as embracing the classics that we believe all children should experience. We link texts across the curriculum but they could also be chosen to support our children’s likes and interests.

"Regular visits to the school library"

Children in all year groups visit the school library weekly and all classrooms also have mini libraries which children can access daily. Teachers across the school share their enthusiasm and joy of reading by sharing a class text with the children each week.

"We encourage reading for pleasure"

Whenever possible we encourage reading for pleasure. We expose children to texts which continually develop their breadth of vocabulary, knowledge and imagination. We explore words, phrases and sentences daily to unpick how and why they have been used. Reading lessons focus on enjoyment of a text as well as developing fluency and comprehension of what the children are reading.

"We enrich our children's experiences"

At Hill Avenue, we aim to provide as many opportunities as possible to enrich our children’s reading experiences and nurture their interests. Dr Seuss famously said “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” We believe in not only teaching children to read, but also supporting children in exploring and discovering the genres that they find most appealing to enable them to become lifelong readers.

We believe that Phonics teaching should be:

Systematic

Discrete

Interactive

Practical

Multi-sensory

Adaptable

Engaging

The use of phonics is one of the many skills needed to be able to be a reader and writer. We aim to teach high quality phonics to ensure the children have the best start possible in reading and writing. The learning of phonics is the beginning of children’s body of knowledge, skills and understanding that are an essential part of learning to read.

In order to read and understand texts children must learn to recognise/decode the words on the page. Good quality phonics teaching allows the child to be secure in the skills of word recognition and decoding which allows children to read fluently. This will result in children being able to read for pleasure and will allow them to move onto developing higher order reading for meaning skills. These phonic skills need to be taught systematically and involve a variety e.g. multi-sensory resources for all learners.