English at Pakefield

English sits at the heart of our curriculum and plays an important role in a child’s development. We Inspire children to become independent learners, by developing their love of reading through a variety of texts and genres, which in turn, is easily applied within their writing and vocabulary choices. Our children are encouraged to become confident and articulate speakers and listeners, enabling them to Achieve their best, evoking Ambition and curiosity participating fully as a member of society. Collaboration with parents, carers and outside agencies enables us to work with both the local and wider Community, providing opportunities to develop the children culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually, ensuring every child is successful.

Across both writing and reading, we place a heavy emphasis on developing a child’s vocabulary. By the time children leave Pakefield Primary School in Year 6, they have the language they need to understand sophisticated texts and express themselves in a wide range of contexts.

Our key actions for 2022-2025

To improve the attainment in writing for Pupil Premium children in KS1 and KS2
To continue to improve the outcomes for every child in phonics. 
To ensure high standards and consistency in handwriting and presentation. 
To develop the number of more able writers. 
To continue to develop a ‘Reading for Pleasure’ ethos across the school community.

The English Curriculum at Pakefield is made up of 4 elements, Reading, Phonics, Oracy and Writing.  To find out more, please click on the following boxes. 

Reading at Pakefield  

At Pakefield Primary School, we are continually developing a love of reading. Reading is more than a skill: it’s a gateway to imagination, empathy and understanding. We are committed to fostering a love for reading; encouraging children to read for enjoyment and pleasure that can last a lifetime. The love of reading is nurtured from the moment children join us in Nursery to the moment they leave us in Year 6, enabling all children to become confident and competent readers.

The school’s reading books are organised into book bands (colours) which are consistent across the school. When children are confident and competent enough, they transition to free-readers, where they are encouraged to choose a book from the school library or a book of their own, if this is suitable. Children are also always encouraged to select a text that excites them and does not limit them to a particular level of book.

School staff use their own love of reading to guide children to choose books which both interest and challenge them. We have our own brand new School Library which the children are able to visit, as well as visits to our Local Library and bookshops. We have also developed reading lists for each year group, which can assist children with selecting a book. Click this link to view them:

LINKS TO READING LISTS 

Year 1 Year 4

Year 2 Year 5

Year 3 Year 6

All classes follow a coherent and immersive approach to the learning and development of reading. Guided Reading lessons are timetabled daily, whereby children are taught the skills of reading e.g., decoding, fluency, explaining, informational retrieval, inference and vocabulary. Texts are generally pitched slightly above age-related expectations.

Classes often have a whole-class text, which enables the children to immerse themselves within a book they may not usually choose. It also assists with improving general knowledge; develops richer vocabulary, along with encouraging imagination, empathy and mindfulness of others.

We believe that reading is not something that is discrete from the other subjects. Across the curriculum, children use and apply their developed reading skills to help support and enrich their learning experience. Children read to an adult on a 1:1 basis at least once a week in school; which could take the form of echo and paired reading. They are also given the opportunity to read aloud in class throughout the day. Teachers will carefully plan reading opportunities and ensure that children have access to appropriate texts that support skill and knowledge acquisition in a range of subject areas.

Our ‘Reading Expectations Document’ (below) outlines our reading format across the school, from early phonic development, to end of Year 6 comprehension.

pakefield primary school reading expectations feb 2025 new.pdf

‘Bringing Books to Life’

Alongside individual and Guided Reading at Pakefield, we provide the children with numerous opportunities to read in a fun and exciting way, developing a child’s ‘Reading for Pleasure’.

Each year we celebrate a range of books and literature – we do this through such events as ‘World Book Day’ and Reading Cafes and workshops across the year groups, inviting parents/carers to join their children in these activities.

The Travelling Book Fair joins us in the Autumn Term where children can access a variety of books/comics/magazines/poetry: both fiction and non-fiction. As part of our ‘Reading for Pleasure’ ethos, we strongly encourage children to understand that reading doesn’t simply come from books: it is from many other medias, such as magazines, shopping lists, signs and symbols, instructions and websites. The Travelling Book Fair offers some of these for the children.

We also invite local authors into the school which immerses the children into a world full of imagination. As well as this, we have a brand new library, which offers a wide selection of books for the children to choose from. Our librarian also selects an ‘Author of the Month’, as we feel it is important for staff and parents/carers to recommend books as well as the children.

Our school is also linked with The National Literacy Trust, which enables the children to become ‘Literacy Champions’, and for them to partake in reading-based events, as well as links with the local libraries.

Phonics at Pakefield 

Early Reading

Early Reading at Pakefield Primary School

At Pakefield, we believe that reading is the key to success and underpins children's access to the curriculum; it impacts significantly upon their achievement. To be able to read, children need to be taught an efficient strategy to decode words. That strategy is called phonics. Phonic decoding skills must be practised until children become automatic and fluent. We use Little Wandle at Pakefield to help us teach the children to read.

Little Wandle is a complete systematic synthetic phonics programme (SSP). We prioritise the teaching of phonics; we teach phonics daily in Year R , Year 1 and Year 2. It is vitally important that children review and revisit Grapheme Phoneme Correspondences (GPCs) and words, daily, weekly and across terms and years, in order to move this knowledge into the children's long term memory. Our consistent approach to phonics ensures that children are given the best possible foundation for reading, writing and language skills and one that goes beyond the phonics check in Year 1.  Not only do we practice this in school, we work with parents and carers to ensure that these skills are built upon at home.

Children need to learn to read as quickly as possible, so that they can move from learning to read, to reading to learn, which then unlocks all aspects of the curriculum.  We have high expectations of and children who are not keeping up with their peers are given additional practice and support to develop their skills.

Children enjoy a range of multi-sensory resources to support their phonics learning. On-going assessment of children's progress takes place and the books children read in school and take home to read are fully decodable and matched to children's secure phonics knowledge. As well as fully decodable books, children take home a non-decodable book for sharing that can be either read to or with them. These books play an essential role in developing a love of reading; an important distinction is that these books are being shared with the children, but they are using fully phonically decodable books to practise their independent reading. 

For further information please visit the Little Wandle parents page

Books that come home

Supporting your child with reading

Although your child will be taught to read at school, you can have a huge impact on their reading journey by continuing their practice at home.

There are two types of reading book that your child may bring home:

A reading practice book. This will be at the correct phonic stage for your child. They should be able to read this fluently and independently.

A sharing book.  Your child will not be able to read this on their own. This book is for you both to read and enjoy together.

Reading practice book

This book has been carefully matched to your child’s current reading level. If your child is reading it with little help, please don’t worry that it’s too easy – your child needs to develop fluency and confidence in reading.

Listen to them read the book. Remember to give them lots of praise – celebrate their success! If they can’t read a word, read it to them. After they have finished, talk about the book together.

Sharing book

In order to encourage your child to become a lifelong reader, it is important that they learn to read for pleasure. The sharing book is a book they have chosen for you to enjoy together.

Please remember that you shouldn’t expect your child to read this alone. Read it to or with them. Discuss the pictures, enjoy the story, predict what might happen next, use different voices for the characters, explore the facts in a non-fiction book. The main thing is that you have fun!

Phase 5 Phonics screening check

At the end of Year One all children take part in the national phonics screening check. The check requires children to be able to use all of the sounds learnt up to Phase 5. The check uses real and pseudo (fake) words to assess children's ability to decode. The check takes place in the Summer Term and parents will be informed of the date nearer the time. The results are fed back to parents in the end of year report.

Ways you can support your child at home?

 Games to support Phonics Teaching:

Play ‘What do we have in here?’ Put some toys or objects in a bag and pull one out at a time. Emphasise the first sound of the name of the toy or object by repeating it, for example, ‘c c c c – car’, ‘b b b b – box’, ‘ch ch ch ch – chip’.

Say: ‘A tall tin of tomatoes!’ ‘Tommy, the ticklish teddy!’ ‘A lovely little lemon!’ This is called alliteration. Use names, for example, ‘Gurpreet gets the giggles’, ‘Milo makes music’, ‘Naheema’s nose’.

Teach them ‘Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers’.

Find real objects around your home that have three phonemes (sounds) and practise ‘sound talk’. First, just let them listen, then see if they will join in, for example, saying:
‘I spy a p-e-g – peg.’
‘I spy a c-u-p – cup.’
‘Where’s your other s-o-ck – sock?’
‘Simon says – put your hands on your h-ea-d.’
‘Simon says – touch your ch-i-n.’
‘Simon says – pick up your b-a-g.’

Magnetic letters
Buy magnetic letters for your fridge, or for use with a tin tray. Find out which letters have been taught – have fun finding these with your child and place them on the magnetic surface.
Making little words together
Make little words together, for example, it, up, am, and, top, dig, run, met, pick. As you select the letters, say them aloud: ‘a-m – am’, ‘m-e-t – met’.
Breaking words up
Now do it the other way around: read the word, break the word up and move the letters away, saying: ‘met – m-e-t’.
Both these activities help children to see that reading and spelling are reversible processes.

Other ways to help at home:

We teach lower-case letters, as well as capital letters. As most writing will be in lower-case letters it is useful if you can use these at home. A good start is for your child to write their name correctly, starting with a capital letter followed by lower-case letters.

Your child’s teacher can advise on the handwriting style that is taught and how you can help at home.

Here are some of the terms you may come across in our phonics work at school. 

vowels – the open sounds / letters of the alphabet: a,e,i,o and u

consonants – sounds/ letters of the alphabet that are not vowels.

blend – to merge individual sounds together to pronounce a word, e.g. s-n-a-p, blended together, reads snap

cluster – two (or three) letters making two (or three) sounds, e.g. the first three letters of 'straight' are a consonant cluster

digraph – two letters making one sound, e.g. sh, ch, th, ph.

vowel digraphs – two vowels which, together, make one sound, e.g. ai, oo, ow

split digraph – two letters, split, making one sound, e.g. a-e as in make or i-e in site

grapheme – letter or a group of letters representing one sound, e.g. sh, ch, igh, ough (as in 'though')

mnemonic — a device for memorising and recalling something, such as a snake shaped like the letter 'S'

phoneme — the smallest single identifiable sound, e.g. the letters 'sh' represent just one sound, but 'sp' represents two (/s/ and /p/)

segment (vb) — to split up a word into its individual phonemes in order to spell it, e.g. the word 'cat' has three phonemes: /c/, /a/, /t/

Oracy at Pakefield Primary School

We recognise the extreme importance of being able to talk well and learn through talk. Oracy, is a vital part of the Curriculum at Pakefield and we are working in partnership with Oracy Cambridge, from Cambridge University.  Together, along with our Active Learning Trust family, we have embarked on a project to develop and refine these crucial skills. 

What is Oracy?

‘Oracy is the ability to articulate ideas, develop understanding and engage with others through spoken language.’ (Voice21).  At Pakefield, we are teaching our children to be confident, articulate speakers and effective listeners; these two skills are fundamental to all we do now and in the children’s lives when they leave Pakefield.

Why do we have a focus on Oracy?

Leaders analysed a range of information, including internal assessment, gaps in subject knowledge and end of key stage data.  It highlighted that children needed additional opportunities to learn to talk and learn through talk. In addition, research (Millard and Menzies, State of Speaking) shows almost half of British employers, reported that young people enter the work place with inadequate communication, presentation and interpersonal skills that are needed to thrive in the work place.   

Our key Actions:

To exploit exploratory talk:
To teach physical aspects of Oracy:
To continue to improve vocabulary development across the school;
To implement vocabulary teaching across the curriculum;
To identify next steps to support early year’s children and their vocabulary development.

What is the intended impact?

We envisage that children will become confident and effective communicators and be able to use these skills in all areas of the curriculum and later in life.  This will underpin the children’s ability to make a positive contribution and global citizens.

How are we teaching Oracy at Pakefield?

We have a multi-layered approach to develop Oracy and are using the 4 domains set out by Voice 21; physical, linguistic, cognitive and social and emotional.  

In the early years, a high focus is given to the physical development of speech and positive talk.  It essential that all domains are developed effectively as they progress through our school. Teachers plan regular and purposeful opportunities which enable children to take part in exploratory talk and listen carefully to one another. Subject-specific language is used across all areas of the curriculum to support children's development. Teachers and adults in school model effective talk and listening skills. Whilst higher order (tier 3) vocabulary is shared and taught throughout the school. 

Voice 21, Oracy Domains.

Opportunities that we are currently experimenting with are:

Weekly word of the week being taught and shared with families;
A promotion of discussion and reasoning throughout the learning environment;
Weekly and daily opportunities for all children to discuss a current news issue;
Daily opportunities for talk buddies and talking partners;
Rich language opportunities throughout the curriculum;
Providing staff with training and the development of subject knowledge and research.

For further information, please take a look at our partners at the University of Cambridge.  

WRITING AT PAKEFIELD 

Writing at Pakefield Primary School

At Pakefield Primary school, we aim for every child to be a successful writer and for every child to enjoy the process of writing. We recognise that writing is a life-long skill and will be needed in all career choices that our children choose in their futures. It is important to us that our children understand that writing is an essential skill and will be needed throughout their lives. To achieve this goal, Pakefield Primary School is working in partnership with Cambridge Oracy Project and the Arts Mark; both of these projects support teachers to use talk, Oracy and drama as well as skills from ‘The Write Stuff’ by Jane Considine to promote writing throughout the curriculum.

Writing in the Early Years

Writing, along with reading, makes up literacy, one of the four specific areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS).

The Early Learning Goals for writing come from both literacy and physical development.

They are:

Writing - children use their phonic knowledge to write words in ways which match their spoken sounds. They also write some irregular common words. They write simple sentences which can be read by themselves and others. Some words are spelt correctly and others are phonetically plausible.
Moving and handling - children show good control and coordination in large and small movements. They handle equipment and tools effectively, including pencils for writing.

 
At Pakefield children are given a continuous experience in writing. They have the chance to experiment using what they know about writing and the opportunity to apply and practise their developing skills and knowledge. Opportunities to write are planned for in all aspect of continuous provision, both inside and outside.

The Write Stuff and writing for a purpose?

Our ‘Write Stuff’ approach enables children to read and write independently for a variety of audiences and purposes within different subjects. A key feature is that children develop and internalise a range of higher level vocabulary that they can use throughout the curriculum. The approach moves from dependence towards independence, with the teacher using shared and guided teaching to develop the ability in children to write creatively and powerfully; in turn learning more and remembering more.

This pedagogical approach is based on two guiding principles; teaching sequences that slide between experience days and sentence stacking lessons. With modelling at the heart of them, the sentence stacking lessons are broken into bite-sized chunks and taught under the structural framework of ‘The Writing Rainbow’. Teachers prepare children for writing by modelling the ideas, grammar or techniques of writing.

The Write Stuff follows a method called "Sentence Stacking" which refers to the fact that sentences are stacked together chronologically and organised to engage children with short, intensive moments of learning that they can then immediately apply to their own writing.  An individual lesson is based on a sentence model, broken in to 3 learning chunks. Each learning chunk has three sections:

Initiate section – a stimulus to capture the children’s imagination and set up a sentence.
Modelsection – the teacher models a sentence that outlines clear writing features and techniques.
Enablesection – the children write their sentence, following the model.

Children are challenged to ‘Deepen the Moment’ which requires them to independently draw upon previously learnt skills and apply them to their writing during that chunk.

The Write Stuff uses three essential components to support children in becoming great writers.

The three zones of writing:-

IDEAS - The FANTASTICs use a child friendly acronym to represent the nine idea lenses through which children can craft their ideas.
TOOLS - The GRAMMARISTICs the grammar rules of our language system and an accessible way to target weaknesses in pupils’ grammatical and linguistic structures.
TECHNIQUES - The BOOMTASTICs which help children capture 10 ways of adding drama and poetic devices to writing in a vivid visual.

How do we use Oracy and the Arts mark to support writing?

Oracy is a vital and fundamental part of Pakefield Primary’s curriculum and plays an enormous part in any child’s writing. For children to be able to write well, they must speak well. Children should be able to draw upon rich vocabulary to say what you want to say – this supports the ability to structure their thoughts, so that they can make sense to others.  This is a crucial skill when writing.

In order to do this, we use our ‘Write Stuff’ structure of learning but underpin this with additional oracy skills to support writing as well. Children are encouraged to use talk partners to speak through their sentences and ideas prior to writing them down. This allows all children, of all abilities, to hear other’s ideas, making the idea of writing on paper a safer and more enjoyable experience for more reluctant writers. Word of the week is celebrated and used in all year groups, children are challenged to use these words within their writing, allowing a greater vocabulary and a curiosity of words that can be used in the classroom and beyond.

Spelling

At Pakefield Primary School we really understand the importance of children being able to use spellings throughout the curriculum and not just achieve 10/10 in a spelling test. For this reason we have stopped using weekly spelling tests and have developed a more inclusive approach to the teaching of spelling. At Pakefield we follow ‘The Spelling Book’ scheme by Jane Considine. The spelling teaching from Year 2-6 runs in a 2 weekly cycle:

During Week One a block of 50 minutes is created to facilitate an investigation and ‘Go Grapheme Grafters’. The nature of this is to look at patterns and working to prove or disprove a hypothesis.

During Week Two, the same amount of time is split into 5 x ten minute slots to experience pace and take a quick look at spellings.

What is ‘Go Grapheme Grafters?’

‘Go Grapheme Grafters’ is used to increase confidence when spelling. It is based around the principles of Phonics and teaches children that:

Every word is a collection of letters.
These letters represent speech sounds.
You need to listen carefully to phonemes in words and assign the best choice of grapheme.
It also teaches children to make clever sound associations and ask the question ‘If I can spell this, what else can I spell?’

The DFE’s spelling lists can be found at:

National Curriculum Spelling

Our School Feedback and Marking Policy also supports children to notice when they have made a spelling mistake and they then go through and purple polish their work using dictionaries, word cards or teacher support.

If you have any questions relating to the teaching of reading or writing, please speak with your child’s class teacher or make an appointment with Mrs Nielson, Mrs Lock, or Mrs Harper.

Pakefield Primary