Article 17: I have a right to get information from lots of different sources, as long as it is safe.

Article 28: I have a right to an education.

Article 29: I have a right to be supported to achieve in education.

At Pipworth Community Primary School we recognise that English is not only a subject in its own right but also a medium that is at the heart of the whole curriculum, enabling teaching, learning and communication to occur. It is therefore fundamental to the whole educational process. The acquisition and development of language and literacy skills are essential for learning and life and enable the student to participate fully and confidently in society.

 We understand that children acquire language and literacy skills at different rates and that this may be influenced by a variety of factors including the environments of home, school and the wider community. Therefore a variety of approaches need to be used for the teaching of English in our school to facilitate the learning of each child. We also recognise the need to teach key skills systematically through speaking, listening, reading and writing. These key skills are simultaneously consolidated throughout the whole curriculum.

 We believe that reading is the gateway to learning across our curriculum and beyond. We place high emphasis on developing early reading skills and a love of reading through the curriculum. To promote this, Power of Reading strategies are used in every year group. We have invested in high quality texts linked to the wider curriculum and ‘satellite’ books to support reading of different text types. We want to provide our children with opportunities to develop their communication and language skills across the curriculum, so we include talk opportunities in all areas of reading where possible. These include the use of drama techniques, prediction, inference and retrieval skills along with reasoning and explanation. Vocabulary development is a key priority through our curriculum and Power of Reading vocabulary development strategies including the use of Higher Tier words are used through school. Our teachers deliver guided reading using  a ‘Class Guided Read’, with a book chosen to match age-related expectations and read daily as a class for approximately 20 minutes. We recognise the importance of parents in partnership with reading and home/school reading is encouraged.

 We recognise the importance of phonics in early reading. Our principal aim is to develop the children’s phonological awareness, ability to segment and blend words and read common exception words on sight. We follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme of study (LWLS) with daily phonics sessions being taught through the Foundation Stage, Year 1, Year 2 and groups of target pupils through intervention in Key Stage 2. Children are encouraged to use their phonic skills across all curriculum subjects. To ensure high quality and consistent sessions are delivered across school all staff are trained in the delivery of the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds revised programme.