The National Curriculum for English says;
‘English has a pre-eminent place in education and in society. A high-quality education in
English will teach pupils to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their
ideas and emotions to others and through their reading and listening, others can
communicate with them. Through reading in particular, pupils have a chance to develop
culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. Literature, especially, plays a
key role in such development. Reading also enables pupils both to acquire knowledge and
to build on what they already know. All the skills of language are essential to participating
fully as a member of society; pupils, therefore, who do not learn to speak, read and write
fluently and confidently are effectively disenfranchised.’
We follow the requirements of the National Curriculum for English.
Click here to read the National Curriculum programme of study for English
Our Intent
At Robert Mellors we believe that a quality English curriculum should develop children’s love of reading, writing and discussion. Through the teaching of English, we aim to promote our core values of compassion, focus, respect, resilience and teamwork. We aim to inspire an appreciation of our rich and varied literary heritage and a love of reading widely and often. We recognise the importance of nurturing a culture where children take pride in their writing, can write clearly and accurately and adapt their language and style for a range of contexts. We want to inspire children to be confident in the art of speaking and listening, using discussion as a tool to further develop their education.
The RMPA English sequence of learning
English Sequence Of Learning – EYFS
The RMPA Grammar sequence of learning
The following link takes you to a helpful glossary which explains all the terminology. Please ask your child’s teacher if you would like any further information about Grammar.
READING INFORMATION
We place a very high priority on the teaching of reading at Robert Mellors. Please click on the documents below for information about Reading and how you can help your child.
How We Teach Reading At Robert Mellors Primary Academy
How to Help your Child when they are Reading
HANDWRITING
We have very high expectations of the presentation of all work. Children are expected to work towards developing a fluent, cursive style. Children write in pencil until their writing is consistetly joined, sized, spaced and fluent. At this point they will be awarded a pen licence which means that they can use a pen for their written work in all areas of the curriculum except mathematics. The awarding of pen licences is celebrated in Make a Difference assemblies.
Handwriting Sequence of learning
Click on the link below to see details of our Handwriting Scheme
English games:
There are lots of games to play to help improve your English skills. Have a look at these ones:
BBC resources – lots of different games
PHONICS
The school uses Letters and Sounds for teaching phonics – please see the information below
Teaching spelling at Robert Mellors Primary Academy
The teaching of spelling at Robert Mellors is done in a very logical and systematic way. Children begin by using their phonic knowledge to spell new words. Alongside this the children are also taught the ‘tricky’ words separately which are the words that cannot be spelt phonetically and don’t follow a spelling rule. Gradually other spelling rules are introduced so that the children can learn the rules and apply them when spelling new and unfamiliar words.
We follow the requirements of the National Curriculum and children’s weekly spellings are based on the words and spelling rules from the National Curriculum. Children bring spellings home to learn on a weekly basis. It is important that children learn their spellings not just for a test but to apply and use them in their independent writing.
There are many strategies that are used to teach children how to spell. We will always remind children to use their phonics knowledge and skills in their written work and when tackling the spelling of an unknown word.
Look, cover, write and check
We use this strategy in school. Children look at the word noting its shape, say it out loud, write it down and check to see if it is correct. This process is the repeated
Rainbow spellings
Some children find it helpful to write the words out in different colours repeatedly as a way of remembering them.
Segmenting
Breaking a word down into memorable chunks e.g.
in de pen dent ly
Mnemonics
A saying to remember words that don’t follow a spelling pattern
Eg because
big elephants can always understand small elephants
Learn the spelling rule
Children will be given spellings that follow the same rule. Once they have learnt the rule, it is easier to remember the spellings.
Phonics at RMPA
High quality phonics teaching is the prime means by which we teach children how to read and spell.
At Robert Mellors Primary Academy, we follow the Letters and Sounds programme.
The sequence for learning for phonics is set out below.
Little Herons (F1) – Phase One
Supports the development of speaking and listening skills whilst paving the way for high quality phonic work
Children will:
- develop listening skills and awareness of sounds in the environment.
- experience and develop awareness of sounds made with instruments and noise makers.
- develop awareness of sounds and rhythms through body percussion.
- experience and appreciate rhythm and rhyme and to develop awareness of rhythm and rhyme in speech.
- tune into sounds
- distinguish between the differences in vocal sounds (oral blending and segmenting)
- develop understanding of alliteration
Foundation 2 – Phase Two
This is the beginning of systematic, high quality phonic work. Phonics is taught daily in class groups from F2 onwards.
Children will:
- develop understanding of grapheme-phoneme correspondence (GPCs)
- develop understanding that words are made up of sounds
- develop blending skills to read simple V-C and C-V-C words
- develop segmenting skills by using magnetic letters, writing on whiteboard and paper, to spell simple V-C and C-V-C words
- begin to learn some tricky words
Foundation 2 – Phase Three
The aim is to teach some of the sounds comprising of two or three letters eg: ch,ai, igh
Children will:
- know at least one grapheme for each of the 44 phonemes
- continue to practise C-V and C-V-C blending and segmenting
- blend to read simple captions, sentences and questions
- begin to spell simple two – syllable words and captions
- learn letter names
- learn to read more tricky words
- begin to spell some tricky words
Foundation 2 – Phase Four
The aim is to consolidate learning from previous phases.
Children will:
- consolidate learning
- practise blending to read words with adjacent consonants eg: frog, jump
- practise segmenting to spell words with adjacent consonants
- practise reading and writing polysyllabic words
- learn more tricky words
- write most letters correctly
Year 1 – Phase Five
The aim is for the children to broaden their knowledge of the sounds used in reading and spelling.
Children will:
- use blending to read new words
- use segmenting to spell new words
- become more confident and quicker at reading and spelling words
- learn new graphemes
- learn alternative pronunciation of graphemes
- learn to choose the appropriate graphemes to represent the sounds
Year 2 – Phase Six
The aim is for the children to be fluent readers and increasingly accurate spellers.
Children will:
- automatically read familiar words
- have an established sounding and blending routine which will allow them to decode quickly and silently
- spelling will be phonemically accurate (a phonically recognisable attempt)
- be increasingly accurate in the spelling of words containing unusual GPCs eg: laugh, once, two,
- begin to read longer and less familiar texts independently
- recognise and use the past tense
- begin to investigate spelling patterns
- begin to add suffixes including doubling and dropping letters where necessary
Key Stage Two
Most children will now be secure in their phonic knowledge and will be confident readers and spellers.
However, a small number of children will need to continue to consolidate their understanding and application of their phonics skills. They will continue to do this in small groups.