We have high expectations and huge ambition for all of our pupils at Amble First to achieve their very best in all areas of English.
English is at the heart of what we do at Amble First School because:
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It is the cornerstone of communicating our needs, our interests and our ambitions.
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It helps pupils access learning and develop their own interests.
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It supports our pupils to access the world around them and develops skills needed to thrive in school and in society.
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It broadens pupils opportunities.
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It gives pupils a variety of ways to express themselves.
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We want confident children who are prepared for the challenges of the curriculum.
We know our pupils achieve best when they are:
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Are able to speak confidently and clearly
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Are able to articulate and talk about thoughts, stories and ideas
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Develop good reading habits
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Continuing to grow and apply their vocabulary
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Are reading for pleasure
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Are talking confidently about texts
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Reading and writing for a purpose
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Know the audience they are communicating with or to
We plan our English lessons using topic drivers to give our lessons a real audience and purpose.
We follow the National Curriculum requirements and programmes of study for each year group which can be found here:
National Curriculum Programmes of Study for English Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2
Each year, teachers carefully consider the curriculum requirements, pupil interest, cross curricular topics and audience and purpose when designing their yearly plan. Each plan can be found on the year group pages.
Phonics
From Nursery, we use the Read Write Inc phonics programme to teach the children to read. This is a highly effective programme which starts by teaching the children how to recognise sounds they hear within words. Children quickly develop their ability to recognise and read a range of sounds and apply this when reading both real and nonsense words. Children are grouped according to their ability which allows them to access targeted teaching, thus enabling them to make maximum progress. Children are provided with a Read Write Inc Book Bag book each week which they are encouraged to practise daily at home. This book contains the sounds that the children have been learning and will help them to develop fluency and confidence in reading.
Read to Lead
At Amble First School, we are determined to give all pupils the reading skills they need to succeed.
This begins with our youngest pupils where we aim to foster a love of literature. In Nursery we have daily dedicated story time, a reading corner for free choice and Peter Puffin home diaries! Parents are encouraged to join in our reading activities during drop ins and via Tapestry.
In Reception, we send sharing stories home to get families into fantastic reading habits. Our expectation is that children read and discuss a good read with their parents for 10 minutes per day. Parents are also invited to join our shared story session as the secret reader! When pupils are blending confidently, they take books home that are matched to their phonic ability to read to their parents.
In year one, pupils explore their phonic reading books, daily, in more depth, in small ability groups.
Key Stage One and Two
Daily reading sessions enable pupils to share and discuss books with their peers and develop key independent reading skills, including reading for pleasure.
Regular shared reading, including books from each year groups literature spine give all pupils a bank of familiar high quality texts to reference.
Our Reading Challenge runs from Reception to Year Four. Every half term children complete a booklet to show that they have read for 10 minutes a night. At celebration assembly, a winning booklet is chosen at random from each class and they are awarded a specially selected book.
Think and link
We have a huge focus on vocabulary across the school and in every subject. We pick out key vocabulary in every subject/topic studied to investigate further. We choose key words that match the chosen topic, in particularly, those words that are transferable to other areas of the curriculum and useful words to make sense of everyday life. We put these words in context in many ways, for example, stem sentences and apply them during the lessons. Children are encourage to think and link these key words and revisit them to embed their understanding.