Hackwood Primary AcademyEnglish
English Intent:
Through our English curriculum at Hackwood, we aim to?nurture our children to have a lifelong love of reading, where children develop the skills and enjoyment to read for pleasure. Our reading vision, ‘Read to Achieve to Succeed’ ensures all children are exposed to high-quality texts and we work in partnership with parents to guarantee every child is a reader.
We aim to develop writers who are imaginative, creative and competent, building on skills to write for purpose and with an audience in mind. This involves investigating quality texts in a language-rich environment through the reflection of social, cultural and wider world experiences.
Reading Vision:
READ ACHIEVE SUCCEED
Read Achieve Succeed (RAS) initiative was launched in December 2016. The aim was to raise the profile of reading across the Trust and develop a lifelong love of reading within our children. The initiative also aligned itself with the trust priority to raise the outcomes in reading for all pupils regardless of their need or circumstance.
This initiative is now a commitment within all our Academies who ensure that the vision, strategy and operation of the initiative is communicated effectively to ensure that all children are engaged in this trust wide priority.
The initiative includes various aspects and activities some of which are highlighted below:
- Pledge to give all children a book of their choice. Each academy to organise an event to celebrate reading and the Read, Achieve, Succeed Initiative. The partnership with Madeline Lindley continues across the Trust they will supply books to children by setting up a bookshop for the day. Social media and the press will be engaged to raise the profile externally.
- CEO Reading — the CEO will read with children on a weekly basis. This is on a rotational basis with one academy per term taking part.
- Author events planned centrally, at least one per term in each hub, with children attending from a range of year groups.
- Reading Volunteers — Commitment to develop an army of reading volunteers. In Oldham, Hulme Grammar School pupils provide students who become reading champions. We would like to develop links with secondary schools across both hubs. Parents and volunteers will also be engaged to ensure pupils are getting the maximum number of opportunities to read widely and often.
- Work with Literacy Trust — Young Readers Programme. These programmes are well established at Westwood and Richmond Academies and the aim is to roll out to other academies across the hubs.
https://www.theharmonytrust.org/page/read-achieve-succeed/62832
Phonics at Hackwood
We follow The Harmony Trust Framework "Phonics: A Systematic and Synthetic Approach" to phonics.
The Harmony Trust Phonics Scheme of work maps out the teaching of phonics from the time every child starts school. The aim is to ensure that all children learn to read with confidence and fluency at the earliest stages. Please take a look at out Phonics Scheme in the link below.
PowerPoint Presentation (theharmonytrust.org)
If you would like to speak to us about the our approach to Phonics at Hackwood, please feel free to contact Kate Morley (Deputy Principal)
You can read more in the document and parent guide at the bottom of the page and see the slides presented at our 'Early reading and Phonics workshop' delivered in the Autumn term.
Reading at Home:
How can you help your child read at home?
How it begins
Once your child joins our Reception class, they are taught letter sounds (phonemes) through the use of the Harmony Trust Phonics Framework, which is aligned to Letters and Sounds. As these sounds (phonemes) are taught they are sent home so that you can support your child with extra practice.
During this early stage, “talkabout” books (books with few or no words) are also sent home. These are for you to share with your child, discussing the pictures and talking through the story. These books are an important way in which your child can learn very early book skills and also begin to enjoy the routine of sharing more formal learning experiences with parents and carers.
Early Reading
As your child starts to know some phonemes (letter sounds), he or she will be taught to blend these sounds from left to right in order to read simple words. When this skill is in place, your child will be given a reading book containing words which can be sounded out. You can help at home by running your finger under each sound in turn to encourage this blending.
These books will also contain words which cannot be blended, such as ‘I’ and ‘he’, these are called 'common exception' words, and in class we teach your child to recognise them on sight by using flash cards.
Now is the time to enjoy your child’s steps to success, but don’t forget to keep talking about the story and have fun sharing the book together!
Top Tips for Reading at Home
- Try to make reading time fun. Aim to do little and often, but not when your child is tired.
- Encourage your child to look at any pictures in the reading book to get an idea of what it is about. Talk to your child about the pictures.
- Your child will try to work out unknown words by using sounds and this should be encouraged. For words that cannot be blended, help your child work out words by looking at other words in the sentence.
- Talk about the book as much as possible. Ask your child to explain what happened or ask questions about the story.
- Draw attention to punctuation marks and help them to read with feeling, e.g. “Hooray!” they shouted.
- Use the reading VIPERS bookmarks to support with questions and developing understanding. (linked below for KS1 & KS2)
Reading is Fun!
At Hackwood, we want to ensure that all our pupils learn to read, read to learn, and above all else, learn to love reading!
At school, your child has access to a well-stocked library, engages in entertaining story times and enjoys English events throughout the year, all of which contribute to the development of a love of reading.
You can help your child at home by reading all sorts of books together and by using the local library.
Remember, not only is reading interesting and fun but – children who read succeed!
School Systems
Your child will be given a reading book and Home School Record Book, both of which should be brought to school every day in their book bag or school bag. The Home School Record Book is for comments from everyone who listens to your child read, including adults at home. All our children are encouraged to read at home every day. This can be recorded and initialled by parents/carers. The Home School Record Book is monitored weekly by the class teacher/teaching assistant, where a child is not reading at home, parents/carers will be spoken to or messaged on seesaw about this as a reminder.
Moving on- reading for understanding
In Key Stage One, children continue to progress through the reading book bands as directed by the teacher. In Year Two, children will move on to the Accelerated Reader programme. Children complete an online Star Test to assess their reading age, and are then given a Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) number that they can choose their reading books from. If a child is not yet ready to begin the Accelerated Reader programme, then they will read an ability-appropriate book in school, with adult support, every week. After each book, the children will complete an on-line reading quiz and this will register how much of the book they have understood. Readers will then move through the levels on their individualised reading programme, where they are placed appropriately on the programme in line with their level of understanding.
Online Reading:
Accelerated Reader
From Year 2 children have access to Accelerated Reader. Each child has an individual login and the children can access a huge range of online books. The children enjoy reading the text at home and then quiz after completion to check for understanding and comprehension skills. Follow the link here to log in:
https://ukhosted13.renlearn.co.uk
MyOn
MyON give pupils access to a personalized digital library at every student's fingertips. Renaissance myON® Reader is a student-centered, personalized literacy environment that gives students access to more than 6,000 enhanced digital books.Follow the link below to access your child's digital library. There is also a student help guide below to help set MyOn up for the first time.
Useful websites to support reading at home:
https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/ To access hundreds of free ebooks
https://library.thenational.academy/ Free reading and writing activities from your favourite children’s authors from the National Literacy Trust
https://www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/ The Book Trust
https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/welcome-back/for-home/reading-owl/expert-help Oxford Owl also offer a range of resources and an 'Expert Help' area.