English
At South Stanley Junior School, we aim to engage and develop confident, articulate children who are able to communicate and express themselves through written and spoken words. We strive to develop a love for reading and writing which will serve them well throughout the rest of their lives.
Reading
Reading is the gateway to learning, opening doors to faraway adventures, new possibilities and promising futures. Without strong reading skills, children will face a host of difficult challenges throughout their lives. We want to build a love of reading so they can strive to achieve the highest possible outcomes. We also want to make sure that children become avid readers, who can use reading to learn about their world as well as help them to make careful informed choices in their life and of course.
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The Simple View of Reading provides the rationale for the structure of reading provision at our school. The Simple View of Reading, which is the conceptual framework that underpins reading in the new National Curriculum, sets out a model of reading that has two dimensions: word-reading and language comprehension. At South Stanley Junior School, our pupils follow a system of synthetic phonics, based on the Sounds-Write scheme. A rigorous intervention plan ensures children who struggle with word-reading receive further support in year 3 and if necessary, in other year groups.
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At South Stanley Junior School, comprehension is taught through English lessons and guided reading sessions. English lessons are organised into units of work written around high-quality texts. Pupils are expected to develop a range of specific comprehension skills, ranging from straightforward retrieval of information to increasingly sophisticated inference. The learning sequence ensures that key learning is revisited and built upon both across units and across year groups, enabling pupils to gain understanding of different types of text and how to write for different audiences and purposes.
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Texts become progressively more challenging across the Key Stage. The texts children read in lessons provide the stimulus for much of their writing work.
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In addition to English lessons, guided reading and phonics, children at South Stanley Junior School have the opportunity to read independently and listen to books read to them by an adult. This supports their comprehension, develops their vocabulary and helps them to enjoy reading and lose themselves in a great book.
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Here at South Stanley Junior School, we are always striving for teachers to give children the best possible reading opportunities. We use Reading Plus which the children can access both in school and at home to create an interactive reading strategy for the children. We also have a number of initiatives to support those children who are less confident. Again, promoting a love of reading.
Reading at SSJS
English lessons
English overviews
Writing
We intend to build accurate writing which engages our pupils across all subjects. Our writing curriculum is linked to whole-class texts and topics which cover the program of study in each year group. Teachers are encouraged to make writing meaningful and purposeful.
Writing is planned sequentially, with an end goal, which is continuously shared with the pupils so they understand what they are learning and why it is important. Accurate modelled speaking, listening, reading and writing is paramount in all lessons.
Pupils are continually exposed to high level vocabulary in all lessons and given as many real-life experiences to further expose and embed new vocabulary to help broaden children’s knowledge. We want our pupils to value accurate writing in all of their work and realise that writing can make positive impacts on the world around them, writing can entertain and writing can be purposeful.
Phonics and Spelling
We want all pupils to take pride in their spelling and independently take steps to improve and check their spellings in all writing. As we are a junior school, it is important that teachers, especially in years 3 and 4, are knowledgeable of spelling provision expected in year 2. We also believe that, when in year 3, pupils revisit phonics and year 2 spelling rules to help ease the transition from one school to another. We aim to provide pupils with a chance to revisit spellings from previous years and ensure that any pupils struggling, especially disadvantaged and SEND pupils, are targeted through quality first teaching and extra provision. We want children to see the value in being good at spelling and transfer taught spellings, especially HFW and CEW’s, in all books.
A spelling scheme is not adopted in school, however, County Durham’s progression in spelling document is used alongside an expected teaching cycle (applying the strategies used in the Sounds-Write approach).
Sounds Write is used to implement a systematic approach to teaching of phonics, which is in line with the provision offered at South Stanley Infant School. More detailed information regarding our phonics provision can be found in the document below:
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