English
English - Reading
Reading At Maple Ridge
At Maple Ridge we aim to foster a joy of books and reading and place a high importance on reading skills. Each day all children are given time to read independently books of their own choosing and read with an adult, with regular opportunities to visit the school library to change their reading scheme and own choice of book. All classrooms also have a varied collection of books for children to access at any time.
Children in reception, year 1 and 2 take part in regular interactive story sessions using the ‘story sack’ scheme. Children in years 3 and 4 take part in sharing story sessions in our Cedar room which parents are also invited to attend. This is an opportunity for children to start sharing stories with other adults and children outside of their class. It is also a time for parents to come and share stories with their children and to support ideas for sharing stories at home. This was following a survey from parents feeding back that some children were finding it difficult to access books with their parents in the home setting.
Storylinks
Some children in years 5 and 6 have the opportunity to take part in a therapeutic programme called ‘Storylinks.
StoryLinks is a therapeutic partnership support programme. It uses therapeutic story-writing to support pupils’ emotional well-being alongside developing reading, academic and imagination skills.
Sessions are light-hearted and fun. The main focus is on making up a story, taking it in turns within a group to add ‘what’s next’ verbally. In co-creating stories the group address the pupils’ behavioural, emotional and social difficulties through emotional metaphor. Within the story the group can provide peer understanding and develop solutions together.
The StoryLinks tutor oversees the sessions and gives the story opener, which is about an emotional situation or related to an issue that may be affecting one or all of the group. Each child has their own folder where their stories are kept and it is shared with the class and home. Reading should take place between sessions to give a sense of ownership and developing the themes of the story the child has helped to create.
If you would like to know more please follow the link below to the Storylinks website.
English - Big Write, Big Talk
Each week, children should be given opportunities to practice, develop and embed their gross and fine motor skills for handwriting.
This is through either:
• Write Dance; a programme which supports and develops the gross motor movements essential for handwriting or
• Handwriting Time; a programme which is part of the Read Write Inc scheme to support the development of handwriting skills leading to joined writing.
Ongoing assessment and the mapping document should be used to support at which stage the children are working within these programmes as the children’s skills in handwriting may differ to where they are in the Read Write Inc scheme.
Big Talk and Big Write:
We have incorporated Big Writing into our English curriculum to allow our children to develop their confidence and stamina for writing.
For Team 1 children, teachers should assess when and at what stage children are ready to use the principles of Big Talk and Write using a ‘mini talk and write’ session.
Each week, children should be given the opportunity to practice their ‘talking to write’ skills through a three week cycle alongside the read Write Inc scheme.
Talk to write skills are specifically taught through ‘Big Talk’ using a chosen stimulus to engage children. This should usually be a chosen book and linked book from the Read Write Inc scheme. This session should be at the end of the week where reading has been the focus to enable them to immerse themselves in the language from the book.
‘Big Write’ sessions should be at the end of writing and comprehension focus weeks when they have continued to immerse themselves in the language of the chosen book and linked book as part of the read Write Inc scheme. Children rehearse what they would like to write and then given a relaxed and comfortable environment to allow them to write as independently as possible.
At times chosen by the teacher or if felt more appropriate for the learning stage of the child, they may be given a stimulus form their learning in other areas from their week. For example a trip or an experiment they have taken part in.
Their piece of writing is completed in the child’s own ‘special’ Big Write book, fostering a pride in their writing and allowing the children to see their own progress in writing over the years.
As well as building children’s writing skills, Big Writing gives mores opportunities for identifying any gaps to accurately inform the next steps in teaching and learning.
English - Write Dance / Handwriting
Write dance combines gross and fine motor skills with rhythmic and then melodic pieces of music chosen so the children can follow and learn specific movements to develop their physical skills including, balance, coordination, flexibility and stamina.
The music and the dance is used to guide and aid children’s imagination and language development, so the pieces of music, with the corresponding movements, are structured into ‘narrative’ themes that can be developed as stories or these can be enjoyed as separate and ‘stand-alone’ sessions.
Rhythm is closely linked to rhyme and children are encouraged to use their voices to describe the actions as they move and dance.
Mark-making and ‘movement drawings’ ensure that the children progress from whole body dance moves to fine- motor movements with fluency and speed. This provides the crucial learning environment, the most appropriate resources and the most motivating and stimulating programme to support and develop mature physical skills more quickly.
For letter formation we use the RWI phonics scheme which links a story and visual to each letter, please refer to RWI for more information.
English - Read Write Phonics
At Maple Ridge School as part of our wider literacy curriculum, we follow the Read Write Inc. phonics scheme. It is a “structured and systematic approach to teaching literacy” and is taught to the large majority of pupils throughout the school every day. This scheme allows children to build their phonics knowledge to develop their sight reading, comprehension and writing skills.
For more information, please click on the link below:
Teachers and adults use Group Education Plans (GEPs) to set clear next step targets which we share with the children and home each half term. These targets also help us to ensure all children’s learning is individualised for their needs.
