Our approach: Reading

At De Beauvoir, we recognise the importance of teaching children the skills they need to become confident readers and of providing the experiences which develop a love of reading.

In Key Stage 1, pupils follow the Read Write Inc Phonics programme to teach reading and writing. Pupils have daily lessons which systematically teach the common sounds in the English language and how to blend and segment sounds to read and write using their phonic knowledge. Once they have successfully completed the programme, pupils move on to the Read Write Inc Comprehension programme.

In Key Stage 2, we use Destination Reader to teach reading. Destination Reader is a consistent structured approach involving daily sessions. These incorporate whole class modelling, prior to children applying the skills they have learned during partner work and independent reading, with books matched to their levels. Children deepen their understanding of the texts they read through the systematic use of a series of strategies and language stems.

At De Beauvoir, we actively seek opportunities to develop pupils’ love of reading. We have high expectations of regular home reading and understand the importance of developing pupils’ exposure to a range of quality texts. We have carefully crafted our own Literature Spine which maps out the texts our pupils will be exposed to during their time at De Beauvoir. There are the are key stories, poems and classics which we believe our pupils deserve to read! Pupils benefit from regular opportunities to hear adults read, visits to our school library and to the local library in Dalston along with themed weeks, mixed class reading and celebrations days.

Have a look at our Reading and Stories Blog.

Our approach: Writing

At De Beauvoir, we have taken time to create our own approach to writing called Being a Writer. This has been written with our school’s context in mind and to ensure the very best outcomes for our pupils – creating a community of confident, articulate and able writers. Being a Writer allows for taught creative control and composition with structure and precision of developed writing skills. To achieve this, our teacher ‘plan backwards’ from the desired outcome; they ensure that all writing is given a purpose, audience and is contextualised either within the topic work or the class text through an engaging and stimulating hook. Woven through this writing process are direct, discrete writing skills which are intrinsically related to the outcome being taught so that pupils have an understanding of the impact of the grammatical skills in a controlled, more selective way. Our pupils spend a number of weeks immersed in a particular text type or novel linked to their topic learning and Destination Reader. For example, as part of their Victorian unit of study, Year 3 will read and write about: Queen Victoria’s Bathing Machine, Frankenstein, A Christmas Carol and ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. High quality, engaging and both modern and classic texts have been chosen to support the children’s understanding of their topic, as well as offering opportunities to use a range of texts, both fiction and non-fiction – they are able to draw on shared models and what they have read to develop their own vocabulary and sentence structures. Key drivers of our English provision include high quality modelling, drama, oracy and extended writing.

Writing Skills

Providing children with a toolkit of writing skills, along with a love for writing, is what will make them successful communicators in all forms in the future. At De Beauvoir, we have a precisely mapped Writing Skills Ladder which layers the writing skills to be introduced and taught to the pupils each year. These include:

• Terminology to introduce
• Word construction
• Sentence construction
• Punctuation

These are carefully mapped out during the planning stage and allow for clarity of modelling by our teachers and assessment in the writing cycle. They are woven into the writing cycle through instructional grammar and then used by children when completed extended writing, developing their writing arsenal.

Take a look at our Writing Skills Ladder

Handwriting

As a school, we take great pride in our handwriting and know that having neat and cursive script, which they can be proud of, is an empowering tool which children can take forward. This begins in the EYFS whereby the children are exposed to mark making and patterns, developing their fine motor skills. This develops through our EYFS with ensuring correct pencil grip by the children when they begin to make letters and string letters together to make words. As they enter Year 1, we begin teaching continuous cursive script, using the programme Letter-Join. Teaching them continuous cursive handwriting from a young age aids spelling and helps children to write at speed as they move through Key Stage 1 and into Key Stage 2. By Year 3, we encourage all children to be using cursive handwriting and, when their handwriting is to a sufficient standard, will be awarded a Pen Licence for their hard work and tenacity.