English: Reading
Reading is at the heart of what we do at Southdale. We aim to create a culture where children love reading and learn through stories.
Reading at home is one of the best ways your child will become a better reader and writer. Reading for just 20 minutes a day has a massive impact on the amount of vocabulary a child knows.
Please read see our parents guide for more information.
Phonics
READ WRITE INC.
We use the highly successful Read Write Inc. Phonics programme to ensure we teach our children, who are not yet out of the reading gate, to read. We teach the Read Write Inc. programmes with fidelity and passion – we know what it takes to make literacy pleasurable and rewarding for our children.
To visit the parent pages on the Ruth Miskin Training website go to:
http://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/parents/
WHAT CAN I DO TO HELP?
Your child will bring different sorts of books home from school. It helps if you know whether this is a book that your child can read on their own or whether this is a book that you should read to them. The teacher will have explained which is which. Please trust your child’s teacher to choose the book(s) that will help your child the most. Children will always be given the opportunity to choose their own book to bring home (as well as one that is phonetically decodable for them).As children are developing their reading, it is beneficial to read a book more than once.
Help your child to sound out the letters in words and then to ‘blend’ the sounds together to make a whole word. Try not to refer to the letters by their names. Help your child to focus on the sounds. You can hear how to say the sounds correctly by clicking on the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkXcabDUg7Q
We know parents and carers are very busy people. But if you can find time to read to your child as much as possible, it helps him or her to learn about books and stories. They also learn new words and what they mean. Show that you are interested in reading yourself and talk about reading as a family. You can find out about good stories to read to your child here:
http://www.ruthmiskintraining.com/teacher-support/17/index.html
What if my child turns out to be/is dyslexic?
The way we teach reading is especially helpful for children who might be dyslexic. This is because we use a very well-organised programme that has a strong focus on phonics. This is very important for children who find learning to read difficult. If you are worried about your child, please come and talk to us.
Reading in Y3
Objectives
Reading in Y4
Objectives
Reading in Y5
Objectives
Reading in Y6
Objectives
English: Writing
At Southdale, we take extreme pride, care and enjoyment from our writing. All our two-week writing units are linked to our narrative curriculum. Our children have a clear context, purpose and audience for their writing.
Our writing units follow a two-week structure. The children are hooked in to their learning; they know the context, purpose and audience for their writing. They then get the chance to be immersed in their text type we read as readers and we read as writers. From this we generate our success criteria. We then ‘box up’ and draft our writing based on the year group expectations. They then have time to write it themselves so they apply their new skills. We use quality examples and examples of excellence, live learning lines, and shared/modelled and guided writing so they create a piece they are proud of. We take great care in editing our work as this is where we can really improve our skills and the quality of the piece. Children then take pride in publishing their end of unit outcomes. This gives children the chance to produce beautiful, high-quality work. The link to our narrative means that it is real work for an audience.
Our writing structure enables the children at Southdale to produce authentic work of high quality. Something that they can be proud of.
English Programme of Study
National Expectations in Vocabulary, Grammar and Punctuation
Y5 English Writing
