English

At Meavy C of E Primary School we believe that for all our children to become fluent readers and writers, phonics must be taught through a systematic and structured phonics programme.

We use the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised to plan and provide daily engaging phonics lessons. In phonics, we teach children that the letters of the alphabet represent a different sound, that these can be used in a variety of combinations and are put together to make words. The children learn to recognise all of the different sounds and combinations that they might see when they are reading or writing. Our phonics teaching starts in Reception and follows a very specific sequence that allows our children to build on their previous phonic knowledge and master specific phonic strategies as they move through school. As a result, all our children are able to tackle any unfamiliar words that they might discover. At Meavy we also model these strategies in shared reading and writing both inside and outside of the phonics lesson and across the curriculum. We have a strong focus on the development of language skills for our children because we know that speaking and listening are crucial skills for reading and writing in all subjects.

How we teach phonics and Early Reading (Early Years and KS1)

• In Reception and Y1, children follow the progression within Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme. Phonics is taught daily and there is a review session on a Friday.
• Phonics starts in reception in week 2 to ensure the children make a strong start.
• By the end of reception, children will have been taught up to the end of phase 4.
• By the end of year 1, children will have been taught up to the end of phase 5.
• Children in year 2 recap any gaps in their phonics knowledge in the autumn term.
• Reception lessons start at 15 minutes, with daily additional oral blending – increasing quickly to 30 minutes.
• Y1 lessons are 30 minutes long.

Reading practice sessions

• Children across reception, year 1, year 2 (and beyond if appropriate) apply their phonics knowledge by using a full matched decodable reader in a small group reading practice session.

• These sessions are 15 minutes long and happen three times a week. There are approximately 6 children in a group.

• The sessions follow the model set out in Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised. The first session is centred around decoding, the second on prosody and the third on comprehension.

• The children then take the same book home the following week to ensure success is shared with the family.

• In reception these sessions start in week 4. Children who are not yet blending take a wordless book home.

How do we assess phonic knowledge?

• In reception, year 1 and year 2 at the end of each week there is a review session which recaps the learning. There are also whole review weeks (pre-planned and bespoke review weeks to address gaps identified by the class teacher’s ongoing formative assessment).
• Children identified in reception, year 1 and year 2 as in danger of falling behind are immediately identified and daily ‘keep up’ sessions are put in place – these sessions follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme.
• In reception and year 1, the children are assessed at the end of every half term using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessment tracker.
• Children in year 1 complete the statutory Phonics Screening Check in the summer term.
• Children who do not meet standard in the Phonics Screening Check in Y1, will complete this in Y2. Support continues to be put in place for these children

Reading for pleasure – Early Years and KS1

Alongside daily teaching of phonics, reading for pleasure is an important part of our Early Reading offer. We ensure children develop a love of reading and are exposed to a range of interesting and relevant authors. We promote a love of reading in the following ways:

• Sharing well loved and high quality stories, poems and non fiction books with the children.
• Teaching of poetry, which includes performing and learning a range of poems by heart.
• Daily storytime.
• Whole class reading sessions which include a range of books that are mapped out to ensure children have a rich reading diet, vocabulary is explicitly taught and children can learn key phrases in the book.
• Book areas throughout the classroom which have a careful selection of books, including books by the focus author to inspire and engage the children.
• Cosy spaces within the classroom with room to snuggle down with a book.
• Ensuring that the children have access to our school library on a regular basis and can select sharing books to take home and enjoy with their families.
• Building in opportunities for older children to read with our younger children.
• Dream reader baskets for the children to take home. Complete with cuddly toy, hot chocolate and a blanket to snuggle under. 

Support for Parents

If you are a parent and would like more information about how to support your child with phonics at home, please follow these links. You will find videos of the sound pronunciations, letter formation sheets and other helpful resources. 

Little Wandle Support for Parents including helpful videosProgramme Overview for Reception and Year 1Reception Autumn 1 sounds guideReception Autumn 2 sounds guideReception Spring sounds guideYear 1 sounds guide

Intent

At Meavy C of E Primary we are passionate about reading, which lies at the heart of our curriculum. We are dedicated to enabling our pupils to become lifelong readers and we believe reading is key for academic success.

Reading is taught not only in specific Reading lessons but across the wider curriculum too. We provide language-rich classroom environments and a curriculum where children are exposed to, and actively engage with, high quality language in varying forms in a meaningful, deliberate and engaging way. Language acquisition and its use is at the core of all the reading, writing and communication we expect of our pupils. 

We aim to develop a love of reading in all our children. We provide children with the reading skills they need to read a broad range of texts. By the end of Key Stage One, our children will already be successful, fluent decoders through the delivery of consistent high quality, systematic synthetic phonics teaching from EYFS until the end of KS1. They understand that they use their phonics knowledge as the first tool when tackling new words in reading and writing. They will also have a growing understanding of text meaning which will be further developed during Key Stage 2. Children will leave Meavy as competent readers, who can recommend books to their peers, have a thirst for reading a wide range of high-quality texts across the genres, participate in discussions about books and have an established love of reading for life.

Implementation

Every child will experience a full range of reading experiences during their time in school from reading with an adult 1-2-1, reading in small groups of similar ability children and as part of a whole class lesson.

How we teach phonics and Early Reading (Early Years and KS1)

• In Reception and Y1, children follow the progression within Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme. Phonics is taught daily and there is a review session on a Friday.
• Phonics starts in reception in week 2 to ensure the children make a strong start.
• By the end of reception, children will have been taught up to the end of phase 4.
• By the end of year 1, children will have been taught up to the end of phase 5.
• Children in year 2 recap any gaps in their phonics knowledge in the autumn term.
• Reception lessons start at 15 minutes, with daily additional oral blending – increasing quickly to 30 minutes.
• Y1 lessons are 30 minutes long.

Reading practice sessions

• Children across reception, year 1, year 2 (and beyond if appropriate) apply their phonics knowledge by using a full matched decodable reader in a small group reading practice session.

• These sessions are 15 minutes long and happen three times a week. There are approximately 6 children in a group.

• The sessions follow the model set out in Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised. The first session is centred around decoding, the second on prosody and the third on comprehension.

• The children then take the same book home the following week to ensure success is shared with the family.

• In reception these sessions start in week 4. Children who are not yet blending take a wordless book home

Once children have successfully completed the Little Wandle phonics and reading programme they move on to carefully selected books matched to their reading development. 

Some children in KS2 will also continue to have 1-2-1 support. Small Group sessions will focus on reading a text suited to the children in the group which allows them to develop decoding, fluency and comprehension skills.

Whole class guided reading will allow children to all read a text matched to the expected level for their year group. Again, within this lesson children will have the opportunity to read independently and work on comprehension skills.

Teachers regularly read with the children, modelling reading. The children get to know and love all sorts of stories, poetry and information books. This is in addition to the books that they bring home. This helps to extend children’s vocabulary and comprehension, as well as supporting their writing.

Impact

By the time children leave Meavy C of E Primary they are competent readers who can recommend books to their peers, have a thirst for reading a range of genres including poetry, and participate in discussions about books, including evaluating an author’s use of language and the impact this can have on the reader. They can also read books to enhance their knowledge and understanding of all subjects on the curriculum and communicate their research to a wider audience.

Meavy CofE Primary Reading Spine 

Meavy CofE Primary School Reading progression Map

Reading for Pleasure

“You can find magic wherever you look. Sit back and relax, all you need is a book” – Dr Seuss

At Meavy we are passionate about reading, and this lies at the heart of our curriculum. We are dedicated to enabling our pupils to become lifelong readers and we believe embedding a love of reading in school and at home is key for academic success. Reading for pleasure is a form of play that allows us to experience other worlds and roles in our imagination. For children, reading for pleasure is reading that goes beyond a teacher’s reading expectations and is done to fuel their own curiosity and enjoyment.

We know that sometimes the biggest challenge is not simply getting your child to read at home, but to enjoy reading too! At Meavy, we have embedded strategies across the school which ensure that we can best support all our pupils to develop a lifelong love of reading.

Class Reads

Time to read aloud is found every day. Whether reading a story book, non-fiction text or poetry, it’s a wonderful opportunity for staff to offer a model for independent reading and to demonstrate their own enthusiasm for books. Each class has a class reader, selected from our Reading Spine.  Our Reading Spine has been carefully put together so that we have a collection of high-quality texts which we want all children in our school to experience and enjoy.  These books ensure that children hear the best texts read aloud to them by their teachers for pleasure and helps to promote ‘book talk’.  The intention is that by the time they reach year 6 and beyond, they have developed a wide, rich vocabulary and broader knowledge of the world and, as a result, are able to access the more complex books expected of them in secondary schools.

School Library

Meavy children love our school library! It’s a valuable learning environment which gives a cosy space to choose and read a book.  We are very lucky to be a part of the Schools Library Service, which provides us with a range of diverse books on a range of issues, themes and topics and the latest ‘hot reads’.  These texts are swapped every term, so children are regularly exposed to a range of exciting new and challenging texts.

Dream Reads and Reading Art Scrap Books

Reading aloud is encouraged at home as well as at school, and children in Acorn Class and Year 2 take home a ‘sharing book’ for their parents or carers to read to them in addition to a decodable book.  They also have Dream Reads - each week, a child is given the chance to take home one of our 'Dream Read' baskets. Inside each box is a quality text, a teddy, a blanket and a pack of hot chocolate to share and enjoy with an adult at home.  

Children in Key Stage 2 get the opportunity to share their favourite texts with their peers through art.  Chestnut and Oak Class have a Reading Art Scrapbook.  Each week a child is chosen to take home the Reading Art basket, together with a selection of wonderful water colour pencils and create a double page spread about their chosen text.  They can be as creative as they choose.  Each class are currently building a wonderful collection of book artwork.

Challenge Trees

In Y3-Y6, the children can access our Challenge Reading Trees. Each tree offers 50 books - a range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry - and children are challenged to see how many of the books they can read!

Young Reading Leaders

Every day we have a dedicated team of year 6 readers who read with children from lower year groups. It is a very special time of our school day and highly valued by our school family. This supports our younger children by making sure they read aloud every day and it gives our oldest children a sense of responsibility. 

Intent

Writing is a crucial part of our curriculum at Meavy C of E Primary. By the end of Year 6 we aspire for our children to have developed a love of writing and to be able to express their thoughts and ideas clearly and creatively through the written word.

We also intend to create writers who can re-read, edit and improve their own writing, and enable pupils to be able to confidently use the essential skills of grammar, punctuation, spelling and phonics. At Meavy, we set high expectations for all our children to take pride in their work and have a fluent, cursive handwriting style alongside allowing their imaginations to flourish. 

Implementation

In order to help us to develop confident, enthusiastic writers who can express themselves in a variety of different styles and across a variety of contexts, our teaching of writing is often cross circular and linked to our class topics. This provides our children with regular opportunities to write for a range of purposes and audiences. Writing tasks are specific and meaningful, and often meet a purpose to engage children and to illustrate how their writing skills can be applied to real life contexts. Teachers use high quality texts as models for children’s own writing, through the Book Writes Teaching Sequences. The process of writing is broken down into four stages to develop writing skills: Immersion in the text; Practising writing; Independent Writing; Proofreading and editing.

Impact

Pupils will make good progress from their own personal starting points. By the end of Year Six they will be able to write clearly and accurately and adapt their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences. Our pupils develop enthusiasm for writing, and acquire a wide and rich vocabulary, with a strong command of the written word. Most importantly, they will develop a love of writing and be well equipped for the rest of their education and beyond.

Meavy CofE Primary School Writing Curriculum Progression

Texts-for-Writing-2024-2025-EYFS-and-Y1

Texts-that-Teach-2024-2025-Beech-Y2-3

Texts-for-Writing-2024-2025-Chestnut-Y4-5Texts-for-Writing-2024-2025-Oak-Y6

Handwriting at Meavy

At Meavy Primary School we are very proud of our pupils’ handwriting and take particular care in our handwriting style. We use Letter-Join’s on-line handwriting resource and Lesson Planners as the basis of our handwriting policy as it covers all the requirements of the National Curriculum.

Handwriting is a basic skill that influences the quality of work throughout the curriculum. By the end of Key Stage 2 all pupils should have the ability to produce fluent, legible and, eventually, speedy joined-up handwriting, and to understand the different forms of handwriting used for different purposes.

Our intention is to make handwriting an automatic process that does not interfere with creative and mental thinking.

Meavy CofE Primary School Handwriting Progression Map

Parent Guide to Handwriting at Meavy

At Meavy Primary School, we believe spoken language to be essential in the development and achievement of our children across the curriculum. We strive to develop spoken language skills through the taught curriculum, collective worship, playtimes and lunchtimes, extra-curricular activities and the whole ethos of the school. Children are taught how to be effective communicators through oracy projects that feature skills such as storytelling, discussion and presenting.  The ability to listen actively, speak clearly and communicate articulately is seen as a fundamental part of the learning process. Critically, Oracy underpins the development of reading and writing and is key to progress in all subjects.

Oracy gives every child the opportunity to find their voice; to articulate their ideas, thoughts and feelings clearly and coherently and develops understanding. Effective communication helps every child to fulfil their potential and flourish in their school life and beyond, regardless of their background.

We endeavour to give every learner, under our provision, this opportunity.

The Oracy Framework

Our Oracy curriculum is underpinned by the Oracy Framework. 

The Oracy framework uses four vital strands:

• Physical
• Linguistics
• Cognitive
• Social and Emotional

Through a high-quality Oracy education, pupils learn through talk and learn to talk.

The use of carefully planned, modelled and scaffolded talk in the classroom heightens subject knowledge and understanding for our learners.

At Meavy there is a shared understanding of how talk supports learning and children’s social development. We believe that developing oracy throughout primary education provides our children with vital life skills.

We aim to encourage fluent speakers, who are confident to communicate, debate and present in a wide range of situations. The National Curriculum for English reflects the importance of spoken language in pupils’ development.

Oracy is embedded throughout our broad and balanced curriculum. Lessons are talk-rich, and questions are carefully planned to ensure all children can fully participate. Pupils participate in a wide range of Oracy activities which help them to develop confidence in spoken language.

Some examples are:

• Partner talk
• Group discussion
• Collaborative work and problem solving
• Debate
• Role play
• Drama
• Presentations

Progression in Sentence Structures

At Meavy, we aim to help children develop strong spelling skills through a consistent approach that allows children to practise their spellings both in class and at home. Our school uses Spelling Shed as the primary platform for spelling practice for children in Year 2 to Year 6.

Weekly Spelling Rule

• Each week, children will learn a new spelling rule.
• This spelling rule will be reinforced through various activities in class to ensure a strong understanding and correct application.

Use of Spelling Shed

• Spelling Shed is used as an online tool to help children practise their weekly spellings.
• Children are expected to use Spelling Shed at home regularly to reinforce the spelling rule introduced in class.
• Login details for Spelling Shed will be provided to each child to facilitate easy access. You can find your child’s log-in details in the back of their Reading Journal.

In-Class Practise

• Spelling practice will take place during school hours to give children additional opportunities to master the weekly spelling rule.
• Teachers will use interactive and engaging activities to reinforce the spellings during lessons.

Monitoring Progress:

• Each week, class teachers will monitor children's progress on Spelling Shed. This helps teachers track engagement and identify any areas where additional support might be needed. Regular feedback will be provided to children to support their spelling development.

Spelling Bee Award:

• At the end of each week, a Spelling Bee award is given to one child in each class who has shown good engagement with their spelling practice, both in class and on Spelling Shed.

This approach ensures a consistent, supportive, and fun way for children to improve their spelling skills they need to become confident and capable spellers.

Spelling Shed Parent Guide

Progression in Spelling

Year 2Year 3Year 4Year 5Year 6