Phonics

We use Floppy's Phonics scheme to teach phonics at Armley Park Primary School.

It is our intent at Armley Park Primary School to provide pupils with a high-quality Phonics scheme to allow them to become fluent and successful readers and writers. We follow Floppy’s Phonics across Foundation stage and KS1. Pupils are taught in whole class groups, following a 2-day teaching sequence.

We provide daily Phonics sessions to identified KS2 pupils, again following the same 2-day teaching sequence.

Following Floppy’s Phonics teaches pupils to:

• Read easily, fluently and with good understanding.

• To develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and understanding.

• To apply their phonic knowledge in both their reading and writing, accurately and coherently.

Reading

We value the importance of learning to read and try to engage children in their reading journey from a very early age. All children will have the opportunity to access high quality texts through having stories read to them, learning how to read individual words, being taught how to understand what they are reading and through learning the skills they need to develop a love of reading. 

English is at the core of everything we do at Armley Park Primary School. If children cannot read, write and communicate effectively, they cannot access the curriculum and more importantly, contribute positively to society, as they get older.

At Armley Park, we understand that for children to be successful readers and writers, they must also be confident speakers and listeners. Through the delivery of our reading curriculum we ensure a consistent and robust teaching and learning of early reading and phonics in FS and KS1, so that pupils are able to read with increased speed and fluency and access the wider curriculum.  Communicating thoughts, feelings and emotions is a vital life skill, which we support children to develop in all our lessons. Whether it is using a talk partner, sharing ideas with the class or speaking in a school assembly, we model, promote and teach high levels of communication skills and promote ‘showing five’ to develop children’s ability to listen effectively both to peers and to adults across any setting in school. Key vocabulary which we wish the children to learn and use is identified and taught in all curriculum areas and lessons. Whole class shared reading is used throughout the school to enable all children to share high quality texts and develop skills in reading comprehension and fluency. 

When children are learning how to read, they access books which match their phonics ability so that they are able to read words independently and to improve their confidence. Once they have developed those skills of decoding words, they move to move challenging texts where they will be asked to show their understanding of the text and be able to answer a range of questions such as:

• What do you think is going to happen in the story from looking at the front cover?
• What has happened in the book so far?
• What do you think might happen next?
• Who is your favourite character and why do you like them?
• How has the author created a sense of mystery within the story?
• Will you choose similar texts to this next time? 

We have a wide range of  books for the children to read as they move through the reading scheme. We encourage the children to choose their own books but we also guide them to ensure they read a wide range of different genres eg, fiction, non-fiction, adventure stories, classic novels. 

Reading for Enjoyment

At Armley Park Primary School, we strongly believe it is fundamental that children develop a love of reading. We try to encourage this by using high quality texts in reading lessons and across the wider curriculum and through providing opportunities for children to access a wide range of books that they can read in their own time.

We have a fantastic library, courtesy of the England footballer Marcus Rashford, which is filled with books which have been chosen specifically to help children to develop a love of reading and also to ensure they can access a wide range of diverse books which will help our children to develop their understanding of the world. 

Writing

At Armley Park Primary School we provide pupils with a high-quality education in English that teaches pupils to speak, read and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others effectively.

Our writing curriculum enables pupils to read, plan, explore and write using a variety of key texts. Writing is planned to ensure that pupils are writing with a clear purpose; to entertain, to inform, to persuade and to discuss. Pupils are taught how to adapt their writing to a specific audience and how to apply their writing skills to all areas of the curriculum.

Pupils will develop a love of writing whilst at Armley Park. A variety of writing opportunities will inspire, engage and excite pupils to write with confidence, purpose and for pleasure.

Writing has an important place in both education and in society. It is an essential life skill that is developed through each phase of their education and into adulthood. Having the ability to write with confidence and accuracy is a tool which will support pupils through school life and as they enter employment within the wider community.

In Foundation stage, pupils are provided with opportunities to explore writing in groups, whole class and whilst accessing areas of provision inside and out. Adults model how to write for a variety of purposes, encouraging pupil’s independence and confidence in writing.

Pupils follow a writing process in KS1 and KS2 in which they read and respond to a stimulus for writing, analyse the content and features and then plan their own writing with opportunities to review, edit and improve throughout the process. Pupils skills are built on and developed as they move through each Year group to help raise standards in writing across school.

Writing is celebrated in all classes across school. Pupils work is displayed in classrooms as well as weekly in the hall on the ‘Writer of the week’ display board.

Writing is celebrated in all classes across school. Pupils work is displayed in classrooms as well as weekly in the hall on the ‘Writer of the week’ display board.