English

Loders aims to foster confident, articulate children who are able to communicate through the written and spoken word.

Developing speaking and listening skills is a priority, particularly for those children in the early years. We plan our literacy units of work to closely match our creative topics thereby providing purposeful and engaging opportunities for the children to write. We facilitate this learning by sharing with the children a wide range of high quality texts and genres to expose the children to a substantial variety of writing styles and authors.

Reading is a key stength and passion at the school. We strive to develop a passion for reading and use this as a tool to unlock interests and topics. We publically promote reading for pleasure through our new library, celebrating World Book Day, and a sponsored readathon. We place huge emphasis on reading from the start, using ways which suit your child best to get them enjoying books, using a range of Reading Schemes including Rapid Readers and the Peak Publications Guided reading scheme. We identify children needing extra support very early on, because we monitor their progress at all times and track how they are doing. Where needed we use a number of different interventions to develop early skills and help each child to gain confidence. Our PTFA have recently supported us in purchasing additional reading scheme books to support the reading development of our younger readers.

In EYFS and KS1 we use the Early Reading Programme to teach phonics, and a variety of reading schemes including Jelly and Bean, Oxford University Press, Collins and Rigby.  Phonics is a twice daily session and then application becomes evident as the children approach their reading and written work.

The children have access to a good selection of books in their classrooms and in our library. We encourage all children to read every day at home so that children then read for pleasure. It is particularly important that parents read to and read with their children. We ask that parents listen to their children read as much as possible, not only using books sent home but for example, reading labels in the supermarket or reading notices in the environment. In class, children enjoy guided reading in small groups with their teachers each week.

Where possible, teaching of reading and grammar is interwoven into literacy sessions so that the skills can be embedded alongside writing. In some classes separate skills sessions are also taught to support understanding in these areas. Discussions, debates, presentations, drama and other speaking and listening activities are also used so that all learners can explore the themes and ideas of texts and genres in a variety of ways. The children are really proud of their literacy work and this is celebrated through displays, sharing work with other adults and children, and as part of our collective worships.

In the early years, we encourage emergent writing and mark making. Writing is developmental process therefore young children will not all be at the same stage. As the children become more confident in their writing, the secretarial skills are introduced such as spacing, full stops, paragraphs, etc. We celebrate writing through regular whole school 'Big Write' events. We follow Westover Green spelling programme, investigating spelling patterns and rules, and the key words for each yeargroup. Spelling patterns and rules are taught and weekly tests take place in KS2. 

We ensure that children form their letters correctly as they progress through their reception year.  As they continue through year one and into year two, cursive handwriting is taught.  Eventually the aim is for all children to have neat, legible, well-formed handwriting, with correctly proportioned ascenders and descenders. Children may earn a pen licence each year when they prove they can maintain this neat style consistently.  Handwriting is taught in all years, using handwriting books.  The children are expected to transfer this into their other books.