English
At Britannia Education Trust we recognise that a secure grasp of English skills and knowledge are essential to children’s achievement in school and their opportunities throughout life.
Speaking and Listening
We strongly believe that speaking and listening skills are the building blocks of English. In order to succeed as writers, children need to cultivate a love of words and language. They need to build a bank of stories, which they can draw on for ideas and language patterns, and develop oral storytelling skills that help them internalise the language they need. Therefore, developing oracy in the classroom is a priority at Britannia Education Trust and we use the work of Voice 21, Pie Corbett (Talk for Writing) and lots of drama opportunities to support us.
Writing
Writing, at Britannia Education Trust, develops children’s skills in two key areas – transcription (spelling and handwriting) and composition (articulating ideas and organising them into speech and writing). In Reception children are taught how to form lower case and capital letters correctly, so that in Year 1 they can begin to learn the pre-cursive strokes required for cursive handwriting. When pupils are ready, they will learn to write in a continuous cursive style.
At Britannia Education Trust we understand the link between good talking and skilful writing. We also know that children will be motivated to write if the purpose of writing is clear. Writing at Britannia Education Trust is linked to the class book and/ or topic, giving the children a secure context and purpose for their writing. Children are taught key skills to help them plan, draft and edit their work, learning to proof-read and improve their own writing, as well as having opportunities to discuss their writing with peers.
Grammar, spelling and punctuation are taught explicitly through focused activities within the context of reading and writing. Once familiar with a grammatical concept, children are encouraged to explore and apply this concept to their own writing and speech.
Reading
Developing a love of reading is the single most powerful attribute that can make a difference to our children’s future attainment. From the Foundation Stage right up to Year 6, the children at Britannia Education Trust are encouraged to develop an enjoyment of reading and books.
Children at Britannia Education Trust are taught reading skills through a programme of synthetic phonics (Read Write Inc)
They also have lots of opportunities to share and engage with high quality texts to develop an interest in stories and to gain a greater understanding of different genres and text types.
Once they are on their way to reading, children are taught in small groups and as a class to develop their reading further.
We use Reciprocal Reading strategies to support our teaching of essential reading skills. The children learn to use the strategies which include, Predicting, Questioning, Clarifying, Inferring, Summarising, Making Links and Evaluating to deepen their understanding of different genres and texts.
We send home reading books for children to read with parents and carers. Britannia Education Trust also encourages parents and carers to read more complex texts to their children. Sharing books, even when children are able to read independently, is a powerful way to support reading for pleasure and increase children's vocabulary.