English
English at Tang Hall
Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.
Benjamin Franklin
At Tang Hall Primary School, we believe that literacy and communication are key life skills. The study of English develops children’s ability to listen, speak, read and write for a wide range of purposes, including the communication of their ideas, views and feelings. Through the English curriculum, children will develop the skills and knowledge that will enable them to communicate effectively and creatively, enabling them to have the skills to become lifelong learners. Literacy is at the heart of all children’s learning, their knowledge, skills and understanding are transferrable and are used across a range of different situations and across the curriculum. Reading is given high priority at Tang Hall; it is the gateway to all other knowledge, improving spelling and fluency in written work.
Our principle aims in the teaching of English at Tang Hall are:
- To enable children to speak clearly with fluency, communicate effectively, both verbally and non-verbally, gaining the ability to adapt to any situation.
- To encourage children to listen with concentration, identifying main and important parts.
- To develop enthusiastic, independent, reflective and critical readers of stories, poetry and drama, alongside non-fiction and media texts.
- Children develop a love of reading.
- To instil a love of writing, encouraging purposeful writing no matter the genre, improving planning, drafting and editing skills.
- To teach cursive handwriting from Foundation to Year 6.
- To develop a secure understanding of Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPaG.)
SPaG lessons are taught as a discreet lesson daily. A range of resources are used in the teaching of punctuation and grammar ensuring that Standard English and the rules governing it are understood. Spelling is taught daily and spellings are given out and tested on a weekly basis. Home learning is expected to support the learning of spellings. To enable our children to become confident readers and writers, phonics is taught from Reception. Prior to this Nursery introduce sound play. In Year 1 every child must sit a Phonics Screening test, set by the Government. We endeavour to prepare all children for this.
https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/
Handwriting is taught throughout the school in the cursive font from Foundation through to Key Stage 2. It is taught to ensure consistency throughout school and to ensure that children have fluency in their writing and that joins are created. Handwriting is taught as a discreet lesson and is reminded about in all curriculum lessons. At Tang Hall we use Letter Join to model our cursive hand writing style to the children. An emphasis to start all letters on the line begins in Foundation Stage with the use of the pre-cursive font with progression through school ensuring that children are joining their writing is joined by the end of Key Stage One.
Guided Reading occurs daily in every class, adults are shared between classes to give more opportunity for groups to work with an adult. Cracking Comprehension is used to support Guided Reading alongside a variety of other texts and resources. Daily reading is a key part of the timetable and time is set aside each day to ensure that children have the opportunity to read. Members of staff and regular volunteers listen to individual children read within the school day. Home reading is expected of each child and family and this is recorded in the planner – this expectation begins in Reception.
At Tang Hall Primary we use:
Phonic scheme: Letters and Sounds forms the basis for our phonics scheme. This is supplemented with a variety of resources which include bug club books.
Reading scheme: children in the early stage of reading are only offered phonetically decodable books. These are taken from a range of schemes including: Bug Club, Oxford Reading Tree, Collins Big Cat and Rigby Star.
Overview of topics
Wrens
Autumn 1 Ourselves / Celebrations |
Autumn 2 Winter |
Spring 1 & 2 Traditional Tales |
Summer 1 Exploration |
Summer 2 Under The Sea |
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Genre focus | Story Description Rhymes and Poetry Explanation |
Story Description Rhymes and Poetry Info Texts |
Story Description Rhymes and Poetry Instructions |
Story Description Rhymes and Poetry |
Story Description Rhymes and Poetry Instructions |
Texts used | E.g. Funny Bones - Titch - All about me - Just Like Jaspar - Topsy & Tim Kippers Birthday |
Factual book about Inuits Factual book about winter animals The Christmas Story |
Fairy Tales The Gingerbread Man The Three Little Pigs Little Red Riding Hood |
We’re Going On A Bear Hunt | Commotion In The Ocean |
Grammar | - Speaking in sentences - Labels and captions |
Speaking in sentences | Speaking in sentences Beginning to write phrases and sentences |
Present and past correct in spoken English | Writing simple sentences |
Spelling | - Phase 2 phonics and tricky words | Phase 2 phonics and tricky words | Phase 3 phonics and tricky words Phase 3 phonics and tricky words |
Revision of phase 3 phonics Introduction of phase 4 phonics | Phase 4 phonics |
Robins
Autumn 1 | Autumn 2 | Spring 1 | Spring 2 | Summer 1 | Summer 2 | |
Genre focus | Story Description List Letter |
Story Description List Letter |
Recount Instructions Non-Fiction (Non-Chron) |
Poetry Information Text |
Story List Description Recount Instructions Letter |
Story List Recount Description Letter Poetry |
Texts used | Whatever Next – Jill Murphy
Aliens Love Underpants – Claire Freedman and Ben Cort |
Owl Babies – Marin Waddell
Aliens Love Panta Claus – Claire Freedman and Ben Cort |
Meerkat Mail – Emily Gravett Jasper’s Beanstalk – Nick Butterworth and Mick Inkpen |
Handa’s Surprise – Eileen Browne
We Share The Air – Kevin McCann |
Traditional Tales – undecided in which ones as yet | Traditional Tales Cont.
Class 2 at the Zoo – Jill Jarman |
Grammar | Leaving space between words Knowing where a sentence starts and ends Capital letters and full stops. Using present tense
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What is an adjective? Description using adjectives Full stops and capital letters What is a noun? Plural noun suffixes (dog; dogs, wish; wishes) Capital letters for names |
Knowing where a sentence starts and ends Capital letters and full stops. What is a verb? Suffixes added to verbs where root doesn’t need changing (help, helping, helped, helper) |
Description using adjectives How the prefix un changes meaning (unhelpful, unsuccessful) Full stops, capital letters and finger spaces Joining clauses using and |
Recap on suffixes, prefixes
Recap on verb, adjective, noun etc Full stops |
Repeat any learning that is required. |
Spelling | Phonics Phase 4 re-teach Moving onto Phase 5 | Phonics Phase 5 | Phonics Phase 5 | Phonics Phase 5 | Phonics Screening | Phonics Phase 6 introduction |
Woodpeckers
2 |
Autumn 1 | Autumn 2 | Spring 1 | Spring 2 | Summer 1 | Summer 2 |
Genre focus | Story Description (of Dogger) Letter (write to Shirley Hughes?) |
Story Letter (to the Giant from Jack) Instructions (growing a beanstalk) Poetry (briefly- Xmas) |
Instructions Recount (my day on the moon) Description (moon aliens) |
Story Description Recount Letter Instructions |
Story Description Poetry Recount Letter Instructions |
Poetry Recount Story Letter/Instructions |
Texts used | Shirley Hughes stories The Twits |
Jack and the Beanstalk Maximus and the Beanstalk |
Man on the Moon Aliens Love Underpants |
Orang-utans | Horrid Henry Stories | Mungo and the Picture Book Pirates |
Grammar | subordination (using when, if, that, or because) and co-ordination (using or, and, or but) C . Past tense |
statement, question, command sentences C . ? . the present and past tenses correctly and consistently including the progressive form |
expanded noun phrases to describe and specify
exclamation sentence C . ? . ! |
Refresh all sentence types- statement, question, command, exclamation
, in list ‘s possession |
Review all previous | Review all previous |
Spelling | Long vowel sounds
Wk2 igh |
Wk1 –el at the end of words (camel, tunnel, squirrel, travel, towel, tinsel) Wk2 –al at the end of words (metal, pedal, capital, hospital, animal) Wk3 –il (pencil, fossil, nostril) Wk4 –y at the end of words (cry, fly, dry, try, reply, July) Wk5 Adding –es to nouns and verbs ending in –y (flies, tries, replies, copies, babies, carries) Wk6 Adding –ed, –ing, –er and –est to a root word ending in –y with a consonant before it copied, (copier, happier, happiest, cried, replied …but copying, crying, replying) Wk7 Adding the endings – ing, –ed, –er, –est and –y to words ending in –e with a consonant before it (hiking, hiked, hiker, nicer, nicest, shiny) |
Wk1 Adding –ing, –ed, –er, –est and –y to words of one syllable ending in a single consonant letter after a single vowel letter (patting, patted, humming, hummed, dropping, dropped, sadder, saddest, fatter, fattest, runner, runny) Wk2 The suffixes -ment, –ness, –ful , –less and –ly Wk3 The suffixes -ment, –ness, –ful , –less and –ly Wk4 The suffixes -ment, –ness, –ful , –less and –ly Wk5 The suffixes -ment, –ness, –ful , –less and –ly Wk6 Wk3 The suffixes -ment, –ness, –ful , –less and –ly Wk7 Review suffixes (enjoyment, sadness, careful, playful, hopeless, plainness (plain + ness), badly Exceptions where words end with y: merriment, happiness, plentiful, penniless, happily) |
Wk1 Contractions one letter omission (isn’t, I’m)
Wk2 Contractions more than one letter omission (can’t, I’ll) Wk3 Possessive apostrophe (Megan’s, Ravi’s, the girl’s, the child’s, the man’s) Wk4 Words ending in –tion (station, fiction, motion, national, section) Wk5 |
Wk1 The /ɔ:/ sound spelt a before l and ll (all, ball, call, walk, talk, always)
Wk2 Review suffixes |
Review previous as appropriate. |
Swallows
3 | Autumn 1 | Autumn 2 | Spring 1 | Spring 2 | Summer 1 | Summer 2 |
Genre focus | Narratives (familiar settings) Instructions |
Poetry Reports |
Myths and Legends Poems |
Info texts | Narrative (adventure) Letters (Authors) |
Plays |
Texts used | Dear Olly (in brief) Hodgeheg Horrid Henry |
Stone Age Boy |
Theseus and the Minotaur Pandora |
Places to go e book My Naughty Little Sister |
Flood Zathura My Naughty Little Sister |
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Grammar | Apostrophes for possession a/an was/were Dictionary skills-alpha order
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Synonyms Conjunctions cause and effect Complex sentences |
Past tense Main and sub clauses |
Speech Present tense Fronted adverbials |
Prepositions | |
Spelling | Ing Ed Er tion |
tion Ly Un Dis Mis In Il Ir |
Long vowels Sure Ture Tch |
Irregular tenses | Homophones and near homophones | Recap |
Owls
4 |
Autumn 1 | Autumn 2 | Spring 1 | Spring 2 | Summer 1 | Summer 2 |
Genre focus | Narrative, description, poetry, letter. | Narrative, description, letter, explanation. | Narrative, description, non-chronological report, letter, explanation. | Narrative, description, letter, explanation. | Narrative, description, non-chronological report letter, explanation. | Narrative, description, non-chronological report, letter, speech, explanation. |
Texts used | Tin forest | Fire bird Peter and the wolf |
Wolves in the walls | Iron man | Firework makers daughter | The boy who could do what he liked |
Grammar |
extending the range of sentences with more than one clause by using a wider range of conjunctions, including when, if, because, although |
indicating possession by using the possessive apostrophe with plural nouns
using and punctuating direct speech |
using fronted adverbials
using commas after fronted adverbials |
using the present perfect form of verbs in contrast to the past tense | using conjunctions, adverbs and prepositions to express time and cause | choosing nouns or pronouns appropriately for clarity and cohesion and to avoid repetition |
Spelling | To distinguish between the spelling and meaning of homophones | To investigate, collect and classify spelling patterns related to the formation of plurals | To investigate and learn to spell words with common letter strings | To understand how suffixes change the function of words | To understand the use of the apostrophe in contracted forms of words | To revise and investigate links between meaning and spelling when using affixes |
Nightingales
5 | Autumn 1 | Autumn 2 | Spring 1 | Spring 2 | Summer 1 | Summer 2 |
Genre focus | Explanation, Recount, Information, Persuasion, Instruction and procedural | Explanation, Recount, Discussion, Persuasion, Non-chronological report | Narrative, Information, Non-chronological |
Poetry, Recount, Narrative, Explanation | Information, Instructional and procedural | Explanation, Recount, Persuasion, Non-chronological report, Poetry, Information, Narrative |
Text used | 1. Georges Marvellous Medicine 2. Grandpa’s Great escape |
1. Grandpa’s Great escape | Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone. | Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone. | There’s a boy in the girls bathroom or Holes! | Goodnight Mr Tom |
Grammar | Using commas to clarify meaning and avoid ambiguity Colons for a list Bullet point punctuation |
Using hyphens to avoid ambiguity Using brackets, dashes or commas to indicate parenthesis. |
Relative clauses beginning with who, which, where, when, whose, that or with an implied relative pronoun. Speech |
Modal verbs Perfect forms of verbs Speech |
Modal verbs Perfect forms of verbs Speech |
Using commas to clarify meaning and avoid ambiguity Colons for a list Bullet point punctuation |
Spelling | Rules for: Cious and tious Ant, ance, ancy, ation, ent, ence, ency |
Rules for: Using a Hyphen Adding suffixes vowel letters to words ending in fer. |
Rules for: Word endings – able, ably, ible, ibly, ant, ance, ancy, able, ation Ei after c rule |
Homophones and other words that are confused. | Silent letters. | Homophones and other words that are confused. |
Kingfishers
6 | Autumn 1 | Autumn 2 | Spring 1 | Spring 2 | Summer 1 | Summer 2 |
Genre focus | Auto-biographies and biographies
(biography, autobiography, narrative, newspaper article) |
Detective fiction
(report, description, letter, narrative) |
(newspaper, description, advert, narrative, non-chronological report) | (newspaper, description, advert, narrative, non-chronological report) | (speech, letter, newspaper, description, narrative) | (non-chronological report, letter, newspaper, description, narrative) |
Texts used | Boy tales of a childhood – Roald Dahl | Stormbreaker | Gangsta Granny | Street child | Treasure | Kensuke’s Kingdom |
Grammar | Punctuation (capital letters, full stops, question marks, commas in list, comas to clarify meaning, commas after fronted adverbials, inverted commas, apostrophes, parenthesis, colons, semi-colons, dashes, hyphens, bullet points) Verbs (past and present tense, verbs in perfect form, modal verbs, present and past progressive, subjunctive verb form, passive and active voice) |
Phrases and clauses (relative clause, noun phrase, coordinating conjunctions, subordinating conjunctions, subordinate clauses) Types of sentences (statement, exclamation, question, command)
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Word classes (nouns, verbs, adjectives, conjunctions, pronouns, possessive pronouns, relative pronouns, adverbs, adverbials, prepositions, determiners, subject, object.) | Revision of all grammar elements | Revision of all grammar elements | Revision of all grammar elements |
Spelling | Vocabulary (prefixes, suffixes) Verbs (past and present)
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Vocabulary (synonyms, antonyms, word families, homophones) |
Words ending with: /ʒə/ or /tʃə/ /ʒən/ –tion, –sion, –ssion, –cian –cious or –tious –ant, –ance, –ancy, –ent, –ence, –ency –able and –ible –ably and –ibly |
Words ending with: /ʒə/ or /tʃə/ /ʒən/ –tion, –sion, –ssion, –cian –cious or –tious –ant, –ance, –ancy, –ent, –ence, –ency –able and –ible –ably and –ibly |
Recap of all spelling rules | Recap of all spelling rules |