English

English at Comber Grove

English is at the heart of our curriculum at Comber Grove. Through the teaching of high-quality texts, our children learn to both express themselves and better understand the world around them.

Writing

We read high-quality texts to inspire and engage children in the writing process. These texts are from a variety of different genres and are diverse in their viewpoints and authorship, providing a model for our children to aspire to.

Children learn how to become confident and articulate writers across a range of text types through a carefully-sequenced learning journey where they are given numerous opportunities to:

see and hear the writing process modelled by their teacher (“shared writing”)
gather and learn new vocabulary
practise and build up a bank of literary phrases for effect
discuss their ideas before starting to write
edit their own work both independently and in response to teacher feedback

Key to our children’s enthusiasm for writing is that teachers always make writing opportunities purposeful, with real audiences and reasons why the children need to express themselves.

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Reading

We believe that all pupils should enjoy and develop a love of reading. We strive to expose our children to a wide range of beautifully written, high-quality texts which demonstrate aspirational language, reflect our school community and underpin the Comber Grove Primary School values.

Being able to read unlocks the curriculum for our children; it allows them to access word problems in Maths and Science, read and understand sources of information in History and above all sparks their imagination, enriches their writing and encourages a range of creative skills.

We aim to cultivate readers with a passion for a wide range of genres to ensure that their love of reading extends beyond the classroom and evokes a thirst for knowledge and a curiosity for life.

Children at Comber Grove are exposed to a varied diet of Reading. Reading weaves its way through the curriculum, the classroom environment and the wider culture of the school.

Children are exposed to reading through:

‘Teaching of Reading’ whole class lessons
Reading opportunities across the curriculum
Classroom Book Corners
Story time
Opportunities for independent reading
Reading at home
Visits to the school library
Special reading weeks

Phonics

Our aim at Comber Grove is to foster a love of reading and writing in our children.

Phonics is a system by which children learn to read and write. Children learn individual sounds (phonemes) and their corresponding letters (graphemes) which they either blend together to read or they segment (break down words into sounds) to write.

We use Little Wandle’s Letters and Sounds programme to teach phonics. Phonics is taught daily in Early Years and KS1 with reference still being made to it as a reading and writing strategy in KS2. Common exception words, sometimes called tricky words, are also taught. These are words such as ‘the’ and ‘said’ which cannot be read phonetically, so they are learnt by sight. Children are given books to take home with the phonemes that they have been taught at school, making them more confident in their reading.

Little Wandle’s Letters and Sounds is split into 6 phases with each phase building in complexity. Phase 1 is taught in nursery, phase 2, 3 and 4 in Reception, phase 5 in Year 1 and phase 6 in Year 2. There can be overlap in which years phases are taught.

We take pride in delivering engaging and inclusive phonics lessons, giving all children the opportunity to get ahead at their own pace.