Meet our KS1 English Lead
Mrs. Cowland is our dedicated and passionate EYFS and KS1 English Lead, overseeing English for children from Nursery to Year 2. Her commitment ensures our curriculum is vibrant and effective. Read Write Inc (RWI) is a systematic phonics programme that teaches children to read quickly and accurately. Children learn to say the sounds and then read books that are specifically written to include the words they can decode.
RWI is a comprehensive programme that teaches children how to read and write in small groups with trained practitioners. Children are assessed regularly so that progress made means they join another group pitched to their knowledge and understanding of reading and writing. Our children who start this programme in Nursery and Reception make exceptional progress in their reading and writing skills.
Dinner Table Quiz: Read Write Inc.! Put your knowledge to the test with these quick phonics questions during dinner! (Ages: KS1 friendly!)
Q1: Time to Practice Your Sounds! What sound did you learn today in school?
Q2: Spot the Sound! RWI children know lots of ‘special friends’. Which ‘special friend’ sound can you hear in the words ‘ship’, ‘fish’, and ‘brush’? (Answer: The ‘sh’ sound! 🤫)
Q3: Tricky Words! Some words are tricky because you can’t blend the sounds. Can you spell the common exception word ‘said’? (Answer: S-A-I-D! 📝)
Q4: Green Words! Green words are words that you can easily decode and blend using phonics. Who is the RWI green frog who loves to blend sounds? (Answer: Fred the Frog! 🐸)
Meet our KS2 English Lead
Mrs Cheema is our passionate and dedicated KS2 English Lead, overseeing English for children in Years 3 through 6. Her commitment ensures our curriculum is vibrant and effective. Our pupils participate in a stimulating whole class reading session where they engage with diverse texts—fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. To sharpen their comprehension skills, children answer essential VIPER questions in class daily. This structured approach, combined with the daily opportunities for reading at school it is equally important children read daily home. This is fundamental for developing fluent, insightful readers.
Furthermore, during our dynamic whole class writing lessons, we follow Pie Corbett’s ‘Talk for Writing’ program. This innovative and immersive method prioritises oral language (oracy) as the cornerstone of written expression. Children first “learn” a core text to internalise its structure and vocabulary. Using this solid foundation, they then create their own exciting versions, incorporating their unique perspectives and shared ideas. This ensures all our children are empowered to produce creative, sophisticated, and enjoyable writing. We are truly proud of the progress our young writers and readers make under Mrs Cheema’s expert guidance.
Dinner Table Quiz: What’s a VIPER Question?
V.I.P.E.R.S (Vocabulary, Inference, Predict, Explain, Retrieve and Summarise / Sequence)
Q1 (The V): What kind of VIPER question asks you to find and understand a tricky or interesting word in the story? (Answer: Vocabulary Question! It helps you build your word bank! 📚)
Q2 (The I): If a VIPER question asks you to figure out what a character is feeling without the story explicitly telling you, what type of question is it? (Answer: Inference Question! You have to be a reading detective! 🕵️♀️)
Q3 (The P): Which VIPER question asks you to use clues in the text to guess what might happen next in the plot? (Answer: Prediction Question! What’s your best guess? 🔮)
Q4 (The E): If a question asks you “How does the author make the setting feel scary?” or “What effect does that short sentence have?”, what VIPER question is it? (Answer: Explanation/Evaluation Question! It’s all about how and why the writer made those choices! 🗣️)
Q5 (The R): Where does a retrieval question send you to find the exact, factual answer? (Answer: Right back into the text! Look carefully for the fact! 🔎)
Q6 (The other S, sometimes used!): Which optional VIPER question asks you to give a quick overview of the most important parts of the whole text? (Answer: Summarizing Question! It’s the ‘short and sweet’ version! 📝)