At Milford, our primary aim is to increase children’s confidence, enjoyment and ability in reading, writing and communication. We ensure that we provide all children with depth, breadth and ambition in their learning – ensuring that our curriculum is well sequenced and building on knowledge and skills gained as children progress through school.  We promote a love of reading and writing whereby children want to read and write with enjoyment.  We strive for our children to develop a passion for English to aid them in later life and to enable them to become lifelong learners. 

Writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation

Carefully planned Programmes of Study ensure that pupils engage with a range of genres each year. The Progression of Skills documents inform units of work that are designed to move from reading into writing and ensure children learn, practise and apply the knowledge and skills necessary to use the English language confidently and effectively across the curriculum.

We aim to teach the skills of writing and a love of writing so that our children:

• develop enjoyment and pleasure in writing
• have opportunities to write for a range of real purposes and audiences
• understand the skills and processes that are essential for writing: thinking aloud and re-reading their writing to check their meaning is clear
• when spelling, have opportunities to practise using both their phonics knowledge and develop independent spelling strategies
• when writing, form their letters correctly and confidently, writing with a joined fluent style
• know and use grammar terminology to talk about their writing and how it helps a reader to understand and enjoy what they have written.

Reading

At Milford, we want children to enjoy reading at both home and school and for parents to be on board with reading with their children.  Our approach to reading is that all pupils can access our essential reading list to ensure the children are exposed to a wide and diverse variety of language rich, quality texts. All classrooms have a reading area with a display to promote reading and enjoy a class novel.  We also carry out Guided Comprehension sessions which are taught as a whole class.

Weekly reading comprehension lessons take place, where children analyse a variety of high qulaity texts, responding to questions focussing on specific reading skills. Children are also encouraged to use sentence stems in their verbal responses to reading; the opportunity to share and develop their ideas aloud enhances the quality of their written responses. 

Accelerated Reader is an effective tool which is used to manage, monitor and motivate individual children’s reading. This is closely monitored to ensure progression and success for every child. Children who are still developing their reading fluency will receive extra daily 1:1 reading sessions and support is provided for these children in every class.  In addition to this, class teachers set up Reading Action Plans (RAPs) to regularly monitor each child’s progress.

Phonics

As children enter KS2, specific provision is made for those children still requiring support with their phonics. Through the Read Write Inc programme and supported by Phonics Play,  children will be equipped with the skills to decode unfamiliar vocabulary using the strategies they have been taught in their daily phonics lessons.   As children move up through the school, they are able to focus on developing their fluency and comprehension skills, allowing them to explore the rich and varied literacy world around them.

Speaking and Listening

Not only do we encourage our children to become confident readers and writers, but we value performance and the speaking and listening strands of the National Curriculum. We nurture confident children who engage in deep conversations and debates about topics and important issues. Children question each other in a challenging, yet respectful way, to further understanding and explore meaning.  Drama is used to develop children’s expression and confidence and all children get the opportunity to perform on the stage during their time at school. We teach children to present clearly and use intonation and expression to capture an audience and entertain.