English

"pupils make good progress in reading and writing." 

Ofsted January 2017

“Pupils write with a high level of technical accuracy using grammar correctly and a wide vocabulary. English books are beautifully presented and the marking is of the highest quality in line with the school’s own marking policy.”

Ofsted January 2017

At Bedford, our approach to reading is driven by the determination that every child will learn to read and do so for pleasure.  In order to achieve very high standards in reading, each child in the Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 participate in a daily discrete phonic session following the Read, Write Inc scheme. You can read more about this below.

Targeted phonic intervention is also offered to children in Key Stage 2.  The curriculum provides children with rich opportunities to apply their skills through reading, including time to read aloud to adults to practise their decoding skills, writing and comprehension.

Our English curriculum is built around the programmes of study from the new 2014 National Curriculum. Our thematic approach to the curriculum immerses our children in a variety of genres and high quality texts through an array of cross curricular English activities involving reading, writing, drama, role play and storytelling.

Read Write Inc. Phonics, Literacy & Language, Fresh Start and Spelling are highly successful literacy programmes for 4-13 year-olds created by Ruth Miskin and published by Oxford University Press. The training and support from Ruth Miskin Training, rated Outstanding by the Department for Education, ensure the programmes have the best chance of success in schools.

The four Read Write Inc. programmes are carefully matched to the new curriculum, giving your children the best chance of success in the national tests. They show teachers, teaching assistants and parents step-by-step how to teach all children to become fluent readers, confident speakers and willing writers.

Our school uses Read Write Inc. Phonics for our children in Reception to Year 2 and for our children in Years 3 and 4 who need to catch up.

Read Write Inc. Phonics is used by over a quarter of the UK’s primary schools. It is a comprehensive literacy programme, weaving decoding, comprehension, writing and spelling together seamlessly. Ruth Miskin developed the programme during her time as a headteacher in Tower Hamlets. She believes that in order for a school to be successful, every headteacher needs to adopt a consistent whole-school approach to teaching reading, writing and spelling. Fidelity to the teaching programme, rigorous assessment, tracking and one-to-one tutoring ensure that schools guarantee progress for every child.

For information and tutorials on how to support your child learning to read go to: http://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/parents/

Promoting positive reading habits through home reading
 

We have two innovative home reading schemes which reward children and families for reading regularly at home.

All children from Reception and KS1 are participating in the ‘Be Excited about Reading with Bedford B.E.A.R’ challenge in which children will be collecting lots of lovely bear themed rewards throughout the year in recognition of the efforts made in reading at home.

The scheme has been designed to be simple yet effective in encouraging individual achievement. Children receive a B.E.A.R stamp in their reading records every time they are listened to read at home. The stamps add up to earn stickers and stickers added to class wall charts will convert into lots of bear themed prizes including a cuddly Bedford bear of their own to keep and read to. As well as earning rewards, children have been told to keep reading as Bedford Bear himself will put in appearances throughout the year.

For children in KS2, we have launched Book Bingo.

Team Bedford have launched an exciting new KS2 reading scheme! The aim is for each child to read a variety of different genres/types of reading material ie novels, comics, books by a certain author etc... and decide what types of books are their favourite. Once children have read a book, they will complete a book review and pop it into the Book Bingo envelope. 1 line wins a a certificate and a full house wins a special prize. Reading for pleasure is a HUGE focus in the juniors this year and encouraging children to find the books they love will be key.

Children can also stay for half an hour after school every Tuesday to read in homework club.