English

Reading 

Phonics

Reading is a fundamental part of everything we do at Ashby Hill Top. Children are exposed to high quality texts across the curriculum and reading skills are taught explicitly in all year groups.
 
Alongside the skills of decoding and comprehension, discussion of texts encourages children to think as a reader and discuss their preferences, likes and dislikes. Reading for pleasure is a cornerstone of our approach, with a well-stocked and well organised school library which children access both within the timetable and in their own time.

​We use the Sounds Write Phonics program. Please click the link below for further details. 

More about Reading and Phonics 

Writing

​Writing is taught through a range of exciting stimuli which includes books, film clips, artefacts, visitors and real life experiences. We strive to equip children to develop a rich vocabulary which can help them bring pupil's writing to life.

Basic skills and non-negotiables underpin writing in all areas of the curriculum. Teachers model the writing process and demonstrate the ambitious high standards expected of all children. Every child is encouraged to let their imagination and personality shine through in their writing.

​At Ashby Hill Top Primary School, we know that high-quality, systematic phonics teaching and learning is fundamental our children’s success as competent readers and spellers and enabling them to assess our curriculum as well the next stage of their education and beyond.

We have adopted the Sounds-Write approach across EYFS and Key Stage 1. This approach is based on the sounds in English language and moves from the sounds to the written word which is now widely recognised as most efficient method to teach children to be fluent readers and spellers.
The approach has three objectives: skills of segmenting, blending and sound manipulation, conceptual knowledge and code knowledge. Children in EYFS are taught The Initial Code and children in Key Stage 1 are taught The Extended Code.

The approach is cumulative. In EYFS, the children learn that sounds are represented by symbols that we call letters and sounds are represented by one letter and some are represented by two. In Key Stage 1, they learn that sounds can be represented by more than one letter, that sounds may be represented by (spelled) in more than one way and also that some spellings or symbols are may represent more than one sound.

The approach builds in time for rehearsal and consolidation of the skills and knowledge taught therefore whatever the children are being exposed to in the phonics lesson, whether it be practising their skills, learning alphabet code or enhancing their conceptual knowledge, will be encountered again and built upon at the next stage and again after that which enables their code knowledge and their phonetic skills become automatic and embedded.