English
English has an important role in education and in society. A high-quality education in English will teach children to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others and, through their reading and listening, others can communicate with them. Through reading in particular, pupils have a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. Reading also allows children to acquire knowledge and to build on what they already know. We believe that all the skills of language are essential to participating fully as a member of society and we strive to ensure that all our pupils leave our school with these basic skills in order participate fully as members of society.
writing
We use a range of high-quality texts, that cover the full variety of genres, to inspire our children's writing. Through using these texts, children learn about the features, structure and language needed to write successfully in that genre and then go on to draft, redraft and then publish their own work.
Central to all of our children's writing are the concepts of Purpose - Audience - Language. Using their understanding of this children are taught to look closely at each part of their written work to ask: Does it meet the purpose? Is it appropriate for the audience? Does the language have the desired effect?
To see more about how skills and knowledge in writing progress from year one to year six, please click the button below:
phonics and early reading
At Ashton, we know how valuable phonics and early reading are. For this reason, we follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised phonics scheme to ensure all children become confident and enthusiastic readers from an early age.
Click the button to visit our page dedicated to phonics and early reading:
Reading
Reading is incredibly important to all of us at Ashton, we aim to create an atmosphere where reading is well-taught, encouraged, celebrated, talked about and shared. Children are encouraged to see reading as something that is pleasurable, powerful, useful and life-long.
Reading is embedded across the entire curriculum, with children having access to high-quality texts which support their learning in all areas such as history and geography. Children are encouraged to read regularly at home and also, through regular planned library visits, to join our local library and access the activities and facilities offered there.
Children who find reading challenging are well-supported in making good progress by using interventions such as 'Reading Plus' , 'IDL' and 'Reciprocal Reading'. We are also fortunate to have several volunteers that come in weekly to listen to the children reading and discuss what they have read.
Once children have learnt the skill of word recognition and have good decoding skills (in most cases by the end of year one), children focus on the skills surrounding language comprehension. The skills of comprehension are taught from year two to year six. In teaching the skills of comprehension, we make use of materials from 'The Literary Curriculum' scheme. The scheme provides a varied and diverse reading 'diet' which spans