English
Speaking and Listening
At Langley Mill Church of England Nursery and Infants School we believe that speaking and listening are central to teaching and learning in all areas of the curriculum. Children are encouraged to orally compose a sentence before they write a sentence. Adults support pupils to engage in high-quality dialogue and direct teaching so that they can articulate what they know and understand and develop their knowledge across all areas of learning, using the vocabulary they need to support learning. For pupils who need additional support targeted interventions are provided throughout the school to build attention and listening skills and develop both receptive understanding and expressive abilities to support communication and language development. Our SENDCO and teaching staff work closely with Speech and Language therapists who regularly visit our school and provide support for some of our pupils.
All pupils are given the opportunity to work in pairs, small groups, large groups and as a whole class. Drama techniques, re-telling stories, and learning songs, poems and rhymes by heart are additional strategies used throughout the school to further support pupils’ oral language development. Talk Partners are used in each class to support pupils to practise their skills of listening, talking, and giving feedback.
Throughout the school adults will encourage pupils to speak audibly, in full sentences with an increasing command of Standard English. Adults will and model new language for pupils, rephrasing and extending what the children say. Pupils are taught good listening skills through modelling, reinforcing and praising good listening with specific examples.
Vocabulary Development
Vocabulary development is important, and all classes have a new word of the day that is introduced daily.
Phonological awareness, phonics and spelling are taught regularly and systematically throughout early years and KS1, following the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds SSP, and spelling strategies are explicitly taught in Year 2.
Writing
Teachers will use a range of techniques such as model texts, story maps and reading as a writer to develop the writing skills of each child. Quality texts form the basis for fiction and/or non-fiction writing in a variety of genres. Writing will also be taught by shared writing, with the teacher modelling the skills and processes essential to writing e.g. thinking aloud as they collect ideas, drafting, re-reading and making explicit vocabulary choices and targeted small, guided writing groups. Feedback is given to pupils to support progress and feedback shared to enable improvement.
Interventions are put in place for pupils who need additional support to develop their writing skills. Pupils are also taught in targeted guided writing groups during lessons.
Handwriting
Pupils will be taught to sit correctly at a table, holding a pencil comfortable and correctly. Pupils will be taught to form all lower- and upper-case letters with the correct start and exit points. Letter formation is modelled during phonic lessons and in KS1 taught in handwriting lessons daily.
