English

English at Winsford High Street!

At High Street, the development of literacy skills is crucial to all areas of the curriculum. We believe good literacy skills provide our children with the building blocks not just for academic success, but for fulfilling careers and rewarding lives.

Writing

We follow a Mastery approach to English through the programme ‘Pathways to Write.’ Units of work are delivered using high quality texts and children in all year groups are given varied opportunities for writing. Skills are built up through repetition within the units, and children apply these skills in the writing activities provided.  Many opportunities for widening children’s vocabulary are given through the Pathways to Write approach and this builds on the extensive work we do in school to provide our children with a rich and varied vocabulary.  

Reading

At High Street, we believe that all children should have a love of reading. High quality texts stir the senses, inspire imagination and spark a love of reading that will last a lifetime. Reading has a high profile at High Street, we aim for all children to become competent and fluent readers who develop interest and enjoyment in reading and can access information from a wide variety of texts.  All children are provided with a reading book and a reading record. We actively encourage daily reading at school and at home. Each class has a reading corner stocked with fiction and non-fiction texts. Children in the EYFS and Key Stage 1 are encouraged to take 'Reading for Pleasure' books to share  with their families. 

Children are taught to read through well planned whole-class shared reading sessions (Y3 - Y6), 1:1 reading is proritised in the EYFS  and Year 1 and children participate in weekly guided reading sessions.

Stories are shared daily across the school.

We follow a Mastery approach to English through the teaching of Shared Reading, Guided Reading and Individual Reading.  We use Pathways to Read as a planning stimulus, texts are chosen to suit each year group's curriculum. Units of work are delivered using high quality texts and children in all year groups are given varied opportunities for reading. Skills are built up through repetition within the units, and children apply these skills in the reading activities provided.  

We deliver two whole class shared reading lessons per week from years 3-6 with bespoke guided reading for every pupil at least once a week as well as individual reading. In our shared and grouped reads, there is a clear teaching focus with the opportunity to master key reading skills in each session. There are follow on reading tasks to enable pupils to evidence the skills they have mastered independently.

Many opportunities for widening children’s vocabulary are given through the Pathways to Read approach and this builds on the extensive work we do in school to provide our children with a rich and varied vocabulary.  

We also use Pathways to Write to drive our writing curriculum, again, texts are chosen to suit each year group's curriculum. This aligns with Pathways to Read ensuring meaningful links for our pupils with texts and topics that are used across Literacy, Humanities and Science.

Reading Plus

Reading Plus is an online platform used across Key Stage 2 to monitor and develop pupils' reading fluency and comprehension skills. The programme provides personalised lessons that adapt to each child's reading ability, helping them to become more confident, fluent and independent readers.

Children complete their Reading Plus lessons independently on their school tablets and can access a range of vocabulary activities to deepen their understanding of the texts they read. The platform allows staff to track progress and identify areas where additional support may be needed.

Reading Plus can also be accessed from home, enabling pupils to continue developing their reading skills beyond the classroom and encouraging regular reading practice.

Through consistent use of Reading Plus, we aim to foster a love of reading while strengthening the key literacy skills needed for success across the curriculum.

Reading Rewards

At Winsford High Street Community Primary School, we inspire and encourage our children to develop a love of reading through our termly reading challenges. Pupils are rewarded for the number of reads they complete at home and can earn Bronze, Silver and Gold stickers and certificates as they progress. Children who achieve the Gold Award receive a special reward in recognition of their commitment and enthusiasm for reading.

Spelling

Speaking and Listening

At Winsford High Street, we stress the importance of Speaking and Listening in all subjects as well as Drama. We know that speaking and listening are at the heart of language, not only as foundations for reading and writing, but also as essential skills for thinking and communication. We understand for our pupils to express themselves fluently, they must be exposed to and taught a breath of vocabulary. We expose our pupils to a rich language environment with opportunities to hear and confidently experiment with new words.

Throughout the year, our children will have 'No Pens Days'. These are to promote the use of Speaking and Listening as they give our children a chance to focus solely on those without the writing part. Below is a little snapshot at what our No Pens Day looked like across the school.

SPaG

At Winsford High Street, we strive to achieve proficiency in spelling, grammar and punctuation. We promote the learning of spellings, including statutory words, common exception words and the national spelling rules through Spelling Shed. We believe that the teaching of spelling, grammar and punctuation enables children to express themselves creatively within their writing. This is why we explicitly teach these skills throughout our literacy learning and the wider curriculum.

Handwriting

At Winsford High Street, we are proud of the handwriting standards throughout our school. Our children achieve a neat, legible style with correctly formed letters in accordance with the upright, rounded cursive font. We teach discrete handwriting lessons frequently throughout to allow children to develop flow and speed in their writing that is seen in their independent writing.

Pupil Voice 

“I like writing and making my family proud, I write my letters in my book.”

“You need a capital letter and a finger space. I like writing in my English book everyday.”

“It is good in English because I like writing and it is fun. We are learning about conjunctions this week. I have been practising writing, when I first started my letters were a bit bumpy but now, I am getting better!”

" In English, you can write your own version of a story, write your own stories and read books, I really like the books we read at school.”

“I enjoyed writing a report. I knew a lot of facts. I had to write who the most significant person was. The title explains what we are doing each day. It was History and English together. I have improved my handwriting and I write more now.”

"I really like reading because it boosts my imagination which means I can come up with lots of interesting stuff."

"I love reading!"

"Non-fiction is my favourite, I can learn new and interesting facts!"