Hayes School - English

The English curriculum includes reading, writing, spelling and speaking and listening. As these skills are used in all other curriculum areas, their acquisition and mastery is very important. Hayes School follows the National Literacy Strategy.

Reading - our aim is to teach children to become competent readers. Reading skills are taught as they become age or ability appropriate. These include recognising whole words, use of reading strategies and detailed text analysis. We have a well-stocked library of fiction and non-fiction books, a proportion of the fiction books being colour-coded to support appropriate book choices. We use the Oxford Reading Tree scheme as an additional way to support readers.

Writing - we encourage children to become writers as soon as possible, as early writers' work is recognised as an important stage in their development. Children will be taught to write in different styles, eg. story, instructions, poetry and news reporting. They will be taught a range of skills vital to producing quality work. These include correct letter formation, joined writing, punctuation, grammar and spelling.

Spelling - throughout the school children will be learning to spell. This will begin by
recognising letter sounds and will continue towards learning letter groups which occur, eg.
oo, ea, ai, th, sh etc. Older children will learn more complex letter groupings eg. tion.
Spellings will be given to take home to learn.