English

At Brompton Westbrook we take great pride in developing keen readers, avid writers and pupils who love to perform using the spoken word.

Phonics and Early Reading

Here at the school we use a systematic, synthetic phonics programme to teach  early reading and writing this is called Read Write Inc.   Like all phonics schemes, it teaches children the sounds in English, the letters that represent them, and how to form the letters when writing.  Read Write Inc. Phonics includes reading books written using only the letters they have learnt at each level (and a small number of separately taught - these are called trickywords). The children quickly feel confident and become successful readers.

Our phonics lead alongside reading teachers regularly assess children to ensure that they are reading the correct level of books to continue their reading learning journey.

Watch a short video here to explain more about the RWI scheme and here for a short clip about phonics.

If you would like videos to watch with your child at home to support their phonic learning and knowledge please speak to your child's class teacher.

Reading

Once our children have mastered how to learn to read we encourage their reading habits to thrive to become voracious readers.  Reading is taught every day, all classes share a story time together and the children have reading books to read independently.

Through the use of the Renaissance Learning Accelerated Reader programme, children are motivated; teachers can monitor and manage students’ 'independent reading practice.'  Teachers and students love to watch as the development of a true love for reading flourishes.   Renaissance also provide a digital library of over 6000 online books via Myon

We are well stocked with a range of reading books - phonic ones for early reading practice and wide range of other texts that our children love - we regularly listen and consult with pupils to ensure that we are buying the books that they want to read.

The school has a well though out Book Spine - a list of high quality texts of all types (from classic novels, poems and picture books to blogs and e-learning books.  This Book Spine starts with the core texts read in the nursery and continues right through the school.  The list is of course evolving as authors write exciting new texts but the most up to date version can be found here.

Writing

We love writing at Brompton Westbook and we especially love using high quality books and texts to inspire our writing, giving us ideas and helping us to develop our own voices as authors. Children get opportunites to practice their writing skills through a wide-range of opportunities, such as reports, play scripts, stories, lists, newspaper articles, poems etc. Children are taught spellings, punctuation, grammar and handwriting skills specifically and we use a range of resources to support this, such as Purple Mash and Nelson.

Speaking and listening

Children are encouraged to speak and read aloud as soon as feel confident enough to do so.  From joining in with nursery rhymes in FS1 to (writing and) sharing instructions and performing for assemblies in UKS2.  Speaking and listening are modelled by teachers so that children hear appropriate grammar and diction.  Speaking and listening is a "golden thread" that is included in all of our curriculum.

Our English sequence of learning is simple - start with the basic skills and revisit / develop these so that pupils become fluent and confident readers, writers and orators.