Trotts Hill Primary School and Nursery
We believe that a quality English curriculum should develop children’s love of reading, writing and oracy. We use materials provided by Herts for Learning and Voice 21 to support us with our planning which ensures our English curriculum provides many purposeful opportunities for reading, writing and discussion. Our curriculum, supported by the materials from Herts for Learning, align with the National Curriculum for English 2014.
We aim to provide children with a literacy-rich environment, high quality texts and inspiring learning opportunities such as WOW days, which will help them to:
● read easily, fluently and with good understanding
● develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information
● acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language
● appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage
● write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences
● use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas
● be competent in the art of oracy, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate.
Each class from Year 1 upwards visit our main school library each week where they are able to choose a non fiction book. These books have recently been updated to ensure that they reflect the world we live in. Children are supported to choose books linked to all areas of the curriculum through the organisation of the books into genres. Each classroom has its own reading area and children in all classes are able to choose reading books from within their classroom.
Children read books from our book banded reading scheme until they become a free reader. When they become a free reader, they are able to choose freely from the fiction library. Further information about how reading is taught is detailed below.
We use the Herts for Learning units which are sequenced so that children are taught the reading and writing skills linked to fiction, non-fiction and poetry, in line with the 2014 National Curriculum. We teach handwriting using Letterjoin materials which we have whole school access to. In addition, handwriting and spellings are part of weekly home learning non-negotiables. We teach Spellings using Twinkl spelling materials, with interventions for children who are not able to access the age related spellings. In Year 1 and 2, Twinkl spellings are taught alongside Monster Phonics to ensure consistency. These are tested on a regular basis but we maintain a focus on application in written work as well as performance in spelling tests.
Teachers use real life experiences or rich texts to inspire pupils. We promote reading widely and often as we know that those children who read a wide variety of high quality texts are much better placed to write in an engaging and exciting way. As with other areas of the curriculum, we have regular WOW days linked to our English teaching. These have included days linked to Superheros and Fairy Tales.
Children are given lots of opportunities to talk, ask and answer questions and present to an audience. This includes presentations as part of project work and also productions where children are able to perform to a live audience. The school are developing an Oracy curriculum as part of the school action plan for 2024-2025. We use the WellComm speech and language toolkit for both screening and intervention in speech and language skills as we know that an unaddressed delay in language skills can lead to underperformance throughout primary school and beyond.
We use tight Learning Intentions and Success Criteria to support children when we are writing so that they are able to self access against the learning objectives and ensure that they develop a sound command of the components of each genre of writing.
Through the use of the materials from Herts for Learning, there is a clear pathway of progression. We use phonic, reading and spelling trackers to monitor progress. We also moderate writing using age related expectations each term both within our school and through local authority and teaching school moderation events.
Our well planned and sequenced English curriculum has resulted in a school community who value and promote reading and writing. Our pupil group of Reading Champions, promote reading across the school which is enhanced by a range of WOW days and immersive experiences. Children are given a wealth of opportunities to write for a purpose in all aspects of the curriculum as well as in their English lessons.
Children in our school achieve highly in the Phonics Screening check and in the KS1 and KS2 assessments.
87% of pupils achieved the expected standard in the Year 1 phonics screening check in Summer Term 2024.
At Key Stage One, 80% of pupils met the expected standard or above in Reading, with 27% working at greater depth. In Writing, 73% met the expected standard or above, with 23% working at greater depth.
At Key Stage Two, attainment at the expected standard in Reading was 89%. Attainment at the high standard in Reading was 39%.
Attainment at the expected standard in writing was 89% with 36% working at greater depth.
When children start in Nursery, we begin our phonics teaching using Phase 1 of Letters and Sounds. This is the building blocks of learning to read where children learn to hear and identify sounds around them, before moving on to hearing sounds within words. Our EYFS team support families to develop early reading skills.
As children move into Reception, we move into Phase 2 of Letters and Sounds. We teach phonics using Monster Phonics, which was new to our school in September 2021. We continue to move through the phases using Monster Phonics until the end of Year 2. For children who require further phonic support in Key Stage 2 and beyond we run phonic interventions. We track progress in phonics using a phonics tracker which enables us to ensure that children are acquiring the skills and ability to use phonics to read.
Every child from Reception to Year 2, and those children in Key Stage Two who require them, are given a phonetically decodable reading book alongside their book banded reading book. These reading books are aligned to the phonics that children know and can read using their phonics. Children are heard to read regularly in school and books are changed when they have been read and practised at home.
We involve parents and carers in the process of supporting children to learn to read. We ask parents to read with their child at least 5 times each week and we contact parents where home reading is an issue to provide support.
We place a high priority on reading and enjoyment of reading, this has been one of our whole school focuses. Over the last few years we have taken part in several whole school projects linked to a love of reading.
From the start of their time at Trotts Hill, children are exposed to high quality texts read to them by teachers and teaching assistants. We have recently invested in new books to enhance library areas. We have a main fiction and a non fiction library and our non fiction books are aligned to all areas of the curriculum.
We believe it is vital that texts are relevant to children and their lives. We launched a library wishlist to our school community where we invited people to buy a new book for our school library. These books were selected using the Book Trust website and feature themes relevant to our school community and the world that our children are living in. We know it is important that children are provided with engaging, inspiring texts to foster a love of reading.
As a school we always celebrate World Book Day and as part of our celebrations, we invite parents and carers into school to read with their children or with small groups of children. We also encourage the whole school community to dress as a book character, and we are always amazed by the range of characters we see. This is a highlight of our school calendar and not just for the children!
This afternoon, the Reading Champions visited Wisden Court to read with their residents.
They had an incredible time and some of their comments were:
I really enjoyed going to the care home and doing reading and chatting.
I think it was amazing, I loved reading at the care home and chatting.
I liked it because they got to hear my joke.
I really enjoyed it because we read and chatted. I was nervous at first that then I loved it.
They were great listeners.
I read loads of books and had fun with the residents.
I really liked reading lots of books and they listened really well.
It was so fun chatting to the residents and I really liked it.
They all were enjoying the pictures and listening really well.
I loved that she really listened to me and was smiling.
At the start I thought it might be a bit strange, but as I got to know the person it became lots of fun. I really liked talking and finding out about their families.
We were delighted to be visited by Elizabeth from Stevenage Library this morning. She shared with the children the six challenges that they can take from 1st November to 31st January. The children that complete the challenge will be entered in to a prize draw to win an iPad. Please click the link below to find out more, this year, there is a challenge for the adults too!
In July, we had a special visitor to assembly who joined us from Stevenage Library. She introduced us to this year’s Summer Reading Challenge, called Marvellous Makers. The 2024 Challenge started online and in the local library on 6th July. We love celebrating all the children’s reading success when we return to school each September. We would love to see more children than ever signing up and enjoying the challenge this year.
Please open the document below to look at videos and words to each year group's poem.
Year 6 have been acting as 'reading coaches' to Year 5, where they have supported them with developing their reading stamina and how to answer a range of questions by identifying if it is a retrieval or inference question. Year 6 also shared some of their favourite authors and books to inspire Year 5 to read a range of books.
World Book Day March 2024
Parents visited us in the morning and afternoon to read alongside their children and their classmates.At lunchtime, there was a book-nic in the sunshine where children were encouraged to come and try out some of the free books available with their book tokens.
Each year group chose a key text to base their learning for the day around and decorated their classroom door with the learning related to their text.
Nursery- Classic Nursery Rhymes
Reception- You Choose Fairy Tales by Pippa Goodheart and Nick Sharratt
Year One- Class Two at the Zoo by Julia Jarman
Year Two- Traction Man by Mini Grey and Super Joe Does Not Do Cuddles
Year Three- Please Miss Butler by Allan Ahlberg
Year Four- Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Year Five - Who Let the Gods Out? by Maz Evans
Year Six- You are a Champion by Marcus Rashford
Congratulations to all children who took part in the Ready, Set, Read library challenge. We were so pleased to see so many children continuing to grow their love of reading over the summer.
This year, we celebrated World Book Day on Friday 3rd March. Each class was given a gift of diverse books to share throughout the day and use in their reading corners.
This year our Reading Champions have decided that each class will have a book focus. Every child was asked to dress up as a character, object or place from their chosen the book. Throughout the day, each class added to their classroom door display which was based on their key text.
Our chosen themes were as follows:
Nursery- Classics nursery rhymes
Reception - You Choose Fairy Tales by Pippa Goodheart and Nick Sharrat
Year One - Aliens Love Underpants series by Claire Freedman and Ben Cort
Year Two - Monsters in the Dark by Zanna Davidson and Melanie Williamson
Year Three - The Adventures of Dish and Spoon by Mini Grey
Year Four - Hansel and Gretel by Michael Morpurgo
Years Five- The Mousehole Cat by Antonia Barber and Nicola Bayley
Year Six - The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by JK Rowling
Thank you to the families who have so generously donated these beautiful books to school. The Reading Champions will be busy over the week making thank you cards to our donors. We hold an Amazon wish list at Trotts Hill and are most grateful for all donations to continue to expand our library.
If you would like to donate a book please visit the link here: https://amzn.eu/8xehmD0
