In Class 2, we aim to reinforce, build-on and extend the skills and knowledge which the children have learned in Class 1. We base our teaching on a wide range of vocabulary-rich texts, literary discussions, and grammatical features; our goal is to build our children a strong foundation of knowledge in both English Language and English Literature that will set them up for success in Secondary School and beyond.

Reading

All children in Class 2 are assessed for reading fluency and comprehension, and are then given a reading book to take home which matches their appropriate stage. Children who prove their fluency and understanding become ‘Free Readers’, and may independently select books of their choice from our School Library to take home as reading books. Every child has a Reading Diary which they take home and bring into school daily – children are asked to read with an adult at home as regularly as possible (ideally daily), and are also encouraged to complete their Reading Diaries independently when they have read to themselves. Staff read 1-2-1 with children regularly, with priority readers, SEND and other targeted children reading every day.

Whole Class Reading sessions are taught twice a week with a variety of language-rich, topic-relevant texts. We focus on Fluency for the first session, playing games such as ‘Fill in the gap’, ‘Parrot’ and ‘Match my speed’. The second session focusses on Comprehension, and involves Explanation, Retrieval, Summary, Inference, Vocabulary, Sequencing, Discussion, or a combination of these. This ensures all children can not only read fluently, but truly understand what they are reading. Children in Class 2 also complete Reading Eggs/Eggspress lessons twice a week, which allows them access to interactive questioning using technology; something which many of our pupils, particularly our reluctant readers and those with SEND, benefit from greatly.

For fun, Class 2 have a ‘Drop Everything And Read’ (DEAR) session during registration each week, and have time in our School Library on a weekly basis. Both of these are purely to allow the children some time to get stuck into a good book of their own choosing, thus fostering an essential love of reading.

Each day is finished by listening to the next chapter of our Class Reader – a high-quality novel, carefully chosen to excite, intrigue and embed a love of stories.

Writing

In Class 2, our Writing lessons follow the ‘Pathways to Write’ scheme from The Literacy Company. This scheme has been designed around a variety of high-quality, vocabulary-rich texts which give children access to an enormous range of authors, subjects and genres, both fiction and non-fiction.

Our Writing sequences consist of ‘Gateway’, ‘Pathway’ and ‘Writeaway’ sessions, which all build toward a final piece of independent writing for a particular audience and purpose. Key skills are taught and repeated, with opportunities to revisit skills throughout the sequence of writing.

• ‘Gateway’ sessions allow us to hook children into the topic of the writing, and to assess their prior knowledge and existing skills.
• ‘Pathway’ sessions introduce new skills and allow children to practice them in various ways.
• ‘Writeaway’ sessions are the children’s opportunity to put what they have learned into practice by planning, writing, editing and ‘publishing’ their own independent writing.

We teach Writing as a whole class, meaning all children study the same text at the same time, regardless of year-group or ability. This allows for a rich level of discussion and understanding, exposes children to different imaginations and perspectives, and enables each child to relate to what others are doing whilst learning from them. Lesson objectives and taught skills are therefore differentiated appropriately for the different year groups within each session; whilst everyone is working towards the same end-goal, Year 6 will achieve it by using different skills to Year 3.

Handwriting is practiced on a daily basis, with children learning a cursive style when correct letter formation is secure.

Each year, we offer a Year 5/6 Writing Club after school; this provides children with the opportunity to write for multiple different purposes, promoting creativity, enthusiasm and a passion for writing.

Spelling

Each week, Class 2 children work on a different spelling pattern based on the National Curriculum. Every year group has a weekly 20-minute taught session to read, discuss and unpick their spellings and the week’s spelling rule. A list of the half-term’s spellings is then kept in their desks and referred to for general use, or for a spelling task during our Start Of Day Activity (SODA).

Children have a list of the Statutory Spellings for their year-group in their desks, which they are encouraged to refer to during written work.

To promote independence, children are encouraged to look up tricky or unknown spellings in dictionaries, use their spelling sheets, or use their knowledge of phonics to sound out the sounds within a word.