Anderton Park Primary School

                                                    Reading                                                  

By the time pupils leave Anderton Park School, we expect them to be avid and competent readers; children who read fluently and avidly and are able to express preferences and opinions about the text they read. They read a range of genres and text types, including poetry and have a thirst for knowledge. At APS, reading lies at the heart of the curriculum and we are dedicated to enabling our pupils to become life-long readers, as we believe reading is key for academic success. 

In our approach to the teaching of reading, we aim to build on the strong foundations of the teaching of a rigorous systematic phonics programme in EYFS by ensuring that all children are exposed to high-quality, age-related texts, whilst still allowing teachers to meet the needs of individual learners. Reading is therefore taught across the school through a combination of whole class, small group and targeted 1-1 sessions using a range of a high-quality texts to ensure that all children make good progress from their starting points. 

At APS, we believe in the importance of developing children’s love for books and reading, as well as their discrete word reading and comprehension skills. We recognise that both of these elements rely on each other and are both essential for creating life-long readers. Through developing a love of reading, children are able to unlock new knowledge, excitement, passion and intrigue. It is beneficial to their education achievement across the curriculum as well as providing a lifetime of enjoyment. We encourage children through weekly trips to the school library, reading buddies, engaging book corners and celebrating authors, books, poetry and more. 

                                                                      At APS, we highly value relationships with families and consider ourselves a community of readers.                                                                                                                               

                                                  Writing                                                     

By the end of Year 6 our children have developed a love of writing and are able to express their thoughts and ideas clearly and creatively through the written word. Our curriculum nurtures writers to be able to re-read,edit and improve their own writing, whilst confidently using the essential skills of grammar, punctuation and spelling. We expect our children to take pride in their own work and set high expectations. 

Through the English writing curriculum, we aim to provide children with the opportunity to develop skills and knowledge that will enable them to communicate effectively and creatively through the spoken and written language. 

At APS, we take a core text approach to the teaching of writing: high quality texts, including classic texts, new and upcoming texts, texts from other cultures and from a range of authors. These texts provide the stimulus for writing units. This encourages children to make links between reading and writing – to read as a write; to write as a reader. We follow a three-phase model: immersion in the text; teaching of related skills and independent application (including editing and re-drafting). 

Spelling 

At APS we follow a spelling programme in line with the National Curriculum, which builds on the strong foundations of phonics in EYFS. This programme discretely teaches the spelling rules and patterns that are required to meet the requirements of NC and are embedded in the wider teaching of writing. By the end of the year, children should also learn the common exception word appropriate for their age range. Each week children will have a spelling test and results will be sent home with parents, along with any incorrect spellings that they need to practice. 

Handwriting 

At APS, we encourage children to take pride and care over their work and recognise that handwriting is a key part of this. Handwriting is taught discretely where appropriate and is modelled by teachers in writing across the curriculum. At APS, we use Letter-join as the basis of our approach to the teaching of handwriting and our aim is for our pupils to develop a neat, legible, speedy handwriting style using continuous cursive letters. However, in EYFS and Year 1 children are taught to focus on correct letter formation. Lead in lines are not tuaght until Year 2 , Summer Term and only where a child is considered ready.