English at Aston

For information on how we teach Phonics at Aston on Trent, please visit our dedicated Phonics page.

Reading

Reading is fundamental at Aston on Trent Primary School. It is the foundation for all subjects and to ensure children access and make progress across the whole curriculum.

Pupils in EYFS and Year 1 are taught using small group, guided reading where books are chosen to challenge children and support them to develop their fluency and apply their taught phonics skills. From Year 2 to Year 6, children follow a Whole Class Reading approach where the children are taught around a chosen text. High quality texts are chosen to encourage discussion, comprehension, further fluency and to develop vocabulary. 

Writing

At Aston on Trent, we use "The Write Stuff" by Jane Considine to bring clarity to the mechanics of writing with modelling at the heart of all lessons, that are broken down into bite-size chunks. The Write Stuff follows a method called "Sentence Stacking" which refers to the fact that sentences are stacked together chronologically and organised to engage children with short, intensive moments of learning that they immediately apply to their own writing. 

Our long term curriculum plan has been mapped out to provide opportunities for the children to revisit genres for progression across the year groups and contains linked core texts for each genre, developing a core reading spine for each class.

Handwriting

Handwriting is a skill which, like reading and spelling, affects written communication across the curriculum. We want our pupils to write with ease, speed and legibility. Handwriting is taught regularly and systematically throughout school. At Aston, we follow the Twinkl Handwriting programme which supports the children to achieve a neat, legible  style with correctly formed letters. 

Pupils will develop their fine and gross motor skills using a range of activities and will be taught to correctly form printed letters in EYFS and Year 1. At the end of KS1, children will be able to write legibly, using upper and lower-case letters appropriately and correct spacing between words using a cursive style. During KS2, the children continue to have direct teaching and regular practice of handwriting. We aim for them to develop a clear, fluent style.