English

Subject Leads

English - Mr Joe Kelly 

Phonics & Early Reading - Miss Fiona Close

Intent, Implementation, Impact

Curriculum Statement.pdf

National Curriculum Links

primary_national_curriculum_-_english_220714.pdf

English at Meadow encompasses three strands: Reading, Writing and Oracy.

Please see below for details of each area. 

Reading

We aim to inspire and celebrate a love of reading here at Meadow. Our reading provision is carefully structured so that we give learners the best possible start during the early years, and the confidence to grow into skilled and confident readers. Please see below  for more information. 

Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised

At Meadow, we strive to inspire a love of learning within all of our children; reading is at the heart of this vision. We teach reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme. We start teaching phonics when the children start in Reception and work our way through the programme until your child can read fluently. 

The Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised website has resources to help you support your child with saying their sounds and writing their letters. There are also some useful videos to help your support your child with their reading at home too. 

Reading at home

There is space in the reading record to record 5 reads per week, as well as a space for your child’s weekly spellings and a parent/teacher comment section for home/school communication.

Please encourage your child to read at least 5 times per week. It is important that you spend time listening to your child read and asking them questions about what they have read. Reading stories to your child provides them with a love of books, an understanding of language and a deeper understanding of the world around them. Please see the front of your child’s reading record for further information. 

There are helpful inference questions in your child’s reading records, which you can use to support them in the development of their reading.


Reading Record insert Final.pdf
50 Books To Read Before You Leave Meadow - Final.pdf

50 Books to read before you leave Meadow

This list of recommended reads has come from the children and adults of the Meadow community. How many can you read in your time at Meadow?

Progression of Objectives

EYFS Early Learning Goals

Copy of Programme-Overview_Reception-and-Year-1-1.pdf

Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Phonics Progression

Overview of shared reading texts

QofE Reading End Points (1).pdf

End points at each stage of learning in reading.

Reading and Phonics at Meadow.pdf

Reading and Phonics at Meadow.

Gallery

Examples of writing from different years

A letter from Sir David Attenborough

Our Year four children have been learning all about Whales. They wrote a letter to Sir David Attenborough to share their learning and to ask some questions and he wrote back! We were very excited to receive his letter. 

An example of the letter we wrote and Sir David Attenborough's response.

New Library Books

New Library Books

Here is a selection of the latest books we have added to our library in the junior building

World Book Day 2023

During our first week back after half term (27th February until the 3rd March),  all the classes of Meadow engaged in a week of activities to celebrate World Book Day.  We had a wonderful author assembly in person and logged onto live streams with Julia Donaldosn, Axel Scheffler and Liz Pichon among others. One of the activities that children enjoyed most was creating recommendation bookmarks for other children based on their favourite books and characters. We also again enjoyed our buddied reads with different classes across the infant and junior school. 

Reading Challenge.mov

Reading challenge!

We gave our children the task of showing us how they incorporate reading into their daily activity.

World Book Day 2021 (1).MOV

Staff favourites

Adults at Meadow were asked what they enjoyed reading when they were younger. This was shared with our children. 

Additional support for Reading at Meadow


At Meadow, as well as offering a comprehensive range of books within our onsite library, we buy in to a range of online tools to support with reading. These tools are used both in school and at home, and are fully interactive. They provide teachers with the information they need to know how to best support their learners. 

Accelerated Reader

This online platform helps to assess the pupils' understanding of the text they have read and will guide them towards books at the correct stage of their learning. 

Collins

The Collins website allows you to access the books your child has read in their reading practice session with their class teacher each week. (Reception and Year 1)

This is additional to the class reader they bring home and the black book to share with their family at home.

MyOn

MyOn is linked to Accelerated reader and provides thousands of texts that can be selected by genre, interest area or difficulty. This platform provides audio for each text to support pupils still learning to decode.

Pathways to Read

We work closely with 'The Literacy Company' to provide the best, research based approach to class, guided and group reading within our school.

Writing

We follow a mastery text-based approach to the teaching and learning of English. Our aim is to equip all children, regardless of background or ability, with the skills and fluency necessary to become confident and adept writers. Staff have exceptionally high standards of children’s literacy skills; within unit plans, staff ensure that all children have the opportunity to build on their knowledge and understanding of this subject with appropriate challenge and support. 

At Meadow we strive to enhance vocabulary across the curriculum. Within English, this is done through an integrated approach to reading and writing within all units of work. Vocabulary acquisition and understanding holds a very high profile in all of our classrooms, and staff model and present new vocabulary to children in all subjects.

Our writing units are text based and we work extremely closely with 'The Literacy Company' to provide carefully planned and structured, exciting writing opportunities for our pupils. 

We encourage extended writing across the curriculum and this is evident in a range of subjects.

We celebrate writing by displaying it around our school.

Progression of Objectives

Class writing texts

QofE Writing End Points .pdf

End points at each stage of learning.

Gallery

Additional Activities to support Writing

Oracy

Meadow Primary School believe in the power of supporting children to find their voice and use it!

We have introduced the Oracy framework, which is used throughout a variety of lessons to enhance the quality of talk in the classroom and maximise the learning opportunities.

Voice 21 Oracy Framework

The-Oracy-Framework-1-1.pdf

Children are supported in enhancing their Oracy skills within a range of strands. Please see the attached document for a more complete view of the Framework. 

Public Speaking

Our pupils had the opportunity to be a Zoo Keeper for the day. They had to research and plan a presentation which they could deliver to members of the public at Chester Zoo. They did a fantastic job teaching these visitors about the conservation of Spider Monkeys.


Pupil Voice