How do subject skills progress through the school?

Phonics

At Old Park Primary, we aim for all our children to become fluent, confident readers who are passionate about reading.

Children who read regularly or are read to regularly have the opportunity to open the doors to so many different worlds! More importantly, reading will give your child the tools to become independent life-long learners.

We can achieve this together through:

  • Read Write Inc, a program to help your child learn to read at school
  • Encouraging children to develop a love of books by reading to them daily, at home and at school
  • Giving children access to a wide range of books at school and at home

At Old Park Primary we use Read Write Inc Phonics (RWI) to give your child the best possible start with their reading. We have put together a guide to how the RWI programme works together with some useful links.

 

Read Write Inc. (RWI)

Read Write Inc (RWI) is a phonics complete literacy programme which helps all children learn to read fluently and at speed so they can focus on developing their skills in comprehension, vocabulary and spelling.  The programme is designed for children aged 4-7. However, at Old Park we begin the programme in Nursery and will continue teaching RWI to children beyond the age of 7 if they still need support in their reading.

RWI was developed by Ruth Miskin and more information on this can be found at https://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/parents-copy-2/

 

How will RWI be taught?

All children are assessed regularly so they work with children at the same level. This allows complete participation in lessons.

 

Nursery

When appropriate, children will be introduced to the initial sounds in short burst sessions.

Reception

In Reception, all children will learn how to ‘read’ the sounds in words and how those sounds can be written down.

Reading

The children:

  • learn 44 sounds and the corresponding letters/letter groups using simple picture prompts – see below
  • learn to read words using Fred talk and sound blending
  • read from a range of storybooks and non-fictions books matched to their phonic knowledge
  • work well with partners
  • develop comprehension skills in stories by answering ‘Find It’ and ‘Prove It’ discussion questions

Writing

The children:

  • learn to write and form the letters/letter groups which represent the 44 sounds with the help of fun phrases
  • learn to write words by using Fred Talk
  • learn to build sentences by practising sentences out loud before they write

Talking

The children work in pairs so that they:

  • answer every question
  • practise every activity with their partner
  • take turns in talking and reading to each other
  • develop ambitious vocabulary

 

Year One & Year Two

Children follow the same format as Reception but will work on complex sounds and read books appropriate to their reading level.

 

Five key principles underpin the teaching in all Read Write Inc. sessions:  

Purpose – know the purpose of every activity and share it with the children, so they know the one thing they should be thinking about

Participation – ensure every child participates throughout the lesson. Partnership work is fundamental to learning

Praise – ensure children are praised for effort and learning, not ability

Pace – teach at an effective pace and devote every moment to teaching and learning

Passion – be passionate about teaching so children can be engaged emotionally.

 

Children will be taught how to read as follows:

Before you start to teach your child, practise saying the sounds below.These are the sounds we use to speak in English.

Fred Talk

We use pure sounds (‘m’ not’ muh’,’s’ not ‘suh’, etc.) so that your child will be able to blend the sounds into words more easily.

At school we use ‘Fred Talk’. E.g. m-o-p, c-a-t, m-a-n, sh-o-p, b-l-a-ck.

The children are taught the sounds in 3 sets.

 

Set 1 Sounds are taught in the following order together with rhymes to help children form the letters correctly and instantly recognise sounds ready for blending.
Set 1
Sound Rhyme
m Down Maisie then over the two mountains. Maisie, mountain, mountain.
a Round the apple, down the leaf.
s Slide around the snake
d Round the dinosaur’s back, up his neck and down to his feet.
t Down the tower, across the tower,
i Down the insects body, dot for the head.
n Down Nobby and over the net.
p Down the plait, up and over the pirates face.
g Round the girls face, down her hair and give her a curl
o All around the orange
c Curl around the caterpillar
k Down the kangaroos body, tail and leg
u Down and under the umbrella, up to the top and down to the puddle
b Down the laces, over the toe and touch the heel
f Down the stem and draw the leaves
e Slice into the egg, go over the top, then under the egg
l Down the long leg
h Down the horse’s head to the hooves and over his back
sh Slither down the snake, then down the horse’s head to the hooves and over his back
r Down the robot’s back, then up and curl
j Down his body, curl and dot
v Down a wing, up a wing
y Down a horn, up a horn and under the yak’s head.
w Down, up, down, up the worm.
th Down the tower, across the tower, then down the horse’s head to the hooves and over his back
z Zig-zag-zig, down the zip.
ch Curl around the caterpillar, , then down the horse’s head to the hooves and over his back
qu Round the queen’s head, up to her crown, down her hair and curl
x Cross down the arm and leg and cross the other way
ng A thing on a string
nk I think I stink

Please do not use letter names at this early stage.

Children will also use pictures for each sound to help recognise the sound and then form the shape of the sound.

Set 2 and 3 Sounds

The children are then taught Set 2 Sounds – the long vowels. When they are very confident with all of set 1 and 2 they are taught Set 3 Sounds.

Long  vowel sound Set 2 Speed Sound cardsTeach these first Set 3 Speed Sound cards
ay ay: may I play a-e: make a cake ai: snail in the rain
ee ee: what can you see ea: cup of tea e: he me we she be
igh igh: fly high i-e: nice smile
ow ow: blow the snow o-e: phone home ao: goat in a boat
oo oo: poo at the zoo u-e: huge brute ew: chew the stew
oo oo: look at a book
ar ar: start the car
or or: shut the door aw: yawn at dawn
air air: that’s not fair are: share and care
ir ir: whirl and twirl ur: nurse for a purse er: a better letter
ou ou: shout it out ow: brown cow
oy oy: toy for a boy oi: spoil the boy
ire ire: fire fire!
ear ear: hear with your ear
ure ure: sure it’s pure?

Nonsense words (Alien words)

As well as learning to read and blend real words children will have plenty of opportunities to apply their sound recognition skills on reading ‘Nonsense words’. These words will also feature heavily in the Year One Phonics Screening check in the Summer Term.

 

Children will be introduced to ‘Ditty books’ when they successfully begin to read single words. The short vowels should be kept short and sharp:

Children use sound-blending (Fred Talk) to read short ditties. They will bring these home once they have read and discussed the book in class. Children will then be challenged to use their developing phonic knowledge to write short sentences.

Within all the books children will have red and green words to learn to help them to become speedy readers. Red words are words that are not easily decodable and challenge words to extend children’s vocabulary. Green words are linked to the sounds they have been learning and are easily decodable.

Dots and dashes represent the sound each letter makes.

During the RWI session children will read the book three times and at each new reading they will have plenty of opportunities to practise using their developing comprehension skills. You may have heard your child talking about ‘hold, edit or build a sentence’.

Hold a sentence is an activity that encourages children to remember a whole sentence while focusing on spelling and punctuation.

Build a sentence is to give children the opportunity to create their own sentence to that shows the meaning of a word and edit a sentence allows the children to critique a sentence using their knowledge of spelling punctuation and grammar.

 

To help at home:

Your child will start to bring books home when they are confident readers. Please help them to read and give lots of praise!

 

English
Reading Progression

Writing Progression

Maths

Maths Curriculum Programme of Study

National Curriculum Documents

 

At Old Park we want our children to become skilled mathematicians who are able to select from a wide range of written and mental calculation methods whilst reasoning about their knowledge and understanding of a topic.

Calculation Methods

We want all children to have access to concrete resources to support with their learning. At home you can use anything as counters to support number work and addition and subtraction skills. We also teach and encourage the use of pictorial methods such as bar models to solve calculations and problems to provide the basis for more formal methods like column addition and subtraction.

Below you will find a guide to using bar models to solve different calculation types. These should support you in helping your child continue their learning at home.

Multiplication and Division

Addition and Subtraction

Science

 

Old Park Science Principles
Year 1/2 Winner Year 3/4 Winner Year 5/6 Winner
Useful Websites

 

Apps for your tablets and phones
Racing Penguin : Slide and Fly
(Apple)
Dippy’s Naturenauts
(Website)

Play and Learn Science
(Apple)

Skyview Lite
(Apple)
Essential Skeleton
(Apple)
 DIY Sun Science
(Apple)
 
NASA
(Apple and Android)
 Britannica Kids : Volcanoes
(Apple – £1.99)
Build A Body
(Apple)

 

Games

These games may require the use of Flash, which will only work on laptop and desktop computers.

Spacequake (Space and Planets)

Pond Life (Food chain)

Rainbow Mechanic (Light)

Non-Core Subject Areas - What Skills Do We Teach?

Computing Skills Progression

DT Skills Progression

Geography Skills Progression

History Skills Progression

MFL Skills Progression

Music Skills Progression

PE Skills Progression

RE Progression Skills

Art Skills Progression