Reading

At St Michael's, carefully selected class books and texts are chosen for each year group to use as part of their Guided Reading sessions. We follow the St Michael's Approach to Guided Reading in Years 1-6.

Ducklings read a variety of fiction and non-fiction books linked to their weekly themes. The books are used to learn new vocabulary and to develop the children's comprehension of texts. 

We use the Collins BIG CAT reading scheme for the children's home reading. This scheme is supplemented with books from Phonics Shed in Ducklings and KS1. Once the children have progressed through the BIG CAT scheme, they then become a free reader and are able to make their own choice on books they would like to read. The BIG CAT scheme has a huge range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry to ensure that the children are developing their vocabulary and reading a range of genres. 

Below is a list of recommended reading books per year group. Each class has their own mini library of books as well as use of the school library.

• Free eBooks can also be found at https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/
• Listen to books at https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio/english-ks1--ks2--ks3-index/zf34gwx
• Free Audible books for kids https://stories.audible.com/discovery
• Listen and read poetry at https://childrens.poetryarchive.org/

Recommended Reading Lists: 

https://www.booksfortopics.com/reception

Reading Support Booklets

The booklets are based around the VIPERS programme that is used in school for Guided Reading and Reading Comprehension

V- Vocabulary

I- Infer

P - Predict

E- Explain

R -Retrieve

S - Summarise

Writing

At St Michael's C of E, we follow the St Michael's Approach to Writing for teaching the different genres in Years 1-6 (see above). 

The genres that each year group will cover are shown in the year group overviews below. 

Useful websites to help with writing:

• https://www.literacyshed.com/home.html- fantastic short films to inspire writing 
• https://www.pobble365.com/ - pictures with examples to inspire writing (subscription)
• https://www.onceuponapicture.co.uk/ - pictures to inspire writing
• https://authorfy.com/10minutechallenges/ - hear your favourite authors and accept their challenges
• https://www.storyboardthat.com/ - free resource - create your own digital comic strip

A few Jane Considine Super Stacking Sentences videos - suitable for Key Stage 2

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5kzc2NVikc - The Blue Umbrella
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MCuyN3Cg9k - La Luna
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrCVLIAFqfA&t=65s - Soar

Talk for Writing - Pie Corbett

• https://www.talk4writing.com/home-school-units/ - Units of work for KS1 and KS2 to help with writing
• https://www.plazoom.com/resource/free - reading and writing activities from First News

Phonics

In Ducklings, Year 1 and Year 2 we follow the Phonics Shed Scheme of work for the delivery of phonics which is one of the DfE's validated schemes. Children that don't pass the Year 1 phonics screening will join a phonics intervention in order to help the children catch up and pass the phonics screening in Year 2. 

This scheme also enables children to access resources and additional assignments at home via the EdShed login page:

• https://play.edshed.com  

Please see the video below which explains how to logon and navigate this resource at home. 

Additional, useful websites to practice phonics

• https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/ - Free access at the moment
• https://www.phonicsbloom.com/ - Free access

For children with dyslexia

• https://www.nessy.com/uk/

Spellings

Spellings in Ducklings and Year 1 are closely linked to their phonics teaching and high frequency words and common exception words. 

We follow the Spelling Shed Spelling Scheme from Years 1-6. This scheme allows a new spelling rule or pattern to be taught each week. The children will then complete different exercises to embed their learning. The scheme follows the National Curriculum to ensure children are being exposed to all the spellings rules and patterns for their particular year group. 

Although we don't set spelling tests, it would be very beneficial for the children to practise spellings at home to ensure they don't forget what they have learnt at school. Below is a link to see what words your children will be learning and what they should know by the end of the year. There is also a Spelling Shed Medium Term Plan so you can see what spellings the children will be learning each week.

Useful websites to practice spellings:

• https://spellingframe.co.uk/ - free spelling practice games for Year 1 to Year 6
• https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zt62mnb - watch videos to help learn tricky spelling words
• http://www.crickweb.co.uk/ - free interactive literacy resources and games 

Handwriting

Children in Ducklings and Year 1 are taught to print their letters. Teaching focuses on being able to form all the lower case and capital letters in the alphabet. 

Children in Year 1 will learn the Twinkl pre-cursive style of handwriting. From Year 2 to Year 6, the expectation is that children will learn to join their handwriting through the Twinkl Continuous Style of handwriting. 

Handwriting is taught both explicitly and referred to within other lessons such as phonics or spelling sessions.  

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