Staff at Whitemoor are passionate about providing a rigorous English curriculum, which aims to give children the knowledge and skills to succeed across all areas of school life.

We are a partner school of the Flying High English Hub. 

Phonics:               

We follow the Read Write Inc. Phonics scheme (Ruth Miskin/OUP) in the Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1. Children have a reading book which is linked closely to what they are learning in school. We expect that children following Read Write Inc.  will read this book at home every day to support their learning.

In addition, children may also bring home a book to share with an adult at home, however, this is not a book that they will be expected to read themselves but to enjoy together with an adult.

For further information about our phonics scheme, please click the link here:

https://global.oup.com/education/content/primary/series/rwi/phonics/?region=uk

Reading and Writing after Read Write Inc:

Once children have completed the Read Write Inc. scheme, they follow our reading and writing curricula, which can be found using the 'Curriculum Overviews' button. We have a Book Spine of key texts that we teach throughout school and teachers also read daily to their classes.

Also, once they have completed Read, Write Inc., children choose age appropriate texts from the school library. Teachers will support children with their choices. We expect children to read at home regularly and at least 3 times per week.

Spelling:

Pupils at Whitemoor follow the principles of the Jane Considine Spelling Book programme from Y2 onwards. Teaching consists of a combination of investigations and short activities that explore and revisit both the spelling rules and the statutory spellings for each phase. There is no weekly spelling test, however teachers will ask children to quick write the GGG words from the previous week where time permits.

In class, teachers teach spelling for 50 minutes a week:

Week 1:

• Investigation (30 minutes) Children have a hypothesis to test – they sort words into a table in their books and prove or disprove the hypothesis. Children are expected to write a sentence to conclude their investigation.
• Go Grapheme Grafters (GGG) (20 minutes) Teachers share 15 words (taken from the National Curriculum spelling rules and statutory spelling words for the phase) with the class. They sound them out reinforcing the phonics teaching from Key Stage 1. Children identify the sound that has the trickiest grapheme e.g. s = ce or n = gn and together the class identify up to 4 words with the same sound = grapheme combination.

Week 2:

• Children are given 5 x 10 minute daily activities that revisit a wide range of strategies / patterns / rules that enable children to make connections between words. Children complete these activities at the back of the book.