English

At Stannington Infant School teach English through a mastery approach.

We teach children the mechanics of writing by front loading our curriculum with SPAG content so that the children have the knowledge to be able to write cohesively and fluently. We expose the children to a wide range of high-quality texts and are explicit about the purpose and audience to enable children to make appropriate choices that fit the audience they are writing for.

During the Autumn term we teach narratives through stories such as Fantastic Mr Fox or The Gruffalo. Children learn a story and can retell it orally and through writing. We teach children spelling, punctuation and grammar skills that are applied into their storytelling.

During the Spring and Summer terms we focus on narrative during the first half term and  have a non-fiction and poetry focus for the second half term, these are linked to our themes.

This approach builds confidence and develops skills across all year groups.

Please click on the link to see our approach to handwriting.

We teach phonics using the Read Write Inc programme. See our Home Reading at Stannington Infants and Phonics leaflet for parents for further information. We have regular phonics workshops for parents to learn more about our approach. When children have competed the Read Write Inc. programme they join our Spelling Programme.