What is our English mission?

At Hillcrest we promote a love of books, words and writing. This is what underpins all our English lessons. We aim to encourage a passion for reading and writing which will service our pupils long after they leave our school.

WRITING

What is ‘Write for the Reader’?

Hillcrest pupils are expected to always write for an audience. At the beginning of every writing lesson they are introduced to two readers - Reader 1 is related to their Enquiry and Reader 2 is someone who will be able to read their work (e.g. headteacher, parents etc). Pupils need to ensure they are getting the content and knowledge right for Reader 1 and that their writing makes an impact for Reader 2. The teacher will refer to the readers regularly in lessons, particularly in their verbal and written feedback.

What is the Hillcrest Standard?

All Hillcrest pupils are expected to meet the Hillcrest Standard in their writing. Examples of pupils’ work will be regularly and clearly displayed around the school. Staff should model the Hillcrest Standard in their own writing and refer to it regularly. Hillcrest Standard posters should be displayed in every classroom. Once a term, part of an assembly should be devoted to the Hillcrest Standard.  You can see the Hillcrest Standard in the documents below.

What genres do the children cover?

Year 1-6 (Year 1s from January), explores one fiction and one non-fiction genre each term. These are related to their Enquiry. For example for their Enquiry, How did Ancient Civilisations Live?, Year 4s are writing instructions on how to mummify a mummy and a myth about the curse of Tutankhamun.

How do you link writing with Enquiries?

In year 1-6 (Year 1s from January), genres are explored in three-week cycles. In Week 1, lessons will focus on enquiry knowledge; in Week 2, lessons will focus on the writing skills related to the genre and, in Week 3, pupils will plan, draft, edit, write and publish a piece of writing on the focus genre. Here they will showcase the knowledge and skills they have learned over the previous two weeks.

What are the expectations for handwriting?

The majority of pupils by the end of the Foundation Stage should be able to form all letters (both upper and lower case) and numerals correctly, with the correct starting position and orientation.

The majority of Year 1 pupils should be able to form all letters (both upper and lower case) and numerals correctly, with the correct starting position and orientation. They should also write the letters at a consistent size, using ascenders and descenders correctly.

Year 2 pupils will be introduced to the whole range of joins and most pupils will have started writing in a cursive style by the end of the year.

In Year 3, pupils will consolidate their joins from Year 2. They will focus on increasing the legibility, consistency and quality of their handwriting, for example by ensuring that downstrokes are parallel and equidistant and that lines of writing are spaced sufficiently so that ascenders and descenders of letters do not touch.

In Years 4, 5 and 6, the formation of capitals, lower case letters and the two basic join types (horizontal and vertical) should now be familiar and secure. The majority of pupils should be able to use joined-up writing for most of their work. By Years 5 and 6, it is expected that almost all pupils will be writing fluently (apart from in exceptional circumstances, e.g. some SEN) and are joining their writing across the curriculum.

Pen licences are only given to children once they have developed a fluent cursive handwriting style.

Should pupils practise their spellings at home?

At Hillcrest we believe that spelling is one of the most essential components of successful writing. We want our pupils to strive to be the best spellers they can be. Learning new spellings takes practise so pupils will need to practise at home.

We are in the process of creating a spelling scheme which is bespoke to meet the needs of all pupils at the school. This will be out in November 2021.

READING

Our priority is to teach reading skills and to develop the children’s enjoyment of literature, enabling them to become lifelong, confident readers.

What phonics programme does the school follow?

At Hillcrest Primary School we follow the ‘Little Wandle Letters and Sounds - Revised’ phonics programme. 

You can find out more about it, here:  

Our aims:

• To teach pupils how to decode a word and how to blend to read

• To teach pupils to learn to read and write all 44 graphemes in the English language

• For pupils to experience multisensory, fast-paced and engaging phonic lessons

There are discrete daily lessons between 15 and 20 minutes in Reception and Year 1.  Year 2 will have a combination of discrete and embedded lessons depending on the learning objective. 

The correct terminology is taught to the children, e.g. phoneme, segmenting, blending or digraph.

What comprehension skills do the pupils focus on?

Pupils read one text linked to their enquiry in reading lessons every week. The reader for each lesson follows this sequence:

Mon: Teacher

Tues: Partner A

Wed: Take turns
Thurs: Partner B
Fri: Reader of the Week

Reading lessons will focus on the comprehension skills, DERIC:

Decode: Word Reading
Explain: Discussing vocabulary in context and discussing understanding of whole-class text
Retrieve: Finding information in the text
Interpret: Inference skills with an emphasis on using evidence.
Choice: Focus on author’s chosen words and layout.

Pupils will be expected to have a clear understanding of these skills and their symbols.

Should my child read at home?

If your child has a phonically-decodable Rising Stars Reading Planet book:

• They will have the same book for the whole week, each week
• They should practise reading it regularly at home, so they can build up fluency and dive deep into their understanding of the book.
• They must bring the book back into school every day as they will have three practise reading sessions every week in school:
  • The first session will focus on decoding
  • The second session will focus on prosody (reading with intonation, expression and emotion)
  • The third session will focus on comprehension
• We recommend that you follow this process for your reading sessions at home.
• They will be given a new phonically-decodable book every Monday
• They may also select a PM-Levelled book from the Bookbarn for reading for pleasure. This, too, will be changed every Monday.
• Parents are welcome to supplement their child’s books by visiting the Bookbarn, which will now be open from 8.40-8.55am and 3.20-3.45pm daily. Please only take one book home per night.

If your child has moved beyond phonically-decodable books:

• They will be given a PM-levelled book every Monday for the whole week, every week.
• They should practise reading it regularly at home, so they can build up fluency and dive deep into their understanding of the book.
• We recommend that you follow the decoding-prosody-comprehension process for your reading sessions at home.
• They may also select a PM-Levelled book from the Bookbarn for reading for pleasure. This, too, will be changed every Monday.
• Parents are welcome to supplement their child’s books by visiting the Bookbarn, which will now be open from 8.40-8.55am and 3.20-3.45pm daily. Please only take one book home per night and return it when you are done.

We do not expect pupils to always read a levelled book at home as they need to read a broad range of texts. We encourage adults to always discuss books with pupils to ensure they are understanding what they are reading or what is being read to them. A guide to type of questions you could ask can be found below.

Reading Eggs

Pupils in Reception to Year 5 also have online access to Reading Eggs and Reading Eggspress. This is a learning resource that supports your students’ reading skills with carefully designed online reading games and activities which are easy to follow, student-driven, progressional and highly engaging. You can find out more about Reading Eggs and Reading Eggspress HERE.