English
At Hankham, we develop a love of reading and writing through a variety of fun and engaging activities to enhance the curriculum. These include: author visits, World Book Day and mixed age reading partners. We also promote the Library Summer Reading Challenge.
We are also involved in the UN's Sustainable Development Goals Book Club. Stories can fuel children's imagination and raise awareness of new possibilities. The SDG Book Club aims to encourage young people across the world to learn about the SDGs in a fun, engaging way and help them realise what actions they can take, empowering them to make a difference.
We follow a phonics programme, the DfE approved Twinkl phonics programme, which focuses on Systematic Synthetic phonics teaching, . Each year group is taught separately with a discrete daily Phonics lesson with additional phonic activities throughout the week. EYFS focus on Levels 2, 3 & 4 while Year 1 focus on Level 5 and Year 2 focus on Level 6 . Letter formation is also a focus with pre-cursive in EYFS and cursive from Year 1.
At Hankham, the teaching of reading skills is an integral part of our English lessons. Reading skills, including children’s decoding and fluency, as well as a rich vocabulary, are also developed through teaching across the curriculum areas. We use Reading VIPERS to focus on key reading skills throughout the week (Vocubulary, Infer, Predict, Explain, Retrieve, Sequence). In addition, reading comprehension is taught throughout the school through the use of the scheme Cracking Comprehension.
Regular intervention reading groups take place to support those children who need additional support with reading. Specific reading interventions are put in place to focus on individual needs.
We encourage the children to access a range of enriching texts to develop good comprehension and foster a love of reading. Reading Champions in Year 6 help to promote the love of reading throughout the school and help look after our fantastic library.
Please click below for Year Group Recommended Reads, containing 50 books specially picked out for reading for pleasure in each year group.
