English
Reading
We base our reading scheme primarily on Pearson ‘Bug Club’. We have recently taken part in a 2 year research project with the London Institute of Education and Pearson Publishing Company into promoting the enjoyment of reading through using the ‘Bug Club’. However, at each level, we also use books from other reading schemes such as Oxford Reading Tree as supplementary and extension readers. This enables us to consolidate learning and develop as wide a reading vocabulary as possible. ‘Phonics’ is our primary method of teaching reading supported by the ‘look and say’ approach. The research project was a massive success and as a result, children right across school are more engaged with their reading and are reading for pleasure.
Children take their reading book home each day in order to practice their reading skills and to share their learning with parents. Children and parents are encouraged to share other books at home on a regular basis. The children also have access to the ‘Bug Club’ Online Reading World to support and enhance their learning and enjoyment of reading.
We provide a Homework Diary so that teachers and parents can communicate the progress that the children make. We really value this partnership between home and school, suggesting that parents aim for ten minutes of reading and listening per day. Short, enjoyable sessions encourage children to read for pleasure, whilst regular additional practice really does boost skills!
In the Juniors, children are still expected to read at home, every night. When children become more confident readers it is not necessary to listen to them read every night. We would be grateful though if you could sign their diary so we know they have read. As children move towards the upper juniors, more focus is placed on key reading comprehension skills. Through class reads and using resources from the Rigby Navigator scheme, the children develop their inference skills, understanding of authorial intent and language choice as well as their ability to reason their ideas based on evidence from the text.
Click on the ‘Bug Club’ logo to access the online reading world.
We aim to provide an environment that encourages children to develop fully their ability to use language, both spoken and written. The skills developed in English are necessary for all areas of the curriculum and are used throughout the school week. However, specific English teaching takes place during the daily Literacy lesson.
Speaking & Listening
Our children are given opportunities to communicate their ideas in a variety of situations. These may take the form of a discussion with a partner, a group, or class. Children are taught from an early age the value of listening to others and taking the opinions of others on board. Regular “Prayer and Liturgy” celebrations, to which parents are invited, provide children with an opportunity to speak to larger audiences.
Writing
Writing is a vital communication tool, which is incorporated into almost every part of our school curriculum. We aim to make writing meaningful and engaging while teaching children to write for a wide range of purposes. Children have the opportunity to develop their factual and creative writing and their ability to write poetry throughout KS1 and KS2. This starts in Reception with word and sentence level work linked to the children’s topics, the jungle for example, and develops throughout school until Year 6 where the children write diaries, formal letters, non-chronological reports and more based on their topics.
Pupils are encouraged to work with increasing independence; dictionary skills are taught in order to aid this process.
SPaG is incorporated into the English curriculum throughout school from Reception to Year 6. Children are taught year related objectives taken from our school SPaG scheme that ensures continuity and coverage across school. A glossary of SPaG terms is available by clicking here which may be very useful for parents. As a school, we understand the need to make SPaG meaningful for our children and we therefore take every opportunity to apply SPaG objectives to writing.
Handwriting
Handwriting is taught as a skill with an emphasis placed upon the careful presentation of work.
Spelling
The carefully structured Letters and Sounds phonics programme supports outstanding progress in reading and spelling. Moving into the juniors, the children have weekly spellings to learn which can be found at the back of their homework diaries.
World Book Day 2019
This Year for World Book Day we dressed up as our favourite book characters. The children in EYFS and Key Stage 1 all studied books by Julia Donaldson and the children in Key Stage 2 focussed on stories written by David Walliams.We had a wonderful day. We invited our families and friends into school to jhoin us in reading activities and games. Staff were astounded at the creativity and effort the children went to with their costumes, a sample of which can be seen in the gallery below. Can you spot the teachers?
World Book Day 2018
This Year for World Book Day we decided to run an ‘Extreme Reading’ competition to further engage the children in reading. The children were asked to take a photo of themselves reading in an unusual or extreme location outside of school. Staff were astounded at the creativity and effort the children went to for their photo entries, a sample of which can be seen in the gallery below. All photos entered have also been displayed in our school hall to celebrate our home learning.
The children also took part in several quizzes and reading activities throughout the day, as well as bringing in their own books, pillows, cushions and blankets from home to have a school – wide personal reading time at the end of the school day.
