1. Speaking and Listening

To develop the skill of speaking in a clear, fluent and interesting way and to listen with growing attention and concentration.

We place a great deal of importance on the children's ability to listen and to express themselves.  Opportunities are provided for our children to learn new vocabulary through a Word Aware Approach and through talking about first hand experiences and planned activities.  Talk is developed through conversation, discussion, stories and poetry, drama, music activities, and an awareness of  sounds in our environment.  Situations are also created where we can extend the children's speaking and listening skills.  We expect children's listening to be active, where they are thinking and responding to what is being discussed. 

2. Reading

To develop the ability to read with fluency, accuracy, understanding and enjoyment using a range of both fiction and non-fiction material.

 Each class contains a range of fiction and non-fiction books. The reading books are colour-coded and are at the children's phonic levels.

We aim for all our pupils to become confident, enthusiastic readers who are able to understand and respond to all kinds of writing and be able to use books to obtain information.

 Our teaching of reading includes a wide range of teaching strategies.  Children are supported individually as well as in focused groups. We work on the development of the whole reader, building up strategies for understanding, decoding, responding to and analysing a wide range of texts, as well as teaching a structured programme of phonics throughout the school. The school has well resourced libraries.

3. Writing, including handwriting and spelling

To develop the ability to write with confidence, fluency, accuracy and independence and to
gradually acquire the skills of well presented handwriting, punctuation, correct spelling and
clarity of expression.

We encourage all our children to enjoy their writing, from early attempts to where they are writing independently for a variety of purposes and for a variety of audiences.  We provide activities to motivate our children to express their feelings and imagination, ideas and opinions, and to help them to realise how writing is used in the "real" world in a variety of forms and situations.

The children are taught cursive handwriting from the beginning of Year 1 and it is used consistently throughout Key Stage 1. 

In addition to using phonic skills acquired through reading to help with spelling, we teach children ways to remember harder to read and spell words.  We teach spelling as the children are developing independence within their writing.

How you can help at home

Teachers change children’s phonic readers on a Friday and these should be returned on the following Friday. Teachers assign phonic readers on the Oxford Owl Website to consolidate phonic learning for the week. Our home school reading agreement says that children will read a minimum of 4 times a week.  This is recorded in a Reading Diary in which parents, carers,
children and teachers can comment.  In Years One and Two teachers provide a learning sticker to show the specific reading strategies children have been learning in class. Parents are encouraged to attend a meeting about Learning to Read in the Autumn Term of the Reception Year.