English

We take a whole school approach to developing literate, confident children who have the skills needed to make good progress in all their subjects and to become fully literate members of society. All staff receive regular training and guidance and work very closely together to tailor their teaching approaches to meet the needs of each individual child.

We teach phonics awareness and early writing skills from Nursery upwards. We also place a big emphasis on developing the children’s ability to speak clearly, and on their listening skills and ability to comprehend information in both verbal and written forms. In the Early Years this may take the form of sharing information with a small group about a place they have visited, and by Key Stage 2 will progress to children giving short presentations to the whole class. All our children become very confident at giving public performances, and enjoy putting on class assemblies and by Year 4, they are able to put on a full musical, performing their lines with confidence.

All our classrooms have welcoming well stocked book areas with books that the children love, and all teachers regularly share their enthusiasm for reading by using and reading a range of enjoyable texts and favourite books.

We encourage the children to present their work neatly, and we celebrate their best handwriting through displays and by awarding pen licences to children in Key Stage 2 who demonstrate neat, joined handwriting. Each class also has a Working Wall where we display materials relevant to the children’s current learning. These are changed regularly and often link to our topic work in other subjects to allow children to write purposefully and to be inspired by their learning to think creatively.