Literacy

Policy: Reading Policy ; Phonics Policy

Reading notes for parents

Subject Ambassador: Mrs. S. Howes

Link Academy Councillor:

Statement of Intent:

World Book Day – The Masked Reader

Opal Learning Zone

Speaking & Listening – Literacy skills are at the forefront of our provision in the Opal Learning Zone. The children are engrossed in daily activities that develop our speaking and listening ability and improve our love of learning. Due to the immense ability of the children we have started delivering sounds, the children have shown great progress with their recognition during adult led sessions and some of them are now reading and writing CVC words independently.

Amethyst Learning Zone

Keeping Phonics Fun! – This week we have been recapping our Phase 3 sounds as we start to prepare for the transition into the next Learning Zone. The children had the opportunity to independently write a number of spellings using a peacock feather in the flour. Alongside the children writing in their Phonics books, they are able to access a range of exciting provision where challenges are created to further their learning. It has been astonishing to see the progress the children have made with their reading and writing skills over the academic year.

Sapphire Learning Zone

We Love Stories – The children have been exploring the new resources within the Sapphire Learning Zone. They have been sharing books in the library area, reading books by familiar authors, including some of the classics, discovering some new favourite texts. They have used the puppet theatre and costumes to create characters and retell familiar stories.

Ruby Learning Zone

Emerald Learning Zone

The Firework Makers Daughter – In Literacy we have been studying the story of The Firework Makers Daughter by Philip Pullman. The children have created some fantastic setting description of the Fire Fiends Grotto. Here are just some of the examples of the fantastic writing the Emerald children have produced.

Diamond Learning Zone

Did the world leaders at the G7 meeting really decide on effective and realistic changes? –The children spent some time learning about what the G7 meeting was and who was involved in this. They really enjoyed using challenging techniques to write a balanced argument about the 3 main topics that were discussed – COVID vaccines, education for girls and climate change.

September 2020- February 2021

Class 1

Reading and Writing Skills – In Literacy, the children have continued to work hard to improve their reading and writing skills. They really enjoyed reading and acting “Greta and the Giants” during Durham Book Festival. We have also been learning to write instructions. We have used “bossy” verbs to write instructions about anti-bullying, road safety as well as Christmas crafts.

Here we are – In Literacy we took part in a whole school integration topic, ‘Here We Are.’ Our primary focus was to ensure that the children felt settled and happy to be back into school. This topic helped them to learn about themselves and the ever-changing world that they live in.

Traditional Tales – The children have worked very hard to improve their reading and writing skills by developing their phonic knowledge. We really enjoyed reading and acting out traditional tales, and writing short descriptions of the characters using simple sentences.

Class 2

Literacy skills – In Literacy, the children have been continuing to practice and apply their phonics in their independent writing. Small intervention groups have taken place to support those children who needed an extra boost. The children have had many opportunities to write creatively, using conjunctions and subordination to extend their ideas. We even wrote a letter to Santa, putting in our Christmas requests and thanking him for last year’s gifts.

Here we are – In Literacy we took part in a whole school integration topic, ‘Here we are.’ We focused on integrating the children back into school and finding out about themselves and the ever-changing world that they live in.

Building Sentences – A big focus had been on building sentences correctly using their phonics skills. We have looked at simple descriptions and used an assortment of characters from different texts to help us with our ideas.

Class 3

Getting creative – The children in Class 3 have been working on writing their on version of a story. They had lots of fun designing their own characters and choosing the setting they wanted their story to take place. All of the children had some fantastic ideas and some even better stories!

Class 4

Poetry – My Life as Goldfish; Rachel Rooney – We have studied poetry this half term, based around an anthology by Rachel Rooney. We used the outdoor space around school to explore our five senses. The children then worked together in small groups to write a poem called ‘The School Garden. I was amazed by the fantastic vocabulary the children were able to gain from being outside and the poems were a real success.

Pen License – All of the children have been working hard with their handwriting. Four off the children have already achieved their pen license.

Here we are – In Class 4, we have been studying a book called ‘Here We Are’ by Oliver Jeffers. Everyone in the class wrote a letter to someone special. We also studied a poem about things that are special to us and the class worked together to create their own poetry.

Class 5

Spellings – Class 5 have been exploring different techniques to practise their spellings. The children had fun searching the environment to spell words using natural resources.

Archived Information

You can view our archived literacy information on our website.