Wednesday School

The children in our pre-school class are given a head start to reading and writing. During the course of the year the groundwork needed to become accomplished readers and writers is completed. They sing, they dance, they play, and they learn, gaining a love and passion for language.

We strive to give our year 1 children a sense of story, exposing them to traditional tales to instil in them the concept of a story structure. Their imagination and awareness of text structure and language is not hampered by their emerging writing and reading skills they are inspired and motivated to develop by their recognition of the power of communication through the written word. By the end of Year 1 the children are familiar with all the initial letter sounds and many common diagraphs; are able to write simple sentences and read simple texts and recount a well-structured story using appropriate vocabulary.

Year 2 children build on their phonic knowledge expanding it to cover multiple spellings of the long vowel sounds and other frequently encountered graphemes. They develop written stamina so they can sustain their written efforts independently and become competent, confident cursive writers. They move from a phonic approach to reading, to a whole word recognition. They are introduced to more genres of writing, both fiction and non-fiction through Talk for Writing.

Year 3 children reinforce their long vowel sound knowledge and begin to explore other spelling patterns. We develop their knowledge of different genres so that Year 3 children continue to apply their growing appreciation of text style, adjusting their tone, vocabulary use and layout to suit the task. They become fluent, expressive readers and extend their reading strategies to better connect with the text.

Year 4 children continue to expand their knowledge and recognition of a range of fiction and non-fiction genres and are able to independently write long texts that respect the features of a wider range of genres. They read more complex texts with increased confidence and apply a wider range of reading strategies to more deeplycomprehend the texts. They explore different spelling strategies and patterns and become increasingly confident spellers.

Year 5 children become confident writers who recognise a wide range of text genres and are able to independently write texts that respect the criteria demanded. Confident in their spelling they explore more subtle spelling strategies and patterns including prefixes and suffixes. They read with expression and engage with texts at many levels, exploiting a wide range of reading strategies.

Year 6 children become capable writers who can employ a range of styles. They use punctuation, vocabulary and sentence structures to give pace and direction to their writing be it poetry, fiction or non-fiction. They are committed writers who take pride in their work and strive to produce inspired, interesting texts, taking the time to edit and perfect. They are confident spellers who continue to build their repertoire of vocabulary and complex spelling patterns. When reading, they are able to recognise rhetorical devices and appraise a text to assess its quality.