World Book Day 2019
The school celebrated World Book Day with it’s first vocabulary parade; each child selected a word and then represented it through costume and actions. The emphasis of the day was on exploring new vocabulary.
We were all impressed with the wide vocabulary and creativity on show.
The school uses The Letters and Sounds program. We use Jolly Phonics to reinforce the actions for sounds.
 – A good selection of resources including worksheets and interactive games.
www.primaryresources.com – Under word level section of literacy, a good selection of worksheets.
www.kidzone.ws/phonics – America site, simple worksheets mostly CVC and initial sounds.
www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/phonics/ – Mix of very good interactive games and worksheets covering most phonics phases.
www.ictgames.com/literacy.html – Great selection of games that will ink well with games in Letters and Sounds.
www.phonicsplay.co.uk – A selection of interactive games for all phonic phases. Mostly simple games.
www.focusonphonics.co.uk – Phonics resource to help children with reading.
The school uses a variety of reading scheme books to suit different needs. These include PM books, Oxford Reading Tree and Rigby books. We also have a range of fiction and non-fiction books of different genres to encourage reading for pleasure.
The teaching of reading focuses on developing children’s competence in word reading and comprehension (both listening and reading)
Skilled word reading involves working out the pronunciation of unfamiliar words (decoding) and speedy recognition of familiar words. Underpinning both is the understanding that the letters on the page represent the words in spoken words. That is why phonic teaching is emphasised in the early stages reading.
Good comprehension draws from linguistic knowledge (especially of vocabulary and grammar) and on knowledge of the world. Comprehension skills develop through children’s experience of high quality discussion with the teacher. Comprehension skills also develop through the children reading and discussing a wide range of stories, poems and non-fiction.
The Teaching of Reading
The implementation of a new whole class teaching approach in daily guided reading has enabled each child to have teacher guidance on the development of their comprehension skills. Class teachers teach reading though the practice and modelling of key skills in the reading content domains, with greater emphasis placed on vocabulary, retrieval and inference. Opportunities for greater depth in reading are provided as children deepen their understanding of the quality texts and comprehension skills.Our school model incorporates a visual at the start of the week in order to aid EAL learners.
Children from year 2 upwards choose books from their classroom to read at home at school and most of the books are part of the accelerated reading scheme. This means that children take a Star Reading Test and are allocated a wide range of books that are suitable for them. Once they have completed the book they are encouraged to take a quiz which tests their comprehension. These scores are recorded and help the child and teacher to monitor their progress. The children gradually extend their range of reading as they progress. It is motivating for the children and encourages them to read for meaning and enjoyment.
All of the children have access to two well stocked libraries and take a book out each week. The library includes fiction, non-fiction, poetry, dual language books and non-reference material such as newspapers and journals.
There are also planned visits to the two local libraries in Ordnance Road and at the Enfield Island Village.
All of the children are encouraged to take part in the Summer Reading Challenge held every summer and this acknowledged at school.
Intervention Groups in reading
Some children, during their time at our school, benefit form intervention programmes. We are a Reading Recovery School and this intensive programme is a very successful intervention at our school. In addition we have support for EAL children with specially trained EMA staff. There are also inference groups which focus on the comprehension skills.
Power of Reading
The school successfully continues to use The Power of Reading Project to engage children in the English curriculum through using high quality books .
Midsummer Night’s Dream
Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters
|The Lady Of Shallot|
Extra curricular events
Opportunities are provided for children to enjoy the world of literature across the curriculum. Events are held in school on World Book Days and Poetry Days and often include inviting authors, illustrators, poets, performers, storytellers and drama companies to work with and inspire our children.
Reading breakfasts are held on a termly bases, where children and parents enjoy reading books together. The children also enjoy the termly Book Swaps.
Reading widely and often increases children’s vocabulary and feeds their imagination whilst also opening up a treasure-house of wonder and joy for curious young minds.
Our aim at school is to ensure all children are able to read fluently and with confidence so that they are prepared well for their next stage of education.
Spoken Language at Prince of Wales School
There is a planned and progressive programme in place to develop children’s language development across the whole curriculum-cognitively, socially and linguistically. Spoken language underpins the development of reading and writing. The quality and range of language that children hear and speak is vital for developing their vocabulary and grammar and their understanding for reading and writing. All staff in the school continually model Standard English. The model of the mode continuum is used to support children in using the correct register of speech depending on the context in which language will be used.
Children should be able to retell stories from the time they begin school. They should develop an ability to explain their understanding of books and other reading and prepare their ideas, with the support of the teacher, before they write. They need support in making their thinking clear to themselves as well as to others. They should also be taught the conventions for discussion and debate.
Drama opportunities are planned every term and provide a range of opportunities for the children to adopt, create and sustain a range of roles e.g. through hot seating, role play, conscience alley.
For children whose first language is not English, these children are supported in their acquisition of English using the step levels. They are also be encouraged to maintain and develop their home language alongside English so that the process of conceptual development can continue
Writing focuses on transcription (spelling and handwriting) and composition (articulating ideas and structuring them in speech and writing).
Children learn how to plan, draft, re-draft and edit their writing to publish a final version.
Writing down ideas fluently requires effective transcription. The children need to know the relationship between sounds and letters(phonics), understanding the morphology (word structure) and orthography (spelling structure)of words.
Effective composition involves forming, articulating and communicating ideas, and the organising them coherently for the reader. This requires clarity, awareness of the audience, purpose and context, and an increasingly wide knowledge of vocabulary and grammar. Writing also depends on fluent and legible handwriting.
The Nelson style of handwriting is taught.