English is at the heart of our curriculum, and writing is a key focus. Through writing, children learn to communicate ideas clearly, creatively and effectively. At our school, we follow the Literacy Counts scheme, which provides a carefully sequenced approach to teaching writing through high-quality texts.
The National Curriculum for English states that a high-quality education in English should teach children to speak and write fluently, so that they can communicate their ideas to others and participate fully as members of society. Using Literacy Counts, children are immersed in rich, engaging stories and texts that inspire them to write for different purposes and audiences. The scheme also builds a strong foundation in grammar, spelling and vocabulary, giving children the tools to craft their writing with accuracy and flair.
Our writing curriculum, delivered through Literacy Counts, aims to ensure that all children:
In English, we did some Drama to help us remember the story we are learning about. Year 5 have read ‘Henry’s Freedom Box’ and today they dramatised the story of him escaping in the box. This is going to help them later on, when they write an autobiography on Henry.
We have come into class this morning and found a very interesting picture on our board. We then tried to independently write some words and sentences.
We received a very interesting package today, we have been discussing where it came from and even questioned the postman!
Someone in our class decided to dress up as the Night Gardener. I wonder who it is? He did a great job sneaking around without anyone seeing him cutting the trees!
Year 6 have been challenged with reading a certain about of pages each week in their guided read and reading for pleasure books. If they achieve that total they will either received a milkshake or free time. If they read with their Parents/Carers, they also receive a biscuit. Here are our first winners.
Today, we used drama to retell the story of The Night Gardener. Some of us were trees, another person was William and some of us were people from Grimlock Lane. This will help us write lovely story setting descriptions.
Year 1 have really enjoyed practising reading some alien words this week by playing a really cool game!
Year 6 loved their No pen day experience, with lots of practical and computer based activities. From creating our plans for English on our chrome books to using multi-link cubes in maths to explore volume. It is to be continued after SATs.
Today, we brought some of the images of Shackleton Journey to life through conscience alley and freeze frames.
We used illustrations from our class reader Shackleton Journey written by William Grill. We had a lot of fun adding our own conversations, thoughts and ideas to these images.
Today, Sunflower class found some interesting items in our classroom. Inside there was a new book, Little Red. We looked at the first page illustrations and discussed it, asking questions and making predictions. We then acted out how Little Red would have felt walking through the woods alone.
Year 2 were learning to listen to instructions
Over the last couple of days we have been enjoying our poetry and spending time reading our favourite poems! #nationalpoetryday #nationalliteracytrust
We’re working so hard to develop our vocabulary knowledge ? today we have used dictionaries to discover the meaning of words
Today we continued to develop our vocabulary by using a thesaurus to find synonyms
.
This week, Year 1 have been using the prefix un- to change the meaning of words. This has been the focus for our sentence accuracy, the children have done a great job! #stfinbarsenglish @LiteracyCounts1 @StFinbarsSch @JanJconley
Year 1 have had a problem with magic spiders. We wrote a class set of instructions – How to Catch a Spider. Last night we set a trap, it didn’t work! Today will write our own instructions to try catch the pesky spiders! #stfinbarsenglish
