English / Literacy
Learning to read and write well are two of the most important skills that children develop in primary school. At Queen Emma, developing these crucial life skills is one of our highest priorities.
By the time they leave us to move onto secondary school, we want all children to be able to:
- read fluently, with enjoyment and good understanding
- write clearly, accurately and creatively, sharing their ideas with confidence
- speak confidently and listen to others carefully and with respect
We help children to acquire these skills through dedicated daily literacy lessons, but also by focusing on the key skill of Communicating across the whole curriculum.
In KS1, we teach reading through a range of strategies, including daily systematic teaching of synthetic phonics (using the progression set out in the publication Letters and Sounds). We do not use a single reading scheme for children’s reading books, but draw on a number of different high-quality schemes. These books are organised according to the national Bookbanding colour scheme.
For more information please click on the link to view our Reading and Writing Policies on our Policies page.
Information for Parents
Supporting your child in English
One of the most important things that you can do to help your child succeed at school is to read to them and hear them read regularly. Sharing and discussing books together makes a huge contribution to a child’s language development, whether they are at the very early stages of learning to decode words in Reception, or reading more fluently in the older classes. Your child’s class teacher will be happy to talk to you about how you can support your child individually with their reading.
We have compiled lists of recommended books for children in Years 3 to 6. They are all books she has read and loved and will help us to ensure every child learns to enjoy reading. If you have a book token for a present or just want to buy a new book as a treat please consult the lists to help with your choice.
Obviously, the lists are not exhaustive and you may also have favourites which you might like to share with us. We are very happy to keep adding to our recommendations.
The most important learning skill a children acquires in primary school is a love of reading. It is the foundation for all the work they will do in the future. As well as your children reading the books you too might want to help inspire your children by reading to them or sharing books together. If you read a book from the year above you will be helping embed the ideas, vocabulary and sentence structure your child will be reading in the future.
No Nonsense Spelling Facts
Queen Emma Library
The librarians are working hard to keep both the downstairs and upstairs libraries neat and well organised. Keep up the good work!
Just outside the downstairs library, we are very lucky to have such a fantastic amount of space in which reading and writing are being celebrated. Comfortable reading areas have been created to make a welcoming space for children to read.
Downstairs Library
Our Key Stage 1 Library is looking fantastic! Thank you to Ms Greenhill for all of her hard work painting fictional characters on the library walls. Watch this space for a brilliant artistic parent adding to this inspiring and exciting environment. More colourful book boxes have been purchased to hold our ever-expanding collection of fiction books and we continue to purchase new books to increase our collection of all genres.
Upstairs Library
Painting will soon begin in the upstairs library by our amazing artistic parent! The children have been asked to contribute their own ideas to make their library a welcoming and inspiring reading environment. Thanks to a range of fundraising activities, new bookcase, beanbags and books have been purchased to further enhance the developing space. Thank you for your generous contributions.
Extreme Reading
Thank you for all of the fantastic ‘Extreme Reading’ photographs that were sent in. We have all enjoyed looking at different ‘extreme’ ways in which the children have been reading.’
Examples Of Learning
The year 4’s have been using story maps and dictionaries to help support their learning in English. Well done!
Year 6
Descriptive writing has been highlighted recently, and we have used senses to help illustrate our ideas.