Literacy and English

Language is at the heart of children’s learning. Through language they receive much of their knowledge and acquire many of their skills. We attach a high priority to giving pupils a command of the English language and the ability to use it appropriately and concisely. This includes having knowledge about language; listening attentively; reading with understanding; and writing fluently and legibly with accurate spelling and punctuation.

The core reading scheme within the early stages is Storyworlds and then pupils progress to Literacy World about Primary 4.

The reading scheme ‘Big Cats’ is also used in Primary 1-7 to complement our existing materials and provide a greater range of non-fiction texts. Other resources include Jolly Phonics, Jolly Grammar, Nelson Handwriting. ‘Big Writing’ and Prim-Ed Spelling. A range of extension materials are available to use with those pupils who require additional support and further challenge.

Throughout the school there is much encouragement given to reading for pleasure. School Book Fairs are organised annually. Each classroom has a wide selection of texts for pupils to choose from for personal reading and all classes are given the opportunity to visit the parent run library to develop library skills.

A group of parents organise our parent run library with each class visiting fortnightly to choose a book from a wide range of genres.

To develop writing skills we follow the Ros Wilson ‘Big Writing’ approach using a range of writing contexts and activities. All teachers undertake the uplevelling of their pupils’ writing – this involves correcting pupils’ work against set criteria. Pupils are then given targets to aim for which should ultimately lead to a raised standard in their writing.

All pupils in our school learn French as their main Modern Language.