Charles de Lint
Don’t forget – no one else sees the world the way you do, so no one else can tell the stories that you have to tell.
Don’t forget – no one else sees the world the way you do, so no one else can tell the stories that you have to tell.
At our school, English is taught creatively in order to inspire our children to become lifelong readers and writers. English is taught five times a week and this includes reading, writing, spelling and grammar. Separate handwriting and Whole Class Reading sessions also take several times a week. At Temple Hill teachers work hard to ensure all aspects of English are woven through every part of our curriculum. We encourage our children to become confident speakers, readers and writers through innovative and engaging teaching strategies.
The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.
At Temple Hill, reading is at the heart of everything that we do. We understand the importance of equipping our children with life-long Literacy skills so that they develop a love of reading and are fully prepared for the next chapter in their school life.
At Temple Hill, children from Y2 – Y6 use Accelerated Reader (AR), a reading program by Renaissance Learning, to further their reading comprehension. Each child has a username and password to access their own bookshelf. At the beginning of each new term, your child will take a STAR test and this will give them their ZPD (zone of proximal development) number. This gives them a suggested book level range, which has been translated into a colour system. All the library books are categorised according to these colours and numbers, and the children understand how to select their own books.
When your child has finished reading a book, they take an Accelerated Reader Quiz. After the quiz, your child will be given their score as a percentage. If they pass the quiz, points will be rewarded! You can find out how many points a book is worth by taking a look on the inside cover – but remember, children must pass the quiz by 85% or more to earn the points! Temple Hill also has a ‘Millionaire’s Club’ for all the children that read over one million words during the school year!
Books that you child chooses to read at home may also be on AR. This can be checked by visiting www.arbookfind.co.uk and searching for the book by either the title or the author. If the book is in your child’s suggested range, a test can then be taken on this in school.
Parents can also keep up to date on their child’s progress by signing up to Accelerated Reader via this link: https://global-zone61.renaissance-go.com/educatorportal/home. Just click on the email set up link and follow the directions. You will then be emailed an update every time your child has taken a quiz!
To make good progress, we encourage our children to read every day at home. It’s easy to implement reading into everyday life – why not try asking your child to read information from food labels when you go shopping? Perhaps they could read you information from websites online, or something from a newspaper or magazine.
If you want to change the world, pick up your pen and write
At Temple Hill, we aim to inspire and support our children to write to the very best of their ability. Reading a wide variety of exciting and interesting texts provides inspiration for our children and helps them in developing their own writing styles.
At Temple Hill we encourage our children to become both confident and skilful writers. Providing inspiration is key, which is why we ensure that our lessons are engaging, innovative and challenging.
Engaging books are used as a premise for the teaching of literacy through a variety of different genres. Through this, children’s skills are developed as they progress through the National Curriculum. Drama, discussion and games are often used within lessons, helping to ensure all children enjoy their learning and that there are plenty of speaking and listening opportunities to develop vocabulary and ideas. Every class has a ‘Working Wall’ where new vocabulary is displayed and ready to be plucked by eager learners. Children are taught to consider the audience and purpose of their writing so that they are able to relate it to a real-life context, which manifests itself into a finished product for a reader. In addition to this, children are supported with exemplar models of writing, whether it is through teacher modelling/demonstrating or teacher scribing.
Speaking and Listening forms a large part of the Literacy curriculum, and here at Temple Hill there is a large emphasis on developing these skills during the school day. Using the national curriculum we have put together a progression document, explaining what objectives children should be able to achieve by the end of each school year.
