Charlwood Village Infant School

Under the National Curriculum, English is divided into Speaking and Listening, Reading, Writing, Handwriting and Spelling and is mainly taught through the Literacy Hour.

Spoken Language and Listening

Spoken Language is the foundation of almost all children's language development but sometimes children are unable to express themselves adequately. As teachers we provide situations and activities which will extend children's experience, stimulate curiosity and lead to spoken language development across all areas of the curriculum.

Listening ability governs part of a child's capacity to commmunicate effectively. Teachers help children to to develop their abilities through hearing stories for pleasure, by following spoken instructions, through discussion and exchanging information and through activities such as question and answer memory games.

Reading

Reading is high priority as the written word still remains the key to learning even in this age of technology.   We place importance on reading for pleasure;  in this way children will want to read and they benefit from this positive attitude. We do not follow a colour coded system as this can stifle children's interest and exert unnecessary pressure on both children and parents. The children choose from a wide range of quality reading material - reading scheme books such as Oxford Reading Tree, Rigby Stars, picture books, short stories and longer paperbacks. The range is carefully selected by the teachers so as to be appropriate for that particular class, and time for reading is always included daily.

Usually the children bring books home daily and parents are asked to make a note in the comment book - older children often like to make their own comments.

In conjunction with reading for pleasure the children learn the letter sounds through phonetic games and Jolly Phonics. Our main aim is to help children develop reading skills and become confident, fluent readers who regard books as an important part of their lives, and who will continue to read into adulthood.

Writing

Writing must have a purpose for it to be a worthwhile activity. The children are encouraged to think at an early age about why they are writing and who they are writing for - friends, family and so on. The classrooms contain a wide selection of writing materials as well as an "office" where the children can go to write books, notes, invitations, letters, or anything that comes to mind. Equal value is placed on young children's early attempts at writing as it is on older ones' real writing. By encouraging "emergent" writing, children develop a positive attitude towards writing in general. They will experiment freely and write for pleasure.

Correct letter formation should lead to children being able to adopt a legible handwriting style which they can write fluently and with ease at a reasonable speed.

Great emphasis is also placed on the appearance and presentation of work. As teachers we try to ensure that the children are surrounded by interesting, well presented displays. The children are encouraged to take pride in their work and to learn how to display it and so help to enrich their visual environment.

Spelling

Spelling is an ongoing development and introduced when appropriate to the child. We use the spelling approach which involves spelling families as a memory aid. Y1 and Y2 children take home words to learn each week, related to the child's ability.