Literacy
English can be found at the heart of the curriculum in all subjects studied at The Abbey Junior School. It is an essential skill for life in our communication oriented world. The knowledge, skills and understanding involved can be categorised into three specific areas:
- Speaking and listening, which includes group work, whole class discussion, drama and role-play.
- Reading, including word recognition, reading comprehension and the development of higher order skills such as inference and deduction.
- Writing, including word, sentence and presentation level skills and how to write in different genres, both fiction and non-fiction, for different purposes and audiences.
At The Abbey Junior School, the girls are introduced to a wide range of texts which they are encouraged to explore and analyse to gain a better understanding of the author's use of language features. Clear objectives and learning targets are shared and discussed with the girls. Within the units of work, opportunities are given for the girls to focus on phonics and the development of spelling strategies, as well as grammar skills. The girls work individually and in groups to apply their learning, to create new texts and to read more widely.
In their reading, they are exposed to shared and guided reading opportunities as well as being encouraged to develop their individual tastes for different genres and text types.
In their writing, the girls are guided to identify key structural and linguistic features of text types. Texts are often modelled so that pupils learn the benefits of reading as authors and writing as readers. They are motivated to write through the establishment of a clear sense of audience and purpose for writing.
At the end of a unit of work, the girls are encouraged to reflect on their work and are given opportunities to comment on the work of others and use comments made on their own work to identify areas for further development.
The school has a well stocked library and the girls are encouraged to borrow books on a regular basis.
The girls benefit from a wide range of extra curricular activities linked to literacy and regularly enjoy visits from storytellers, theatrical performers and children's authors. We hold book fairs, dedicated book weeks and poetry days.
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Book Week |
Author John Harris Visit |
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Book Character Dressing Up Day |
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