St Paul's CofE Infant School

During the course of a week, work covers all areas of English. That is, Speaking and Listening, Reading, Writing, Handwriting and Spelling.

We aim to stimulate an enthusiasm and enjoyment of books and reading as well as developing the children’s reading ability.

We use a variety of approaches and resources to teach reading although our first teaching of reading is phonics based and word recognition.  We use the monster phonics scheme for this area of learning. (www.monsterphonics.com)

Reading good quality books to the children to develop their vocabulary and love of books goes alongside our rigorous phonics teaching. We encourage the children to borrow from our library and also to take other books home as often as possible. Home is an ideal place for children to experience a wide variety of books.

Writing skills are encouraged from the earliest stages and we recognise the value of children’s early mark making as an important developmental stage in the writing process. We aim to help the children to become avid writers, creating stories, poems and accounts for their own and others’ enjoyment.  Written work varies from dictation to recording information and observations, to imaginative work.  The basic skills of spelling and grammar are taught both through regular use in the children's work and also during the specified literacy session.

Good spelling and the correct use of punctuation and grammar are important in written work. The children are taught a variety of spelling strategies. From the very early stages, children are encouraged to attempt to spell words, at first using their early phonic knowledge and then beginning to apply their known sight vocabulary and knowledge of spelling rules.