At Chenies we strive not only to teach the children to develop a love of reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills, but to impress upon them the importance of these skills in their everyday lives. We want our children to develop a positive attitude towards communication and to use the skills we teach them to express their emotions and ideas independently.
The teaching of English follows the National Curriculum. Reading, writing and communication are key skills and children are encouraged to progress at their own pace. The development of literacy skills are not confined to only English lessons but are embedded throughout the curriculum.
Reading is taught in a variety of ways, including systematic synthetic phonics, guided group reading and individual reading. Phonic sounds are taught using Lesley Clarke's synthetic phonics. The majority of reading scheme books used for teaching reading are from The Oxford Reading Tree and Floppy Phonics reading schemes. A range of texts are used: fiction, non-fiction, plays and poetry, so that children gain breadth as well as depth. All children have access to a wide range of books, both within the classroom and the school library which they are encouraged to take home to share with parents and carers.
We encourage the children to write in a range of genres dependent on the purpose and audience for which they are writing. From Year 1, children are given spellings to learn at home each week and as children become more proficient they are encouraged to check their own spellings using a dictionary.
Listening skills are developed through story telling, class discussion, drama, music and audio visual material. Children gain confidence through drama, classroom debate, assemblies, school productions and general discussions.
Children are encouraged to develop a clear and fluent style of cursive handwriting, as they progress through the school.
