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Literacy

LITERACY

In language our aim is to provide a learning programme which will enable children to acquire a high command of language including the ability to read with understanding, to write fluently, legibly and with accurate spelling and punctuation – to listen and to talk and to have a sound knowledge about language.
 
Talking and Listening
Skills in talking and listening are formally developed to enable pupils to be effective communicators, for all life situations. Children will be encouraged to express their own ideas, opinions and feelings confidently and articulately. Children are taught a structured and progressive talking and listening programme. We offer regular opportunities for children to deliver short personal talks P1-P7 and in P5-P7 children are introduced to debating skills.
 
Reading
Reading has a high profile throughout the school. We are constantly trying to improve the provision of library books to foster an interest in reading for pleasure and we hold an annual Book Fair to raise funds to extend our range of stock. A central library of fiction and non-fiction has been established and each classroom has a fiction library, which provides interesting materials for all abilities. All classes are able to visit our school library regularly in order to refresh their stock of books in class libraries.
 
The core reading scheme at the early stages is Oxford's "Read Write Inc." programme. Phonic lessons are reinforced in class through oral and written activities. Children progress to our core spelling resource ‘Nelson Spelling’.
Between P4 and P7, the children read "banded" texts which are closely matched to their reading age. These are challenging and engaging novels from a variety of well known authors. Reading skills are quickly developed and applied when reading and analysing these texts.
 
Children are also given opportunities to read independently to experience the pleasure of reading alone and to build reading stamina. Also as part of their reading, children listen to stories which demonstrate to them how to read with fluency and expression as well as promoting reading enjoyment. 
 
Children are taught how to handle and use a dictionary correctly to find the meaning of words and how to answer specific questions in their reading. The use of a thesaurus is also taught. Spelling and grammar are taught systematically through using the core texts ‘Nelson Spelling’ and ‘Nelson Grammar.’
 
Writing
Early handwriting skills are taught and developed using “The Foundations of Writing”. This leads on to a formal handwriting style using Nelson Handwriting materials. Writing skills are developed using ‘The Big Writing’ strategies. Pupils are introduced to ‘VCOP’ at P1 and this is progressively developed at each stage. Children are taught fiction and non-fiction writing skills and the contexts are linked to current learning in topics as far as possible.
 
Modern Language
Children are introduced to conversational Spanish in Primary 5 and this continues up to the end of Primary 6. Following GCC's "2+1" Modern Languages programme, the children are introduced to conversational French in Primary 7.