English

At Saltaire Primary School, we want our children to develop a love of reading and feel confident in their writing and proud of the finished product. We want them to learn how to think deeply, creatively and abstractly to discuss and improve ideas collaboratively.

Every teacher at Saltaire Primary School promotes excellence in writing and all teachers consistently maintain high expectations of all pupils.

We aim to cultivate a love of reading in all our children and want them to always be able to find a book they are fascinated by and can totally absorb themselves in. This year, we have introduced ‘Top Books to Read before you’re 11’ – an initiative designed to encourage children to read a range of new and classic texts by the time they leave our school.

In Reception and Key Stage 1, we take a rigorous approach to teaching children to read through phonics using the Letters and Sounds programme. This ensures that the majority of children have the skills required by the end of Key Stage 1 to be able to read words fluently, so they are able to develop a deeper understanding of the texts they are reading.

In writing, we want our pupils to understand each step of the writing process – from planning, drafting and editing, through to publishing for real audiences and purposes. We understand that learning to write is a complex process and so ensure children develop fluency in handwriting and spelling so that they are able to concentrate more effectively on developing their ideas for writing.

Children’s learning across the curriculum is supported through the use of a structured approach to spoken language. We provide children with strategies which help them to say out loud the things they may want to write down and help children to interact with each other so they can develop ideas to use in their written work.

Teachers at Saltaire Primary School inspire children’s curiosity and imagination through engaging contexts and carefully selected whole-class texts designed to capture children’s imagination. Our teachers offer a range of tools to pupils to support their individual needs. These resources may include word mats, pencil grips, dictionaries, video clips, iPads, computer technology and much more.

For our phonics programme we use the Letters & Sounds scheme.

We use the Accelerated Reader programme so that children are reading books which closely match their current skill level.