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Otterhampton

Primary School and Pre-School

Learning and Growing Together

Contact Details

English

Children at Otterhampton are encouraged to communicate and express themselves through speaking, listening, reading and writing. We follow the National Curriculum 2014.

Speaking and Listening

 

Talking is fundamental to a pupil’s learning. Pupils are encouraged and helped to talk clearly, confidently and with expression in order to communicate ideas and feelings. Similarly, and just as importantly, is the need to listen to others and respond appropriately. All children are provided with opportunities in all areas of the curriculum to develop skills in speaking and listening.

Reading

 

At Otterhampton Primary School reading as an integral part of the school curriculum impacting on all learning. We value the importance of being a confident reader and work hard to develop children’s reading skills. We want to develop children’s enjoyment and enthusiasm to read a wide range of different books and to be able to talk about books and authors.

Reading is a skill taught through planned, systematic phonics lessons and developed through; one-to-one reading with an adult, whole class reading sessions and independent reading. In Early Years, we use a range of phonic based reading books which compliment our phonics programme.  As their reading develops, usually in Key Stage One, children are encouraged to read from a wider range of fiction and non-fiction choosing their own books initially from within a carefully banded system leading on to the enjoyment of all kinds of books, the appreciation of different genres and the ability to access information independently from our well stocked school library.
 
Children take books home daily and are encouraged to read with parents and other family members.  Every week, we collate the number of reads every child completes and a class percentage taken.  This is published in our School Newsletter each week.  At the end of each half term, children are then entered into a Book Wars competition, prizes are awarded in assembly.  
Writing
 

At OPS we deliver a creative, dynamic and effective English curriculum.  We use a range of texts designed to excite, with reading for pleasure at its core and grammar lessons woven in throughout.  Our curriculum uses varied whole texts and extracts that are unique and diverse.  These texts enable children to become fully immersed and engaged in a range of great books. Carefully chosen books help to develop children’s reading skills and their knowledge of the world around them, and to build up a store of reading experience on which they can draw later in life. These books both help children to learn how the experts write and act as models for their own writing.

Writing takes on meaning, and a sense of excitement, when it is composed for a real purpose and a defined audience.  Each unit of work, has a performance or publication outcome because knowing who will read a piece of work or watch a performance, and why they will do so, raises motivation and can have a direct impact on raising standards. Using oral rehearsal helps children to develop a sense of what a sentence is and, later, to hear how more complex sentences sound. It also helps them to hear the difference between the way we talk and the way we write. Discussion is where deep learning takes place. Our curriculum provides children with opportunities for oral rehearsal and talking, assisting with evaluation and reflection. To become great writers, children need to understand how great writing is put together.  We explore the grammar choices of authors, how grammar is used in real texts and the terminology to discuss it provides children with a toolkit to use language confidently and effectively in their own writing.

Phonics and Spelling
 
The phonics programme taught at Otterhampton School is 'Sounds-Write.

Please click on the link below for more information.

English Progression of Skills

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