English

Bow Community Primary School is determined that every pupil will learn to read and write, regardless of background, educational need or range of ability.  All pupils, including those for whom writing is considered challenging, make the progress that means they meet or exceed their potential when leaving our school.  We want pupils to develop into articulate and imaginative communicators, who are well-equipped with the basic skills they need to become life-long learners; English learning is key in this. We aim to ensure all of our children develop a genuine love of language and the written word.

Reading

Reading is integral to the development of a child's education and permeates everything that we do in school.  We have invested in a DfE approved scheme for the systematic teaching of phonics and early reading to ensure that children are given the best possible beginning to their development of reading in school. 

Classes have class reader books at all times and make up a meaningful part of their school day.  The school also has a weekly whole-school reader with a dedicated assembly time to the enjoyment and love of reading.  

Guided reading and the development of key comprehension skills plays an important part in success in all subjects and whilst we give time to developing the key comprehension skills it is practiced as a part of English, Science, topic work and wherever possible across each school week.

We celebrate the achievement of children's reading, particularly in achievements made in Accelerated Reader: each class has a word target that earns a book for the school to be bought in their honour should they reach it.

Bow loves reading, and that love of reading that is instilled from an early age helps each pupil to have the greatest degree of success possible in their continued steps of education.

Writing

We aim to make children competent and confident writers, able to write their own fiction, poetry and non-fiction texts for a range of purposes and audiences. Writing is an essential skill, and teachers deliver this through Literacy Teaching sequences, which are tailored to meet the diverse needs of all our pupils. The teaching of spelling (which is linked to phonics in R and KS1) and handwriting are key to the skills necessary to develop fluent, confident writing.  Sequences are tailored carefully to work with whatever suits the class best but we ensure that we still maintain careful coverage of a diverse range of text types, genres and themes.

Vocabulary, Punctuation & Grammar

We aim to use our writing sessions to develop a deeper awareness of spelling, punctuation and grammar, so that pupils use everyday writing opportunities to embed this area of learning. There may be occasions where an area of this subject has to be taught discreetly because extra work is required or intervention is needed.  Developing confidence, strength and an expansiveness in vocabulary is key to success in writing so we work hard on promoting the learning of new words in all of our classrooms.