Language is of vital importance, it enables children to communicate their thoughts and ideas and to make sense of written and spoken language in all its forms.

Our teachers plan a range of differentiated, stimulating and exciting activities to cater for the needs of each child in their class, including for those children for whom English is an Additional Language (EAL), those who require learning support, and those who are working at a higher ability level than their chronological age group.

We follow a multi-sensory approach to all aspects of literacy and ensure the international nature of our school is reflected in the resources we use. Your child will have English targets to work towards and these are regularly reviewed with their class teacher.

Every morning, all the children have a structured phonics and handwriting lesson. Children are grouped according to their abilities in phonics and assessed every six weeks. We teach the children to write using a joined-up script from reception.

Children take home reading books every day from our school’s reading scheme, which is based on the very popular scheme Oxford Reading Tree. The class teacher will listen to your child read regularly. Your child will also choose their own books from our school library and in addition to the formal library lessons at school, your child will be encouraged to visit the library during the school day to change their own books.

We use online literacy programmes, Reading Eggs and Spellodrome, to support the children’s learning. Your children will receive their own login details that they can use both at home and at school. As your children progress, they earn certificates and these are celebrated in our regular assemblies.

Our whole primary school is involved in the successful Power of Reading project, designed to encourage children to read for pleasure. The project has been going for over 10 years and results have shown so many positive effects on both teachers and children, such as improving attitudes to reading, engaging reluctant readers and drastically improving all literacy skills, including speaking and writing.