At Queen’s Hill we want our children to love expressing themselves through writing and feel proud of their writing achievements. Children will be motivated to write through the use of engaging texts, experiences and a range of other exciting stimuli. We strive to equip children to develop a rich vocabulary which can help them bring their writing to life. Our writing is purposeful and covers a variety of genres and key skills, which builds upon prior knowledge. Teachers model the writing process and demonstrate the ambitious high standards expected of all children.
At Queen’s Hill we want our children to be confident readers and have a lifelong passion for reading. Reading is at the heart of everything we do at Queen’s Hill. Children are exposed to high quality texts across the curriculum and reading skills are taught explicitly in all year groups. Reading is a key part of our daily routine and it is celebrated through our ‘Read for a Star’ challenge.
In EYFS and Key Stage One, key reading and phonic skills are taught through Read Write Inc phonics programme. In Key Stage Two, we use ‘Reading Masters’ to support our children with their development of key comprehension skills. Reading for pleasure is a cornerstone of our approach, we are very fortunate to have two school libraries which children can access.
Subject in Action
The Arrival by Shaun Tan
This week, Year 6 started their English unit based on the graphic novel, ‘The Arrival’ by Shaun Tan. A graphic novel is a story without words and it can still be just as powerful and detailed. We discussed how every illustration is included for a reason and that if you look very closely you gather … Read more
Animal Footprints
Year 1 found a box in their classroom. There were animal footprints around the box! We realised that they were the footprints of an elephant, a camel, a lion and a frog. A message on the box said that the box had come from the zoo. Inside the box, there was a book called ‘Dear … Read more
Y4 Explorers
This half term, we will be learning about Ernest Shackleton and his expedition to the South Pole. To learn about a polar expedition and the things you might require, we took part in outdoor learning. Dotted around the outdoor classroom were cards with two items to choose between. The children had to decide which item … Read more
Y5 English
This half term we have been reading the story ‘The Explorer’ by Katherine Rundell. It has been an inspiring book to our young writers and they have produced some amazing work. They were disgusted to hear about the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest so wrote persuasive letters to the Brazilian Ambassador to encourage him to … Read more
Reception and Y3 Buddies
This morning, children from Reception and Y3 met to share their learning. Y3 children shared their non-chronological reports on the Ancient Egyptians, while Reception children shared their learning about Iceland and New Zealand. Year 3 then sang their song ‘Amazing Egyptians’ to their buddies, along with the actions. A great time was had by all!
Y4 Published Writers
Back in the Autumn term, year 4 wrote some kennings poems, which we entered into a competition. Our kennings were about Roman Gladiators. Today, the published books arrived with our poems inside!
Reception and Year 2 Author Experience
We had a fantastic time at Bookbugs and Dragon Tales bookshop this week, where some of our children in Reception and Year 2 got the opportunity to meet the author and illustrator of ‘Out of the Blue’ and do some fun activities. They also got to take part in a question and answer session and … Read more
Y3 Les Herissons’ Writing
Les Herissons (and all of Year 3) have loved learning about the Ancient Egyptians. Look at these amazing non-chronological reports they have produced in writing!They have so much knowledge and we are all so proud of them.
Year 4 Iron Man Poetry and Art
Year 4 have started the new term to an incredible beginning. We began the week by exploring our focus for this half term, The Iron Man by Ted Hughes. In Writing, we have discovered figurative language such as alliteration, similes, metaphors and onomatopoeia. We have found examples of this in The Iron Man and created … Read more