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
Reception – Drawing into Writing
Each term in Reception the children do a piece of ‘drawing into writing’. They draw a picture of something they have done in the holidays and then write about with the help of an adults. We have been really impressed at the children’s communication skills and also their use of their sounds to write.
Year 1-Meerkat Mail
This week we started to read the book Meerkat Mail. We met Sunny the Meerkat who lives in the Kalahari desert. The children found out about meerkats, where they live, what they eat and how they survive in the desert. We also received a post card from Sunny. Sunny told them about his habitat and … Read more
Lost and found – big write
All of this half term we have focused our learning around the storybook of ‘Lost and found’ by Oliver Jeffers. We have been creating story maps, fact files and even our own books based on what we can remember from the story. The children have worked really hard to memorize and recreate the story in … Read more
Christmas Songs and Snowmen
This week year 1 have performed Christmas song for their grown ups, used a paint program to draw snowmen and learnt the story of Lost and Found. The children are learning the story and planning it out ready to write it independently next week.
Year 3 Doodling Lesson with Liz Pichon
Year 3 were privileged to take part in one of Scholastic Schools Live ‘Festive Doodling’ lesson with Liz Pichon, author of the Tom Gates books. They enjoyed hearing about Liz’s new book ‘Tom Gates: Happy to Help’ and learnt how to doodle in her signature style!
Year 2 Writing
This half term Year 2 have been using the book ‘I Want My Hat Back’ to inspire their English work. They have used drama to act in the role of the bear with the missing hat and understand how the bear would have felt. They have also used their descriptive writing to try to help … Read more
Year 2 Author Experience
This afternoon Year 2 took part in a live lesson with the authors and illustrators Jon Klassen and Mac Barnett. They learnt about being an author and listened to Mac Barnett read their new book ‘The Three Billy Goats Gruff’. The children were also shown by Jon Klassen how to draw the characters from the … Read more
