English

English at Bulwell St Mary's

At BSM, we are all proud readers and writers. Every child is encouraged to read as much as possible, both in school and at home.

We have an amazing library, full of lots of diverse and exciting books for our children to read and enjoy. 

All classes take part in whole class shared reading sessions, alongside lessons focussed on reading fluency and reading for pleasure activities/times. Our younger children, and those who need additional support, also take part in regular phonics lessons (see our phonics videos on Class Dojo for more details on our Sounds Write scheme).

All of our reading skills are based around our reading aliens. These are used in every class to help children identify the types of questions they are being asked to answer.

Our Writing process, follows a three week unit, all focused around the purpose for our piece of writing. As much as possible, all writing the children do is purposeful and engaging. Writing is also published so that it can be shared with our community and other classes in the school. We encourage children to be creative in their writing, whilst also teaching a range of grammatical, vocabulary and punctuation foci in order to support pupil's in developing their writing voices.

Phonics at Bulwell St Mary's

It is our intention that every child  in EYFS and KS1 will receive daily, robust, consistent high-quality phonics teaching. Classroom environments and outdoor areas support the children's phonic teaching. Children also have access to a range of decodeable books, which support their phonics learning.

At Bulwell St Mary's phonics is taught from EYFS through to Lower KS2, with children receiving additional phonics catch up/support in Upper KS2 as needed.

We use the Sounds Write programme to teach phonics at Bulwell St Mary's.

You can find out more about phonics for you child on their Class Dojo pages.