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
Rose Blanche Descriptive Writing
Year 6 have worked hard to write descriptively about the final scene of Rose Blanche. Using a range of figurative language features, Year 6 focused on creating a strong picture in the reader’s mind and provoke strong emotions.
The Gingerbread Man
This week, children in year 1 had a mystery to solve. After lunch, there was a mess in the classrooms. Children wondered what could have happened and wrote ideas on PostIt notes. At the end of the day, CCTV footage was discovered of the gingerbread man and friends in the classroom!! Children are now busy … Read more
Imagination Not Included…
This week, children have been learning the poem ‘Imagination Not Included’ by Mark Bird. They will be performing this to buddies in year 1 next week. During Busy learning, children have been choosing to make their own version of our story map and they have been writing about their favourite toys. They have also been … Read more
Writing Descriptively: Editing
Year 6 have started their second unit of work, writing descriptively about settings and characters. At the end of their drafting sessions, Year 6 have shown teamwork and collaboration to improve and redraft sections of their work using their green pens. Now, their writing reads better and uses more features of the success criteria. Great … Read more
Year 5 English
Year 5 have enjoyed exploring the text ‘Planet SOS’. They investigated different monsters and their contribution to climate change. Children were able to research their focus area, create a poster and present information to the class.Everyone was proud of their confidence, independence and creativity.
All about me
Reception have been settling in to starting school and looking at the topic “All about me”. We have been sharing facts about ourselves and drawing self-portraits- noticing lots of our facial features. This week we have been learning about the story “And Tango Makes 3”. In the story, Tango lives in the zoo with two … Read more
Art Work Based on Skellig
Some of these look like a scary dream! Our Year 6’s have used the language choices of David Almond to predict how one of the main characters, Skellig, looked. There was lots of creativity used to create these haunting pieces of artwork!
Gressenhall
Reception had a wonderful time on our trip to Gressenhall. We met Fairy tale characters, such as Cinderella and Jack. We helped them find their magical objects the Wicked Witch had stolen. We particularly enjoyed the tractor ride on the farm, helping the Ugly-Stepsister with her chores and sliding down the beanstalk slides.
Informal letter writing in Year 6
Year 6 have been working hard in their writing lessons to produce informal letters based on Shaun Tan’s ‘The Arrival’. The main character has moved to a new land to pursue a better life and writes to his family to persuade them to come and join him. To get into role and consider what the … Read more