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
Sharing stories with buddies
Before the Easter holidays, children in Year 4 spent a number of weeks writing their own legends based on Blue Frog: The Legend of Chocolate. They designed front covers for their stories and made them into mini books. Today, the children in Year 4 shared their stories with their Year 1 buddies!
Year 1 Writing
We have been learning about the layout and structure of leaflets. To tie into our topic of pets, we have written a leaflet to inform the public how to look after their pets. We have used commas, question marks, and the children are beginning to use adjectives. Well done Year 1.
Year 3 and Reception Buddy Reading
Year 3 had a fantastic time on Friday reading to their buddy class in Reception. After they read their banded book, the Reception children chose a library book that they wanted to share with the Year 3s.
Writing in Year 4
This half term we have been writing our own legends based on The Blue Frog: The Legend of Chocolate. At the beginning of our unit of work, we started by identifying the features of legends and considering what we needed to be successful in our own writing. We have started writing the opening paragraphs to … Read more
Writing in Year 6
Year 6 have been exploring Shaun Tan’s graphic novel, ‘The Arrival’. The children have loved discussing the running themes of tolerance, respect and migration. We have had some really insightful conversations about these themes and have related them to the world we live in today. We unpicked this famous quote by Tan: ‘Even the most … Read more
Year 2 Writing – ‘Gorilla’
In Year 2 this half term we have been writing a story based on the book ‘Gorilla’ by Anthony Browne in our writing lessons. The children have changed the characters from the story and invented their own. The children have also changed where the characters go in the story. The children have been focusing on … Read more
Y5 Writing
This half term in Year 5 we have been using the text ‘Who let the gods out’ to inspire our young writers. Children have taken on the role of reporters, writing their own articles about the escape of Thanatos – Daemon of Death. We look forward to sharing these with you once completed.
Book Week in Year 4
This week, we enjoyed lots of reading activities to celebrate World Book Day. We read with our Year 1 buddies, heard stories from teachers, dressed as our favourite book characters and did a book swap!
Read Aloud Day
Today we shared books with our class buddies. It was lovely to hear the children reading aloud and discussing books. The Y5 children took their mentoring roles seriously and were questioning their buddies to ensure understanding. We even had some acting as a Y5 student demonstrated what it meant to stroll through the rainforest as … Read more