English

At Farnham Green Primary School, we believe that literacy, and communication through speaking and listening are key life skills. Providing both an English curriculum and texts of high quality, we help children develop the skills and knowledge that will enable them to communicate effectively and creatively through spoken and written language and equip them with the skills to become lifelong learners. We aim to develop our pupils' social capital alongside their cultural and academic capital.

English is at the heart of all children’s learning. It enables children both to communicate with others effectively for a variety of purposes and to examine their own and others’ experiences, feelings and ideas, giving these order and meaning. Because English is central to children’s intellectual, emotional and social development it has an essential role across the curriculum and helps pupils’ learning to be coherent and progressive.

As a school, we have decided upon whole class guided reading as we feel it is the best way to ensure all children are able to increase their vocabulary, understanding and enjoyment of texts. It allows in-depth discussion of high quality books daily for every child.  Through the scheme Take One Book, linked to a text, the children see the process of English as not being three separate entities. We know the children are unable to produce high quality writing unless they have been exposed to high quality discussion and ‘rich talk’ conversations about the book. Having the opportunity to do this every day is vital to the children’s development as readers; daily high quality discussions around a whole breadth of genres encourages them to be independent and fluent readers who can read silently.

How we teach reading - click here

How do we teach handwriting?

We follow the Nelson handwriting scheme to enable our children to form their letters in the conventional way and write in a  joined script which is neat, fluent and legible.

The following links will help you support your child with their handwriting at home:

Handwriting Instruction Videos

How to introduce the four types of joins in cursive handwriting