English Vision Statement

At New Mill Infant and Junior Schools, we believe that the skills of English and
communication are at the centre of learning. We strive for children to learn and develop
confident communication skills that enables access to and supports all learning across the curriculum.

At New Mill we place high value on the importance of speaking and listening skills and believe that kind, courteous, polite conversation underpin all learning. With this in mind, we aim to broaden the vocabulary that children are exposed to through reading and encourage children to rehearse the use of language through drama or other speaking and listening activities before finally demonstrating understanding of that vocabulary in their writing.

Without good reading skills it is hard to access other areas of the curriculum and reading is therefore an essential skill. We believe that children should be immersed in reading throughout the school day and time should be given over to whole class reading, group or individual reading opportunities and time to enjoy listening to adults reading. Books are carefully chosen after consideration of individual texts and authors to ensure breadth and quality of teaching. Through this children will see the enjoyment of reading and become lifelong book worms. A skill that will enable immersion into any and every other area of the
curriculum

Without good writing skills children cannot communicate what they know and have understood. Therefore it is essential that we provide our pupils with the ability to write neatly and concisely to effectively communicate their ideas. To enable this we ensure that children are given exciting and inspiring materials and topics that they are keen to write about. Stimulus for writing can come from books, videos, pictures or real life issues. Handwriting is a focus from the very beginning of a child’s school career and this focus latterly delivers when the children’s written work is clear and legible enabling others to read their work. Good presentation skills are important as we want children to value their own work and for others to do the same. Building on the collection of vocabulary enables children to understand that their word choice and style are important to establish the meaning they want to convey. These skills are never more important than in exams where every child will need to demonstrate understanding in any subject in written form and so impacts on all areas of the curriculum.

Good phonics and spelling skills are crucial to being able to develop those reading and writing skills and therefore they are prioritised appropriately. Segmenting and blending are at the heart of reading and writing. Knowing spelling patterns and rules are essential to being able to use the English language. Children need to know that inconsistencies in their spelling can lead to misunderstanding of what they wanted to write and convey to their reader.

Gallery

Library

At New Mill we are passionate about reading and recently purchased a huge amount of brand new books, new and classics, for the children to enjoy! Our Year 6 have the very important job of being librarians to keep our lovely book area organised and tidy.

Year 6 Poetry

A pupil in Year 6 wrote this wonderful poem as part of their WW2 topic.  Very talented members of his family then put music to the lyrics and recorded a beautiful song.  We are so lucky that they have kindly given us permission to share this with you all.... 

Story Time

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