Literacy News

Spotlight on English at St John's - Year 5-6

In our Year 5/6 English lessons student learning focuses on Language, Literacy, and Literature, helping students build strong communication and reading skills that will support their learning across all subjects.

Language and Literacy

In these lessons, students develop key foundational skills including:

• Spelling and orthography (understanding how words are formed and spelled)
• Grammar
• Handwriting
• Typing skills
• Reading fluency

These skills help students become confident readers and writers while improving the accuracy and clarity of their written work.

Literature Studies

During Literature Studies, students deepen their reading comprehension and writing skills through close study of engaging texts. This term, classes are exploring:

• War Horse in Year 5
• Ghost in My Suitcase in Year 6

A typical Literature Studies lesson includes:

• Shared reading of the class text
• Exploring vocabulary and literary features found in the story
• Developing sentence-level writing skills, such as using conjunctions, appositives, dialogue, adverbial phrases, and expanded sentences
• Developing text-level writing skills, helping students organise ideas and write more effectively

Year 6: Literature Circles

Year 6 students also participate in Literature Circles, where they work in small groups to read and respond to the same text. Each week, students discuss their ideas and share their thinking with their group.

This approach:

• Strengthens reading comprehension
• Builds the Learning Power of Collaboration
• Encourages thoughtful discussion and reflection
• Exposes students to a variety of text types, helping prepare them for the transition to secondary school

The key skills for Literature Circles are taught explicitly in Term 1 and then applied through Home Learning in Term 2.

Year 5: Quick Writes

Year 5 students take part in Quick Writes, where they respond to a range of visual prompts.

These activities:

• Build writing stamina across different genres
• Connect to previous writing learning through the Ochre Units
• Encourage students to practise their typing skills, which are explicitly taught during Ochre lessons
• Use the Learning Power of Creativity, allowing students to explore ideas and express themselves in new ways

Through these varied learning experiences, students continue to develop the confidence, creativity, and skills needed to become thoughtful readers and capable writers. 📚✏️

Parent Engagement In Learning Evenings

Parents and carers are invited to come along or log on to these important evenings to learn more about student learning at St John's. 

Wednesday 18 March

Year 1/2  online 6-7pm 

Year 3/4 online 7-8pm