English

World Book Day 2021

Not even a National Lockdown could stop us celebrating World Book Day this year! Have a look at our amazing 'Masked Reader' videos.

Can you guess which staff member is behind the mask?

1. Ariel - Hide and Seek Pig.mp4

2. Cat in the Hat - The Tooth Book.mp4

3. Lion - War Horse by Michael Morpurgo.MP4

4. Pedro Panda - Peace At Last by Jill Murphy.mp4

5. Sleepy Simba - The Nine Live of Montezuma by Michael Morpurgo.mp4

7. Stephen - This is our House by Michael Rosun.MOV

8. Teddy - The Gingerbread Man.mp4

9. The BFB Big Friendly Biker - The BFG by Roald Dahl.mp4

10. Tiger - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.MOV

12. The Amazing Spidergirl - The Amazing Spiderman.mp4

Lockdown Literacy

If you are looking for some fun ways to practice you Literacy skills at home then you have come to the right place. Below are a list of activities for different year groups and SEND children to keep your Literacy skills in tip top shape whilst learning from home. If you need any help or guidance please contact Mrs Farrimond or Ms Lalsing on the school blog. Enjoy! J

All year groups – If you are running out of books to read at home you can register for free with Oxford Owl and access their huge range of eBooks. Just search ‘Oxford Owl eBooks’ and click on the link.

You can also sign up to GetEpic.com for free for 30 days. There are so many books to enjoy and even quizzes to complete!

EYFS	Practice your letter formation. You could do this on a large or a small scale. A piece of chalk or a stone will work on the floor or walls outside or you could fill a tray with flour and write letters with your finger. Let us know if you come up with any more imaginative ways to practice! Cut up small squares of paper and write a letter on each one. Turn them upside down and pick 3 to turn over. Can you spell a word with those three letters? Write red words on cards. Turn them face down and pick one to turn over – can you read it? Get an adult or sibling to turn one over and read it to you – can you spell it?
Year 1	Practise your letter formation. Use the image below as a guide to help you form the letters correctly: Get someone in your house to describe something to you and write down what they say. Can you work out what they are describing? Practise spelling Year 1 Common Exception Words. If you are want a challenge then why not try some of the Year 2 words! Ask someone you live with to say or write down a sentence. Can you spot any verbs? Any adjectives? Any nouns?
Year 2	Practise spelling some of the Year 2 Common Exception Words. Check if you can spell all of the Year 1 words too!
Year 3	Please practise the year 3 /4 spelling lists and write some of these in context using sentences. Use the following link to practise more spellings. https://www.spellzone.com/word_lists/list-10609.htm This link is to revise the spelling rules: https://spellingframe.co.uk/spelling-rule/3/Year-3-and-4 Go through the Spelling Rule PowerPoint at the bottom of this table.
Year 4	Please practise the year 3 /4 spelling lists and write some of these in context using sentences. Use the following link to practise more spellings. https://www.spellzone.com/word_lists/list-10609.htm This link is to revise the spelling rules: https://spellingframe.co.uk/spelling-rule/3/Year-3-and-4 Go through the Spelling Rule PowerPoint at the bottom of this table.
Year 5	Please practise the year 5/6 spelling lists and write some of these in context using sentences. Use the following link to practise more spellings. https://www.spellzone.com/word_lists/list-10609.htm Go through the Spelling Rule PowerPoint at the bottom of this table.
Year 6	Please practise the year 5/6 spelling lists and write some of these in context using sentences. Use the following link to practise more spellings. https://www.spellzone.com/word_lists/list-10609.htm Go through the Spelling Rule PowerPoint at the bottom of this table.
SEND	Make a silly sentence! Write several words on card or paper and jumble them up. Can you choose words to make a silly sentence e.g. the dog was green. Practise writing your sounds - Write them on paper, in sand/mud, flour, using paints, using lentils, outside on the wall using chalk, or maybe even using some playdough! Use this as a guide: Describe a character. This can be done using pictures in your reading/Library book or just from a story you enjoy at home. Challenge - Draw your own character and/or write a sentence about it. Can you read and spell any of these words? How many can you read? How many can you spell without looking?

Welcome to the English information page

Here you will find lots of information to help you understand your child’s learning and to support their understanding of literacy when working at home.

We hope you find the information useful. If you have any suggestions or queries regarding this page please contact Mrs G Farrimond (KS1 English Lead) or Ms M Lalsing (KS2 English Lead)

Latest News

We are striving to become a 'Reading School' and we want to promote reading at every turn! We want our children to have a real love and passion for reading at every age across school.
We launch several St Stephen's Reading Challenges throughout the school year to help support and promote reading at home. Alongside this you will have opportunities to attend 'Reading Come and Watch Me Learn' events in your child's class. This will give you some helpful tips on how to support your child's reading.
We have a fantastic '100 books to read before you leave St Stephens' reading area in school which all children access and enjoy. The purpose of this area is to allow children to read and enjoy a large selection and range of quality and highly recommended books on the comfort of our new sofa!
Please ensure that you are listening to your child read at home. They have a reading journal where you can comment and sign your name. For Key Stage 2 there are also suggested questions that you might ask your child to see if they have understood their reading book.
If you are available to help support reading in school please speak to your child’s class teacher. Many thanks for your support.

What’s new this year?

'Reading for Pleasure' is our BIG focus as a school and we need your support with this as much as possible!
We have implemented a new Spellings Scheme this year from Year 2 up to Year 6. This will ensure spelling rules are taught at appropriate stages and that progression is seamless from one year group to the next.

How can parents get involved?

Attend one of our regular workshops! (See newsletters for more information)
Support with 'Better Reading' - Speak to Miss Lorgat if you are interested in supporting us with this in school.
Enjoy a book, a comic, an online news report, a magazine with your child at home! Make it fun!

Please find below a suggested list of books that you could read with your children for each year group. Please also note that the Blackburn central library has a fabulous range of books that the children can choose from. Do join them!

Suggested book lists

Performance Poetry Event

Moderated Writing

Talk for Writing

"Talk for Writing, developed by Pie Corbett, supported by Julia Strong, is powerful because it is based on the principles of how children learn. It is powerful because it enables children to imitate the language they need for a particular topic orally before reading and analysing it and then writing their own version."

www.talk4writing.co.uk

Talk for Writing runs throughout the school from EYFS up to Year 6. Each year group has specific quality texts from a variety of genres which they use as their focus texts each half term. These texts link to their topics across the curriculum meaning that learning is relevant and vocabulary is embedded.

Children build you their confidence to perform and develop a text they come to know very well. They learn and use new vocabulary both orally and in their written work. Children are encouraged and supported to innovate each text and children in KS2 will also move on to inventing their own versions of the texts.

The programme follows these three steps for each text:

- Imitation

- Innovation

- Invention

For more information about these stages and the impact this programme has in schools please follow the link to the Talk for Writing website below:

http://www.talk4writing.co.uk/about/

Star Writer!

We have a termly Star Writer board where children from each year group have an opportunity to showcase their writing talents. They are then displayed on the link corridor for everybody to see. The children are presented with a Star Writer certificate and pencil during Oscar assembly. We are very proud of their writing abilities!

Star Writer Board.

Click here to view our school Phonics page

Here you will find more information about the Read Write Inc Phonics programme we run in school.

Image result for read write inc phonics

Speaking and Listening

Literacy Links

BBC Literacy

ICT games

Topmarks