English
Statement of Intent
Our intent at Parkdale is that every child develops a love of English and becomes a confident reader, writer and speaker.
Reading
Reading is a common thread throughout all areas of the curriculum. Here at Parkdale we provide children with lots of opportunities to be exposed to high quality texts both to support the teaching of English and in Shared Reading. We regularly schedu
le in Reading for Pleasure and our Reading Corners are a key focus point in our classrooms. Children in Early Years and KS1 learn phonics through the DfE approved programme ‘Phonics Bug’.
Writing
All our writing outcomes have a clear Audience and Purpose. It is vital that children are writing for a real reason, it is very important that they know that their writing is going to be read by someone. All our units of work culminate in a high quality final published outcome. During the writing process children have the opportunity to become saturated in relevant high quality texts and begin to deconstruct what elements join combine to create this genre. The children discover and dabble with grammatical features of the text and then begin to draft, edit and revise their final outcome. Children are given freedom to decide how they would like to present their final outcome.
Phonics
Parkdale has a robust and rigorous approach to phonics. Our chosen validated systematic synthetic phonics programme (SSP) is Bug Club Phonics. It teaches children grapheme phoneme correspondence in order to blend phonemes into spoken words and segment spoken words into phonemes. By ensuring high-quality phonics teaching we want to give all children a solid base upon which to build as they progress through school, as well as help children to develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information.
For more information please see the attached Phonics Overview further down this page for a detailed breakdown of Phonics across the school from Nursery to KS2.
English Notices
National Poetry Day
Click on the picture to explore the National Poetry Day site for some inspiration.
National Story Telling Week
To celebrate National Story Telling Week in school we did a reader swap! Each teacher went to a different class and read their favourite story with them, which was kept a secret until the day. We also used our daily ‘Reading for Pleasure’ sessions to share and explore different genres of books and to visit the school library. We had so much fun celebrating our love of reading.
Parkdale’s Autumn Vocabulary Vault
Parkdale love learning new vocabulary as part of their writing, shared reading, history, science, geography or art lessons. The list could go on! We want to share with you two key words every half term so you can discuss these words further with your child. Why not explore the word by finding out how my syllables it has. Can it rhyme with anything? Can they put it into a sentence? Can they make an action for it?
Why not see whether they can retrieve the words from the previous year? Can they retrieve their learning from previous years?
Parkdale’s Postcard Project
As part of our celebration of ‘European Day of Languages’ all the year groups have travelled all around the world to explore a country of their choice.
This exciting trip has allowed children to experience different cultures by learning about local artists, eating tasty local food, learning the history and culture, listening to music and having a go at speaking in their language.
All this saturation has then enabled all children from Nursery to Year 6 to capture their knowledge and understanding by writing a postcard, where they could capture all their favourite “memories and experiences” from their fun travels.
Lets hope our postcards get picked up by Parkdale’s Jolly Postman.
Reading Update
Reading for Pleasure
We love reading at Parkdale! All classes have a daily time dedicated to Reading for Pleasure. This can be reading a class book together or the children having some time to read a book they love. Older children have the opportunity to read with younger children, we have Read & Relax sessions and even opportunities ‘Drop Everything and Read.’ The teachers join in too! Reading is a joy for everyone!
Key Stage Two still have their ‘20 books to Read before you leave …’ challenge available. It has been fantastic to see children complete this as they have progressed through school. Copies of each book can be accessed from your classroom. Ask your teacher for more information.
Our brand new library will be opening soon! It can be accessed straight from the playground and we are really looking forward to welcoming parents, carers and children into this lovely space. We will be organising regular opening times for the Library after school so watch this space for more information!
Lots of exciting new things will be shared as part of our library launch but for now we will give you a little taster of what is to come! We have themed bookshelves, famous and beloved authors, an eco section, a book review station, a cute and inviting class reading spot and so much more. The children will have a monthly theme linked to a new ‘stamp’ collecting challenge where lucky participants will be rewarded with a trip to a local book shop. The library team are very excited to share more with you soon.
20 Books to Read Before I Leave Year …
We are excited to invigorate Reading For Pleasure with our KS2 Books To Read Before You Leave…Booklets. Fantastic quality texts to suit all tastes and genres. Read, read and more reading to get your Bronze, Silver and Gold achievements. See below for more info!
Books to Read Before You Leave Y3
Books To Read Before You Leave Y4
Books To Read Before You Leave Y5
Books To Read Before You Leave Y6
Autumn Class Texts
Parkdale have absolutely no shelf control when it comes to books!
Here’s a snapshot of what each year group is currently reading or has read for their class book this half term.
Curriculum Information
Subject Review
Subject on a Page
Phonics Overview
Spelling Overview
Books To Read Information Letter
Useful Links
Love My Books Site
Great website to help choose age and genre related books and activities to go with each one.
Book Trust Site
A great site for getting children and families reading.
Love Reading 4 Kids Site
Another good site to help choose books and see which ones are up for awards. You can even read exerts from the book to see if you like it!
English Gallery
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World Book Day
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World Book Day
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World Book Day
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Bronze Award reading champions in Y4
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Y4 poetry recitals in action
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Published Colour Poems
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Planning Colour poems in Y3
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Performance Poetry Y3
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Parkdale (serves 438) By Y5
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Y4 Remembrance Day Poetry & Art
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Y5 ‘Short Story‘ sacks
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Never too old for a story sack
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Author visit by George and Sophie’s Grandma
Books To Read 2
We love new books
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Reading for pleasure
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Reading cafe
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New book choices in Y4
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Y6 Reading Ambassadors
Diversity poetry in action
Class poetry in action
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Wonder – Motivational class text in Y6
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Inspirational author Benjamin Zephaniah
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Escape into a book
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Reading across the curriculum in Y3
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Quality texts to inspire
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Y4’s reading corner
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Reading aloud in Y6
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Read and Relax!
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Read and Relax!
Zana Fraillon launches World Book Day at Parkdale Primary
We were so lucky to have Zana Fraillon, author of Wisp, The Lost Soul Atlas and The Bone Sparrow launch our World Book day 2021. She answered author questions from our children and set us a writing challenge based on the brilliant book Wisp.
Take a look at some of our ‘Wisp’ inspired writing!
