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English

At Dunannie we encourage our children to have a curiosity about life and help them to develop enquiring minds through a broad, creative and language-rich curriculum which generates purposeful discussion, interest, application, enjoyment and high achievement.  A cross curricular approach which emphasises first hand, practical experiences; educational trips and visiting speakers provide the opportunity for young children to build the language and communication skills that they will need throughout life.  Children are able to express themselves creatively and imaginatively, as they become enthusiastic and critical readers of stories, poetry, rhymes, action songs, puppets and drama, as well as of non-fiction and media texts.  Children gain an understanding of how language works by looking at its patterns, structures and origins. 

In the Foundation Stage (Nursery and Reception) the focus on speaking and listening also prepares the ground for effective phonics teaching.  Children become increasingly aware of the relationship between sounds, letters and words.  They are introduced to a broad range of rhymes and songs with rhythmic patterns.  Teachers provide opportunities for children to listen to rhymes and take part in alliterative games, to respond to music and use language creatively in role playing, drama and dance.  Attention is drawn to the sounds in names and words in the environment.

At Dunannie we teach a variety of reading strategies, but phonics is one of the essential components we use to teach reading.  We use a multi-sensory approach to teach phonics with a range of resources. 

Phonic spelling patterns are taught along with strategies that help children to pay attention to the visual appearance of words that are not phonetically regular but common in frequency of use.

Children from the Foundation Stage onwards are encouraged to experiment with writing, they look carefully at words and how they are spelt.  The school has an excellent selection of books including stories, poems, non-fiction, alphabet books and children's own made books, books with wordplay and tongue twisters which all encourage children to develop a fascination for words.  Role play, writing corners and meaningful writing opportunities (for example, writing an invitation to their parents that is then posted) encourage children to see the purpose and enjoyment of writing for an audience.

Regular handwriting sessions each week reinforce the correct formation of letters, posture and pencil grip.  Cursive handwriting is taught from Year One onwards.

Children are first introduced to grammar through simple punctuation, for example, words written in sentences, and how capital letters and full stops are used in books.  As children progress through the school they are taught to use more complex grammatical structures in their work, direct and indirect speech for example.

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