Vision

At St. George's we strive for our pupils to be determined and confident in all that they do. We intend for our pupils to be provided with the best possible English curriculum to develop their reading, writing, speaking and listening skills. English has a pre-eminent place in education and in society. A high-quality education in English will teach pupils to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others, and through their reading and listening, others can communicate with them. Through reading in particular, pupils have a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. Literature, especially, plays a key role in such development. Reading also enables pupils both to acquire knowledge and to build on what they already know. All the skills of language are essential to participating fully as a member of society; pupils, therefore, who do not learn to speak, read and write fluently and confidently are immediately disadvantaged. 

We are proud to teach phonics using Lancashire's Red Rose Letters and Sounds. The scheme directs us to teach phonics systematically, whilst allowing kids to read appropriate books from a variety of sources. To support our teaching of Red Rose Letters and Sounds phonics we also use Phonics Bug (which also has digital versions for your child to access at home), supplemented by Floppy’s Phonics, Dandelion Readers and others. All staff at St Georges have been trained in the teaching of phonics using this scheme. 

Home Learning Links

Oak Academy:

Created in April 2020 as a rapid response to the coronavirus outbreak, Oak Academy brought together a group of partners committed to supporting schools’ efforts to keep children learning. The website developed 40,000+ resources with the support of 550 teachers and delivered over 150 million lessons in their online Classroom.

No login required

Phonics Play

Your child has access to phonics play. The website supports our teaching of phonics and is widely used for children working up to phase 6 (approximately Year 2). The website contains games, reading exercises and literature pitched at a phonetically decodable level for your child.

See your child's digital resource information pack for login details

This video link (click here) will give parents and carers an overview of phonics.

This video link (click here) will help parents and carers pronounce the 44 phonemes of the infant language. The video is not perfect, but it is a good starting point, and demonstrates the subtle sounding of the phonemes.

Reading Cloud

This is our school library management programme and is used by staff, our junior librarians and your child when they come to change their library book in the school library. Your child can also use the system at home to write book reviews and search for new books and authors. Your child can also use blogging features within the programme. There is also a new feature called 'whose next?', which recommends new books and authors based on the books that your child has already read. 

See your child's digital resource information pack for login details

Active Learn/Bug Club

Active learn contains thousands of age, and reading age appropriate digital books for your child to access from home. Your child's teacher will set your child with the correct 'book band' for your child to choose from. These texts include fiction, non-fiction, comics and graphic novels. Each text includes a series of comprehension questions at the end, allowing your child to practise their comprehension skills, taught in school. If your child runs out of literature on this platform, let them know and they will review the banding- this resource is great for plane journeys and trips away from home as your child can literally bring a whole library with them on their electronic device!

See your child's digital resource information pack for login details

Discovery Education

This is a cross-curricular resource and is essentially an enormous online encyclopaedia and news site. The content on the website is ever-growing and definitely beneficial to all kids throughout school as there is boundless content for any unit of study/ any area of personal research. There is a plethora of child-friendly information, videos, activities, and it is all easily searchable. Follow quick links for Phonics, Grammar and Punctuation and topical resources. 

See your child's digital resource information pack for login details

Teach your monster to read

Teach your monster to read is a great resource to complement the teaching of Phonics and Reading. It is suitable from Reception to Year 2 and some of our older children may also enjoy using it to consolidate their learning. Download the app to your phone or device or login on a desktop. The programme allows the children to work through grapheme puzzles to solve quests and the children love using it! A fabulous tool for your child!

See your child's digital resource information pack for login details

A great site to support children in their reading, and phonics is http://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/ This site stores many of our reading books in school; and can be used to re-enforce our teaching of reading at home - it's great if you have a laptop or a tablet. If you need any help with the resources - please do contact your child's class teacher in school.

Clicker Writer 8 and Clicker Writer for IPADs

This is an excellent resource to support writing at home. There are many writing frames for your child to access and assist them in the formation and construction of their own writing. Clicker Writer Grids enable pupils to write with whole words and phrases. Emerging writers build sentences word-by-word, while Word Banks provide scaffolding to support developing writers. 

See your child's digital resource information pack for login details

 

English in action

Our Year 6 children shared a morning with Author, Patrice Lawrence as she toured promoting her new book, The Elemental Detectives. The children were captivated by her imagination, creativity and words of encouragement. They left inspired and some chose to purchase a signed copy from Patrice herself. We also got a signed copy for our school Library too!

 

 

 

 

Here, one of our Year 6 children is fully engrossed in his writing on a Friday morning. Here George is writing his own version of a familiar story set in WW2 Britain. The story he is using as a model for his own innovated version is Goodnight Mr Tom. The language used in the novel and the emotions that are stirred in this unit make for some very powerful reading. 

 

 

Year 5's hook lesson to 'The Highway Man'. A chest of banknotes and coins were left strewn throughout school, as well as wanted posters left in both classrooms. The children followed the footsteps to a hideaway and used their inference skills to build a picture of who the hideout belonged to, how they lived and their character…

The children returned to class to gather their thoughts and then were introduced to their next text… The classic narrative poem, The Highwayman.

 

 

In October, the Year 6 children found themselves at Boreatton Park on their Year 6 Residential Adventure Holiday. They sang songs around the fire on their final night in Shropshire. Speaking and listening skills were put to the test throughout their adventure weekend including when they had to navigate, whilst blindfolded, through an obstacle course in the forest. The children had to limit the sounds they made, communicate clearly and concisely in order to successfully navigate their way through the course!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here our Year 6 children, after studying the WW1 novel 'Private Peaceful', went to Blackpool's Grand Theatre to watch a live performance of the story they had studied so closely for a number of weeks. Seeing a live cast bring the story to life on the stage was an incredible experience; the fact that it was a stone's throw from Blackpool Tower was quite exciting too!

 

 

Here, children act out the opening battle sequence in Shakespeare's Macbeth. The battle cries are soon snuffed out, leaving only the three witches menacingly repeating, "All Hail Macbeth and Banquot!"

The children appreciated the dramatic lighting! 

 

Extra Curricular

Fantastic Book Awards

At St. George's we offer the children the opportunity to join the Fantastic Book Awards club (FBA Club) each year. The club is small but deliberately so, and is made up of those who are avid readers and/ or have a desire to be part of the reading and voting for a FBA winning book. The Fantastic Book Awards (FBA) is our inspiring reading club for children aged nine to eleven years. It is an exciting opportunity for children to meet, discuss and share views about their reading in an informal way, and vote for one of the five books they consider to be an FBA Winner. The FBA club runs from September to May each year 

Dragon FM Radio Station Club

Meeting each Monday, the Dragon FM DJs gather content, announcements, conduct interviews with special guests, discuss the news of the week and curate all of the above into a weekly airing show which is played over the airwaves throughout the school building for the rest of the week. The show is broadcast 8-9am each morning as well as during break and lunch times. We are very lucky to have been supported by Chorley FM to get set up as a school radio station and our radio booth is state of the art. Members receive a metal Dragon FM DJ badge when they join the station and are responsible for training and inducting the new D.Js to the club each term.  

Philosophy Club

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