Headteacher: Mrs Julie Goodwin | Contact Us | 01772 862664
Learning Together, Rooted in God.
OUR SCHOOL STATEMENT OF INTENT
Learning together, rooted in God, pupils at St Lawrence Church of England Primary School are easy to distinguish by the personal qualities they present. They are happy, confident, articulate children with a love of learning, who recognise and celebrate their own individuality and that of other members of our community. They are generous, kind and welcoming; they are forgiving and understand justice. With God by their side, they face the world with resilience, integrity and joy.
READING
The school Statement of Intent forms the basis of all that we do in reading. We learn together and we are rooted in God in all that we read. Reading forms a large part of a child’s day and will be used across the curriculum
NURTURING A CREATIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
At Barton St Lawrence, we aim:
OUR
CURRICULUM PROVISION
The
schools main independent reading scheme is ‘Oxford Reading Tree’ including
series within such as Snapdragons, InFact, Explore and Story Sparkers. Our guided
reading sets are differentiated between KS1 and KS2. In KS1, we follow Project X, Alien Adventures and Graphic Novels and in Key Stage
2, we use the Badger scheme for fiction titles and Rigby Navigator for
non-fiction titles. All
children have the opportunity to read a wide variety of books in a structured,
challenging and progressive approach. All books are colour banded and this
ensures appropriate challenge is provided for all children. Children are also
encouraged to enhance their reading through schools weekly library loan service
where books are also colour banded. Library sessions are run by our Year 6
Librarians who have been specially trained.
The
majority of children leave Barton St.Lawrence confident, competent readers with
a love of reading. The reading scheme across school is constantly evolving and
as a result children are provided with books that not only challenge but also
interest them and encourage a love of reading.
We encourage reading for
pleasure through children having a choice of challenging and enriching texts as
well as building in time for children to read independently and as part of a
whole class. All children have daily opportunities to read a variety of
material in school and with the help of other adults and opportunities in
class, we ensure readers are heard regularly.
EQUALITY OF
OPPORTUNITY
Our whole curriculum is
shaped by our school vision which aims to enable all children, regardless of
background, ability, additional needs, to flourish to become the very best
version of themselves they can possibly be.
Regardless of background,
ability or additional needs, by the time children leave Barton St.Lawrence,
they will:
EVENTS AND VISITS
PLANNING,
ASSESSMENT, PROGRESSION AND EVALUATION
We follow Lancashire Topic
plans which are underpinned by the National Curriculum and supported by a clear
skills and knowledge progression. This ensures that skills and knowledge are
built on year by year and sequenced appropriately to maximise learning for all
children. We have a skills-based approach to reading within regular Guided
Reading lessons; we focus heavily on introducing new and challenging vocabulary
as well as exploring retrieval techniques, explanations and summaries of our
reading. Here, our reading curriculum
links closely with our writing curriculum; we use a text-based approach that
enables us to create opportunities for reading, discussion and writing within
English and reading lessons.
In early KS1, there is a
greater emphasis on phonics; this is then applied throughout the rest of the
school to consolidate what has been learnt. Within daily phonic sessions,
children have the opportunity to revisit previous learning, practise and apply
new skills in structured but engaging ways.
Please follow this link to our
Overview of Literacy Provision
We have been awarded an 'Innovative Practice' Award for our teaching of Grammar. We are very proud that the school has achieved this award.
WRITING
From the time the children join our school they are encouraged to write for a range of reasons and audiences. At all times we aim to ensure that they have 'real reasons' for writing and understand the importance of this skill. This begins in the Foundation Stage with role play writing, eg listing things they need or writing notes to others. At this stage the writing is understood by the child but does not necessarily consist of correctly formed letters or words. By the time they leave St Lawrence's children will have mastered the techniques of constructing well planned and exciting writing. In handwriting the children are taught to use approach strokes from Foundation Stage and a fully cursive style is introduced in Key Stage 1. Research shows that teaching handwriting in this way aids both the speed of recording and the accuracy of spelling.
GRAMMAR AND PUNCTUATION
With the new Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation (SPAG) test introduced in 2013, school has re-evaluated the teaching and learning of grammar within school. We are now proud to report, that we have developed an internal teaching and assessment system as well as improved the provision of teaching of punctuation and grammar. Our approach is based around academic research, and our interactive teaching allows children to have fun whilst they learn. We have recently been awarded an 'Innovative Award' for the teaching of grammar and punctuation in May 2013.
SPELLING
We have a whole-school approach to the teaching of spelling. We follow Letters and Sounds as a guide, splitting the teaching and learning of spelling and phonics into phases 2-6.
Further details can be found in the Spelling and Phonics section of the website