At Watlington Primary School we develop early phonological skills enabling them to become confident young readers using the systematic phonics approach through the Essential Letters and Sounds (ELS) programme. This translates into progressively challenging and engaging texts throughout KS1 and KS2. These skills are developed with early reading in Nursery. We establish a thirst for reading through use of high quality texts within our Talk for Writing approach. We engage with established links/visit with the local library for our younger children and maximise our excellent libraries throughout the school in order to encourage a life-long love of books. We embed comprehension skills through our use of VIPERS in reading lessons as well as English lessons, topics, reading workshops, book clubs and school reading cafes. These engage positive parental involvement. We celebrate a love of reading through special events such as World Book Day, Author focuses, author visits and shared reading through the key stages.

At Watlington Primary School the children are inspired to enjoy writing from early mark making opportunities, both inside and outside, leading to writing for purpose and intent in a range of styles. We engage with Talk for Writing throughout the school and this embeds a deeper understanding of genres, text-types and audience. This approach enables a continual deepening of vocabulary and the children respond to stimulating hooks to inspire purposeful writing outcomes.

At Watlington Primary School the children learn relevant skills linked to spelling, punctuation and grammar through English lessons as well as learning opportunities threaded across the curriculum. There is fidelity to programmes in phonics and spelling. They understand that these skills are not only stand alone and therefore confidently demonstrate how to apply these skills in all writing opportunities. 

At Watlington Primary School children develop into sensitive and confident communicators who can demonstrate respectful exchanges by listening, speaking with kindness and tolerance as well as explaining with clarity and confidence. They explore and experience different situations where speaking and listening are essential tools to communication, including: performance, presentation, discussion and debate opportunities. They understand the importance of speaking and listening effectively and that this can support misunderstandings being addressed and resolved.

We believe the children at Watlington Primary School develop a curiosity towards other cultures and languages. Our goal is for them to be passionate, curious and confident about their own foreign language learning abilities when they finish school. We help them develop and demonstrate progress  in the five key language skills necessary for learning French (speaking, listening, reading, writing and grammar). We follow the Language Angels programme for teaching French in KS2.  We will also help strengthen their sense of identity through learning about other cultures and comparing them with their own.

European Day of Languages

This week we celebrated European Day of Languages, which we extended to celebrate all the languages that are spoken at Watlington!  We launched the day with a whole school assembly, which included a song and different ways that the Minions say some words!

The children spent the morning in different groups, rotating around the school to have lessons on different languages which included Shona, Tagalog, Japanese and Ukrainian.  

This was a wonderful celebration of our diverse community!

Poetry Celebration

A huge well done to all classes across the school who took part in our celebration of poetry assembly! The children learned a range of poetry from classics to rap to share with families. The children worked hard thinking about volume, expression, actions and pace with great results.

Reading Challenge

A huge well done to everyone who completed the reading challenge.  Our prize winners will receive a certificate, plant book and cuddly toy!

Oxfordshire Book Awards

Watlington are fortunate enough to be part of the Oxfordshire Book Awards. This celebrates current books and authors aimed at primary and secondary pupils. Each year, the school receives a set of the short listed books for the awards and the children read, review and vote on their favourites. These votes are added to other schools across the county and it culminates in a ceremony to celebrate the winning authors.

This year a group of year 5 and 6 pupils had the opportunity to attend the event that took place at Magdelan College School in Oxford. They listened to some excellent speeches form the authors that included: an illustration workshop; quizzes; golden ticket competition; lots of jokes; anecdotes; extract readings and even a virtual escape room. Everyone was inspired to try reading some different genres and authors.

This year we have already had a number of Communication Team events for our subjects (Reading, Writing and Languages).

Reading café

• The event was very well attended where teachers read stories to groups, parents shared books with their children, all with the added bonus of tea and cake provided by the PTA!
• IMPACT: Engaging all families in the joy of sharing books and reading for pleasure.

Librarians and libraries

• Our libraries continue to be managed by our super team of library volunteers, who keep our texts up to date, create vibrant displays and who support pupils to find engaging texts.
• IMPACT: Children have a wide range of books to choose from and expert guidance to choose challenging, interesting books and explore new authors.

Winter reading challenge

• Lots of pupils completed the Watlington winter reading challenge!  Each entry was put in to a prize draw to win a book on plants and cuddly Venus fly trap!
• IMPACT: Engaged families to keep reading a priority over the holidays and experience a range of text types.

Pupil Librarians and lunchtime library sessions

• The pupil librarian sessions are up and running on a Friday lunchtimes.  The library is a hive of activity with our newly appointed librarians offering support to their peers.
• IMPACT: Children engaging other children with reading and books is a powerful way to keep the buzz of reading at the heart of our school.

Class book corners

• Class book corners are creative and inspiring areas for children to become lost in the work of books!  Look out for the displays of our class reads too. 
• IMPACT: Children can explore relevant, challenging and exciting books linked to topics, year group and interests.

Cinderella Performance and Big Write

• We were fortunate enough to have a theatre company to provide inspiration for our whole school Big Write! 
• IMPACT: Children demonstrated all the skills developed from Talk for Writing lessons with imaginative, exciting and unique responses.

Theatre Visits - A Christmas Carol (Years 4-6) and Jack and the Beanstalk (Years 1-3)

• The children from Years 1 - 6 all experience a live theatre performance.
• IMPACT:  The children were able to see stories come to life which inspired writing responses. 

Languages day

• As well as our excellent provision, led by our specialist language teacher, we also marked European day of languages with Watlington Languages Week!  This ended in an assembly to share our learning with parents and carers. 
• IMPACT: Children have developed an enthusiasm and for other cultures, languages and countries.

Cross phase work with Icknield Community College

• Drama workshops led to children developing confident performance skills and improved oracy

Outcomes

• We are thrilled with our statutory outcomes.
• Reading engagement across the school is high as the children always tell us in pupil voice interviews.