Scoil Naomh Mhuire, Baile na gCailleach, Co. na hÍarmhí
Policy on English
Introduction
This policy was developed through a process of consultation with teaching staff
of St. Mary’s National School Collinstown and updated in 2013.
Rationale
The purpose of this policy is to offer an overview of English in our
school, to provide frameworks within which teachers may plan and set
in place general aims and goals for work in classes and thus benefit
teaching and learning in our school.
Vision Statement:
In line with our mission statement which aims to help all children to
develop to their full potential we believe that this policy will help us
achieve our goals in English and enable all children to attain their
potential in this area.
Aims:
We endorse the aims and objectives of the Revised Curriculum:
 To promote positive attitudes and develop an appreciation of the
value of language - spoken, read and written
 To create, foster and maintain the child's interest in expression
and communication
 To develop the child's ability to engage appropriately in listenerspeaker relationships
 To develop confidence and competence in listening, speaking,
reading and writing
 To develop cognitive ability and the capacity to clarify thinking
through oral language, writing and reading
 To enable the child to read and write independently
 To enhance emotional, imaginative and aesthetic development through
oral, reading and writing experiences.
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We emphasise that the overall aim is to enable children to learn
language and to learn through language.
Content:
Our content is organised under the three strand units as per the change in
structure of the revised curriculum of 2005. Thus we divide our content under:
 Oral language:
 Reading ,
 Writing.
Within each strand are the strand units, which we will aim to cover within each
strand:
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Receptiveness to language
Competence and confidence in using language
Developing cognitive abilities through language
Emotional and imaginative development through language
Current practice emphasises uniformity of approach, progress and
content in and between classes and throughout the school.
Oral language
There is a marked increase in the number of children starting school
with speech problems or a language deficit. Also, we have increasing
numbers of children in the school, where English is their second
language.
Teachers help children to develop their oral language through the
following five contexts:
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Talk and Discussion
Play and Games
Poetry
Story
Improvisational Drama,
Debates,
Presentations ,
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Show and tell,
Recount genre
Summaries
Reporting genre
Strategies
Oral language has a central place throughout the curriculum.
Oral Language is used as a basis for reading and writing. All lessons are
introduced with an Oral Language activity. The development of Oral
Language takes place across all subjects and throughout the whole
school day. Sometimes oral language is used as an alternative to written
exercises in developing children's comprehension skills. In an effort to
develop higher order thinking skills the teachers use questions:
 To focus their thinking
 To seek and to give explanations
 To discuss different possible
solutions to problems
 To argue a point of view
 To persuade others
 To examine fact and fiction, bias and objectivity etc.
Discrete Oral language time, takes place at least once a week and is timetabled
in all classes.
Form, structure, use of language and grammar are addressed during this
Discrete Oral Language time. Children are encouraged and taught to use
correct pronunciation, grammar etc. when speaking. Teaching strategies
are carefully selected with the ultimate aim to develop children's
confidence in speaking in small group/large group situations.
Organisational Setting
Teachers use a range of organisational settings for development of Oral
Language such as pair work, group work, whole class discussion, formal
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and informal debates, circle time and thinking time, and presentation of
projects.
Presentation
Children are encouraged to present their work to classmates and teacher.
Resources
Junior/Senior Infants.
 Chatterbox
 Alive-O material
 Reading Zone posters
 Cross curricular posters
 Alive O materials
 Online materials
1st /2nd Class
 Chatterbox
 Cross curricular posters
 Alive-O material
 Online posters
 Reading zone posters
 Story hub
 Circle time activities
 Oral activites in class readers
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3rd/4th Class
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Oral exercises from class reader
Chatterbox
Prim-Ed Oral Language Book.
Online resources
Wonderland online resources-C J Fallon
5th/6th Class
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Power point presentations used in SESE
Oral Activities /exercises from class reader
You tube videos
Newspapers, journals
School website
Online news
Reading
We endeavor to make the child’s reading as rich and varied as possible.
In every class there are children with different reading abilities. The teacher
caters for these different abilities in a sensitive manner and strives to develop
confidence in the child as they learn to read. It is imperative that children taste
success while reading. Ensuring that the material they read is appropriate to
their ability does this.
The class reader is gauged towards the average child. The purpose of using
a class reader is to develop reading skills such as using picture cues, word
attack skills, dictionary work, comprehension, information retrieval skills
etc. Teachers cater for the different needs in the classroom when using the
class reader by asking questions gauged at different levels of ability.
Text Books
Infants to 2nd class
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Scoil Naomh Mhuire, Baile na gCailleach, Co. na hÍarmhí
Reading Zone Readers
Ladybird-Peter and Jane series
Ladybird-Read it yourself
Usborne-Phonics Readers
Jolly Phonics readers
Oxford Reading tree
Sunny street
Edco readers
3rd to 6th class
Wonderland (CJ Fallon)
New Treasury (E-H Folens)
Class Novels –
The novel is used from second class up to give children the experience of using
real books. Children from Second to Sixth class will have their own copy of the
novel or one will be shared between two children. Carefully selected class
novels help to encourage children to read and draw the child's attention to
descriptive text, development of characters, plot etc.
Real books are also used from Junior Infants, with Big Books and online
reading being used in the early years. When selecting class novel, the following
issues will be considered.
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Suitability for reading level/age of pupils
Suitability of content/subject
Teacher’s own interest in a particular novel
Interests of a particular class
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Scoil Naomh Mhuire, Baile na gCailleach, Co. na hÍarmhí
Novels used at present:
3rd Class.
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The Sheep Pig
The Hodgeheg
Stig in the Dump
Charlotte’s Web
5th and 6th Class.
 Carrie’s War (N. Bawden)
 The Hiring fair (E. O’Hara)
 Blaeberry Sunday (E. O’Hara)
Use of Dictionaries.
Dictionary work will be used from First Class upwards. Formal time will be
devoted to teaching the children how to use a dictionary correctly. For this
purpose, a child friendly dictionary will be selected, and all pupils will be
encouraged to obtain the same publication. The dictionary selected for use is
Collins Dictionary/Thesaurus.
Poetry Books- It is important for children to be exposed to poetry from an
early age. We have a good selection of poetry anthologies in the school.
Supplementary/ancillary/parallel readers are used to give children the
opportunity to read at their level. We have a large selection of such books
available throughout the school.
Other strategies:
 Drop Everything and Read.
 Read a novel aloud .
 Large format books.
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Organisation of reading in the classroom
Teachers use a variety of organisational settings when teaching reading
including whole class reading, paired reading, group reading, independent
reading, individualized reading, shared reading, teacher reading aloud,
silent reading etc.
Print rich environment
In our classrooms, our pupils are surrounded by print. Everything in the
classroom is labeled at a level appropriate to the age of the children in the
class. Teachers use posters, charts, dictionaries, etc. to provide an
appropriate print rich environment for the children. From Infants, children
use the labels and posters in their classrooms as cues for writing.
Library
Every classroom is equipped with a well-stocked library, which includes
fiction and nonfiction books. Teachers select books appropriate to their
class.The classrooms are also restocked from time to time from Castlepollard
library.
Early Reading Activities
Pre-Reading Skills: The emphasis in junior infants is on pre-reading skills.
Big Books, Picture Books etc. are used so that children are given many
opportunities to hear reading, talk about reading, appreciate the usefulness
and pleasures of reading, to help them understand the conventions of text
and the terminology of books (letter, word, sentence, page number, reading
from left to right) etc.
Word Identification Strategies: From Junior Infants children are encouraged to
look at letters in words, to look at the shape of words, to look for letters they
recognise, to sound out letters that they know, to look for little words in big
words etc.
Phonological and Phonemic awareness: The Jolly Phonics programme, and
Sparklebox online resources are used to develop the children's Phonological and
Phonemic awareness.
Basic Sight Vocabulary_: Teachers use the vocabulary from the early readers
and dolch list as a guide to developing and assessing children's basic sight
vocabulary.
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Comprehension: Comprehension skills are developed through a combination
of reading the text, reflecting on the text, discussing it, and writing about it. In
the early years children are encouraged to use picture cues when answering
questions. For developing comprehension skills, teachers use a variety of
methodologies such as the following:
 SQ3R: Scan, Question, Read, Recite, Review
 KWL -What is it you know?
-What is it you want to know?
- What have you learned?
 Comprehension strategies from Building Bridges, predicting , inferencing
making prediction, summarizing etc
Teachers are aware of the higher-order comprehension skills listed below
 Synthesis
 Analysis
 Deduction
 Correlation
In a whole class situation during an oral language lesson teachers cater for all
abilities through use of well thought out questions. Teachers use a variety of
organisational settings when striving to develop the pupils' comprehension
skills: sometimes children work individually, in pairs, in groups or with the
whole class. Comprehension skills are developed through oral and written work
with an emphasis on discussion. Skills books and class readers are used
selectively and judiciously by teachers as a tool to develop the pupils'
comprehension skills.We try to develop comprehension skills across the
curriculum in all subject areas.
Parental Involvement
Parents have a very important role in encouraging their children to read. The
Time that the children spend reading together with parents should be a
pleasurable experience where the parent and child use an age appropriate book
set at the child's level of ability. To develop this approach Parental views on
literacy are sought as part of the school improvement strategy ,such as “Reading
Contract” and “Read at Home”.
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Book related events:
Book Fair: A Book Fair is held every second year for one week. Parents are
notified in advance of the Fair in a school letter. Infants may purchase books
after 2.00p.m.with their parents. Other classes are timetabled to visit the fair
during school time and may also visit it after 3.00p.m. with their parents. At the
end of the week a percentage of money spent during the fair is given to the
school to choose books for the school.
Poetry workshops have been held in school for senior classes.
Internet Resources for book related activities.
www.enchantedlearning.com
www.fireandwater.com
www.pdst.ie
www.scoilnet.ie
folens online
communication4all.co.uk
seomra ranga .ie
primary treasure chest
Writing
Process writing is used in all classes but in particular, middle to senior
classes. The middle classes will confine their process writing to
paragraphs because of the time involved in rewriting.
Alternatively, they could write on every second line. Final draft will be
written on a sheet for display or for portfolio.
Emphasis will be on quality rather than quantity.
Genres:
We will teach recount, persuasive and narrative writing one year and the next
year we will teach report, procedural and explanation.
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Resources.
3rd Class
- Reasons to Write 3
4th Class
- Reasons to Write 4
5th Class
- Reasons to Write 5
6th Class
- Reasons to Write 6
Not all writing will be process writing. Children will be encouraged to
write freely on topics of their own choosing.
Junior Infants
Children are exposed to a Print rich environment. Pre writing activities include
playdoh activities, scissors activities, scribbling and drawing with various
insruments such as chubby crayons, markers and pencils.
Teaching of letter sounds commences usually, on the second week of
September.
Fine motor skills are encouraged through Lego, Duplo, lacing beads, peg boards
etc.
Children begin to write letters after the Autumn midterm, commencing with c,
a, etc.By Easter, children commence writing cvc words and are taught to write
their name.
Senior Infants
Revise all letter sounds and lower case letter formation, commence higher case
letters.
Commence spelling cvc words in Senior Infants
Use Skills Book, other workbook and teacher designed worksheets.
Become aware of capital and lower case letters and full stops.
Write naming words and add descriptive words
Write stories and draw pictures to suit the text.
From Easter onwards write Ted’s Diary – one child per night.
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First and Second
Children make their own dictionaries putting in new words
they come across. Read a story, discuss it, then children write
the main details.
They write poems, stories and news often choosing their own topic.
They practice Process writing, with the final draft for display.
They write for different purposes and in different genres.
They learn the basics of punctuation.
They use Free writing copies, whose purpose is to encourage spontanaeity and
flow in writing. These copies while, read by the teacher are usually not
corrected. However common errors will be identified by the class teacher and
will be addressed as part of a whole class lesson.
Third and fourth
Process writing over a period of time, revise and re-draft with end product
displayed, typed on the computer or read out to the class.
Writing based on a variety of genres, - letters, stories, instructions, directions,
menus and descriptions.
Select own topics for writing and write for different audiences.
Learn to use questions to expand and develop a story.
Give sequence to events and ideas in a story.
Develop correct punctuation and grammatical accuracy
Fifth and Sixth
Process writing - engage in the writing of one piece over a period, help each
other with editing.
Writing in different genres - advertisements, pamphlets, letters, poems,
conversations, directions, instructions and descriptive paragraphs.
Elecronic writing –use of MS Office
Writing for different purposes and different audiences.
Use dictionaries and thesauri to extend and develop
vocabulary and spelling. Take part in cooperative writing
activities
Poetry
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Poetry should be time tabled or
it can be integrated with drama and circle time.
Poetry based on themes - Halloween, Christmas, Spring,
humour etc. Explore different types of poems - haiku,
limerick, sonnet etc. Children also write their own
poems.
Homework
SEN-Reading, prime ed activity sheets, cloze activities, library books,
wordlists, check lists
Infants: Junior Infants commence written homework after Christmas.It
incorporates Teacher designed phonics worksheets, written work from
handwriting sheets, pre-writing workbook, reading from readers , library
books and supplementary readers.Spellings maximum of 3 per night.
First and Second: Written work taken from skillsbooks. Spellings from
list or book. In second class put the spellings into sentences, reading
from text book.
Third and Fourth: Reading from Read at home, textbook, spellings, put
new words and spellings into sentences, comprehension questions from
reader. Write down ideas for creative writing. Skills books, summaries,
cloze etc.
Fifth and Sixth: Reading, spellings, put spellings in to sentences. Written
work based on reading — simple comprehension questions, skills books,
summarise.
Catering for individual needs:
Teachers will adapt their teaching to provide suitable learning experiences for
all children in their class. Strategies will include:
 Use of higher order questioning, supplementary readers for those
with greater ability.
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 Extra support in class for those experiencing difficulty —
shorter, simpler tasks, questions, reading material to suit their
ability
 Reader copy-weak second class
 Word wallets-weak first class
Learning Support and Special Needs
Children with learning difficulties and special educational needs are helped to
achieve their potential in the core skills of oral language, reading and writing.
Assessment is ongoing and an Individual Pupil Learning Profile / Plan (Iplp) is
drawn up and co-ordinated by the Special Education Teacher in consultation
with the class teacher, the pupil, and the parents. Specific short-term targets are
agreed between all concerned e.g. in relation to reading, homework and
handwriting. Regular consultation also takes place with external professionals
when required.g. Speech Therapist, Occupational Therapist. The class teacher
maintains first line responsibility for the welfare of the child. Suitable resources
are provided to meet the learning needs of individual children.
For more detailed information see the school SEN plan.
Linkage and Integration
While our English Plan is presented under the three strand unit headings of
oral language, reading and writing, the practice in this school is that all three
strand units are very much interlinked. Teachers will always be conscious of
catering for all four strand units while engaging in an English class. The
manner in which our plan is organised also provides significant
opportunities for its integration with all other curricular areas. The strands
and strand units will help guide teachers in their planning for other subjects
such as SESE and SPHE where oral work, reading and writing are essential
elements.
Equality of participation and access
We are committed to the provision of equal opportunities to all our pupils in the
implementation of our English programme. Equal opportunities are provided to
all pupils to participate in discussions, debates, reading and writing
opportunities etc. The use of language and textbooks deemed to be sexist is
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avoided. Attention is afforded to developmental differences and remedial action
is taken where appropriate. We encourage gender awareness through promoting
consideration of the roles associated with men and women in literature, the
media, advertising etc. as well as consideration of the language associated
with such roles.
Assessment & Record Keeping
Oral language is assessed informally by each class teacher. Reading is assessed
through a combination of teacher observation and standardised testing (Micra –
T test , and Middle Infant Screening Test). Diagnostic assessment is
administered as required at Learning Support level. Informal assessment by the
class teacher is conducted on an ongoing basis. Standardised assessment is
administered on an annual basis during the last term. Test results are used to
establish the needs of individual pupils and to inform future planning. Samples
of the written work of individual pupils are collated to keep a record of his / her
performance in different areas over the period of a school year. Results of
formal assessments are collated over the period of a child's attendance at our
school.
For further information, see school SEN and assessment policies.
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