Bellfield Junior School
Welcome to Bellfield Juniors School's English site.
Please scroll down to find our Reading and Writing Curriculum
Statements and learn more about how English is taught and enjoyed across Key Stage 2.
This page is designed to share all the wonderful English learning and experiences which our children have enjoyed so far this year. There is also practical information on how to support your child with reading and writing.
Story Teller
We welcomed Anna, our amazing local Story Teller, to share Stories from Other Cultures with Y5 and Y6 and A Pocketful of Stories with Y4 and Y3. There was some excellent acting and audience participation from the whole school. We loved listening to the Traditional Tales from India and Tanzania.
Whole School Theatre Trip
'The Nativity! Our annual trip to the theatre was as successful as every year. We had lots of fun travelling on the coaches, enjoying the production, eating our snacks and being with our friends. Thank you for a great day out !
Year 6 Poetry Slam!
We were in for a real treat today and thoroughly enjoyed welcoming our local poet ‘Spoz’ into school for a Poetry Slam Day. We worked in teams of six and had great fun being creative with a range of poems. We earned points over the day and it got very competitive! The winning team at the end of the day will represent our school at the Birmingham Hippodrome School Poetry competition evening next spring.
Working Wall Examples
The Repertory Theatre - Whole School Theatre Visit -January
THE SNOWMAN
A real treat for staff and children- a visit to watch the production of 'The Snowman'. We thoroughly enjoyed the performance and when we left the theatre it was snowing! MAGICAL! Back in class, the children had a copy of the Michael Morpurgo's version of The Snowman. Here are some examples of the English work we created from the inspirational production and text:
'Poetry Slam -Words on Fire' Workshop- January
The school were very excited to have a Poetry Slam day in January by local poet: 'Spoz'. Each Year Group got to spend a whole day with the poet enjoying a 'Spoken Word Poetry' workshop. We learnt that R.A.P stands for Rhythm and Poetry and that many of the famous rap singers we know are poets! Children worked in small teams over the day and were challenged to make up a range of poems including: rhyming couplets entitled 'I've Got Words' and a poem about Chocolate.
The workshops had a competitive element with a signed copy of Spoz's book up for grabs each day!
Christmas Productions
Year 4 and 5 used their English Lessons for Drama! Each Year group produced a Christmas Production which was enjoyed across the school. It was shared on Zoom for families to watch.
Year 4- The Inn Crowd - we had the professional help from Becki and Imogen - Birmingham Repertory Theatre- to help us to develop our acting skills and produce our production!
Year 5 - Christmas Carol Service - a traditional performance of the nativity with some traditional and modern songs.
Visiting King Edward's Girls' School - November 2021
A selection of budding actors from Year 5 and Year 6 joined Miss Clay to watch a KS3 performance of 'Burn' at KEGS. The play was about WW2 German Students who had to decide which books to save from the Nazis before they burnt them. We enjoyed the scene involving Treasure Island as we knew the story from our visit to the Theatre !
Autumn 2021- Coming To England The Birmingham Repertory Theatre
A great drama opportunity for some Y4 and Y5 children, going to the Birmingham Repertory Theatre to enjoy performing the Production of 'Coming to England' by Floella Benjamin. They had a script to learn and had to perform to another school. They then enjoyed watching the other school's performance. Meeting the author made the visit extra special.
Autumn 2021 - Class Readers
To support and encourage whole school reading, every class has a Class Reader which they read every day at 3pm. The children are really enjoying this part of their learning and it ends the day in a calm and thoughtful way. All of the books are by our Class Name authors, for example Naidoo, Blackman Morpurgo and many more!
Books we have enjoyed so far:
Y3 - Fangs and The Butterfly Lion
Y4- Journey to Jo'Burg and Th Nightbus Hero
Y5 - A Series of Unfortunate Events
Y6 - Letters from The Lighthouse.
Author Zoom Lessons! - Autumn 2021
We were fortunate in Year 4 and Year 6 to enjoy Zoom author book readings with Beverley Naidoo (Y4) and Emma Carroll (Y6) this term. The children prepared questions to ask their author and both authors enjoyed discussing plots and characters of our Class Readers ( Y4 - Journey to Jo'Burg and Y6 Letters from the Lighthouse). The experience was inspiring and highly enjoyable for children and staff.
Engaging Children with Reading
The Reading Shed
We are very lucky to have a 'Reading Shed' for the children to enjoy as an extra mindfulness space to go and read quietly in.
Reading Champions
We celebrate children who have made excellent effort with their home reading -their name is added to a trophy, for example a 'Gold Reader' is a child who has read 75 times per term.
Millionaires' Club
This is a celebration board for all children who have read ONE MILLION words or more in their home reading. They are great role models for the school!
Sharing stories
As a school, we recognise the value of celebrating diversity and sharing stories from different cultures. We have a range of books to share across the school, which are used for Close Reading, shared story time or for general reading.
2020-2021
Spring Term 2021- Children , both at home and in school, have enjoyed hearing poetry and stories from a range of authors and poets from Bournville Book Fest. The children have written an adventure story, favourite food poems, drawn illustrations to support a piece of text and had lots of laughs!
"I loved listening to Benjamin Zephaniah's poetry as I have family from Jamaica." Kai 6L
Autumn Term 2020 - Y3 Poetry
It's raining...children used this hook to start their writing and came up with some fantastic 'nonsense' weather poems...snails and pups, cakes and bees, cows and parrots to name a few!
Autumn Term - Y5 Kensuke's Kingdom
The children wrote balanced arguments about whether Michael and his family should go sailing around the world or not.
|
PARENT AND FAMILY SUPPORT
All of our children have an English, Close Reading and dedicated independent reading lesson every day. English is taught in mixed ability groups but extra support and small group work is also provided for those who need it. Recent Government Funding allowed for extra English lessons for some Less Able/Disadvantaged children, this is provided weekly online via 'Action Tutoring' in 2020/21. Reading- Children complete a STAR reader test each term, which assesses their reading comprehension , they then choose an Accelerated Reading reading book which is suitable for their level of ability. The efforts of children who read on a regular basis are recognised with certificates and prizes. Children enjoy hearing a Class Reader read by their teacher 4 times a week. Each child has their own copy of a carefully selected book , the themes and authors include a wide range of diversity and cultures.
Reading -Parental Support  We ask parents to hear their child read at home and this support is vital. Older children can read independently but they may wish to discuss the chapter they have read with you or ask for help with unknown words or explanation of the text. How you can helpPlease hear your child read for about 10-15 minutes each evening or at least 4 evenings a week. Try to choose somewhere quiet away from the television. Some children like to read in bed before they go to sleep. Praise your child and encourage them. Some children may like you to read the book to them first to make them feel more confident. When the child finishes the book, then they can change it. We will show them where they can do that. Each child will also be given a Home Learning Diary. Please write the title of the book in here and the date the child reads it, there is also a space for your comment. Each week a member of staff will collect the Diary in to read any comments from home, write comments back and give Learning Points for good effort. This Diary is vital for Home/School communication of home reading. We ask parents to purchase a Reading Bag for their children to keep the books clean and dry. It is not to carry everything else to school in! Every week or two, the children will also be able to choose a school library book to bring home. This will be a book of their own choice. Perhaps you could read some of it to them? Please write the title of this book in the Home Learning Diary too as we then have a full picture of the child’s home reading. Thank you for your co-operation, enjoy reading with your child and do come to see us if you have any questions or problems.
How to help your child with Phonics! Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/ |
