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Speaking and Listening

Reading and writing are very important and valuable skills but people are often not aware of how important speaking and listening skills are too.

Schools that include speaking and listening in a planned and structured way for children in their lessons see improvement in their classroom involvement. Teachers and Ofsted are noticing more and more that speaking and listening is a really important factor for good teaching and child performance in successful schools.

We also know that standards in writing are linked to the development of excellent speaking and listening skills. At CGPS we use ‘talk for writing’ and in Maths, there is now a greater emphasis on reasoning, explaining and justifying solutions. We are also working with the Royal Shakespeare Company to introduce Rehearsal Room and Active Learning Approaches to enhance the teaching of English at Cherry Grove Primary School. This work can be seen in our year long project which involves children across the whole school from Nursery to Year 6 leanring about The Tempest. 

Assemblies

Throughout the course of the year, children are given several opportunities to present their learning to the rest of the school through 'Sharing Assemblies’. During themed weeks children from Nursery through to Year 6 present their learning to the rest of the school, for example through Rights of the Child fortnight, Healthy Schools and Science week. Children who are involved with JLT, Sports Ambassadors, Unicef Ambassadors, Road Safety Officers and ESafety Team frequently hold their own whole school assemblies. All years hold a speaking event each term in the form of poetry slams, readings or presentations.

P4C

A key element in our approach to the development of pupils’ speaking and listening skills are ‘Philosophy 4 Children’ sessions. These sessions give pupils the opportunity to explore and discuss a range of issues and concepts. Children are taught how to listen well to other pupils, how to clearly express their ideas and build on the thoughts of others.

Productions

Throughout the school we give our pupils the opportunity to perform in annual productions to share with the rest of the school, with their parents and carers and the wider community. We use English lessons to explore the plays we are performing and encourage children to be involved with directing, costumes, make up design, settings, lighting and much more. 

 In Nursery, Reception and Year 1/2, the children put on a Christmas performance once a year.  In Year 3/4 the children will perform musicals or a play in the Spring term.  In the past we have produced, Oliver, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Matilda  and this year, as part of our RSC project, the children in year 3/4 will be performing The Tempest .  In Year 5/6 the  children will perform a musical or a play in the Summer term.