English

In order for your child to meet the English demands of the New Zealand Curriculum we have provided some information that may assist you to help your child at home . . . .

Hand Writing

In primary schools, the aim of teaching handwriting is to teach each child to write legibly, fluently, without strain, and with sufficient speed for all practical purposes. The main stages in teaching handwriting at primary school generally are:

• Teaching grip, letter shapes and movements,
• Increasing speed and endurance without loss of quality.

Two important elements of handwriting when children start school is movement and shape.  “It is not the shapes of letters which is of first importance when teaching handwriting.  The prime lesson to be learnt is the way in which the pencil should be moved to form the letters.

Writing

Writing Family of Eight

This is a copy of the Family of Eight that we use to analyse and assess student writing.  These writing targets  will give you an indication of the sorts of learning that will be occurring for your child, in writing, as they progress through their schooling.

Writing activities that will help with writing mileage and keeping in practice are listed below: 

Reading

We follow a structured literacy approach rather than a programme. At our schoool we use the Sunshine series to teach beginning reading. Once children can accurately decode (read) text with words and have some sound patterns they will being to read a mixture of decodable and non decodable texts.

Learning the Speech Sounds of New Zealand English

When your tamariki start school they will begin to learn the speech sounds of english. Here is a great video so you can hear these and then you can assist your tamariki at home.

Reading options that will help with reading mileage and keeping in practice are listed below: