Merton Park Primary School

Merton School PrimaryMerton School Primary

Pupils do exceptionally well at this school, in terms of both their academic and personal development.

Leaders, including governors, are relentless in their ambition to make this school the best it can be.

The behaviour of pupils is outstanding. Pupils have excellent attitudes to learning. They work hard at all times and persevere with tasks that are frequently challenging.

The warm, mutually supportive relationships that staff and pupils have with each other make this a very caring, nurturing school.

Provision in the Early Years is outstanding. Children make rapid and sustained progress due to excellent teaching and imaginative activities.

The curriculum is excellent. It promotes a real love for learning in pupils, as they have many opportunities to develop their knowledge and skills within a real-life context.

Life at Merton Park Primary School Life at Merton Park Primary School Life at Merton Park Primary School Life at Merton Park Primary School Life at Merton Park Primary School Life at Merton Park Primary School Life at Merton Park Primary School Life at Merton Park Primary School

Reading & Phonics

“ A book is a gift you can open again and again.” (Garrison Keillor)

At Merton Park Primary books are at the heart of our curriculum. Our aim is forevery child to not only acquire the essential basic reading skills, but to become a life long reader with a real appreciation and love of books.

 

Phonics

 We teach synthetic phonics daily in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2, using the Ruth Miskins Read, Write Inc programme, which is based on Letters and Sounds. Children are encouraged to use phonic techniques (decoding and sounding out) to read and spell ‘green’ words.  Children are taught to read ‘red’ words (tricky words) by sight. We use real books which provide children with opportunities to work on their decoding and become confident readers. There are writing activities which link to the books and focus on building sentences and using phonics for spelling.

Across KS1 the children are grouped according to ability and they work in this group each day. There is also a catch up phonics group for children in Year 3.

In the Early Years Foundation Stage children develop the ability to distinguish between sounds and become familiar with rhyme, rhythm and alliteration. They develop an understanding of the correspondence between spoken and written sounds and learn to link sounds and letters and use their knowledge to read simple words. 

Reading

At Merton Park we use a range of approaches to explore high quality texts.  Children from Reception to Year 6 are exposed to some of the best children’s literature and to creative teaching approaches through the school’s involvement in the Power of Reading project.

When children are learning to read we focus on strategies such as using contextual and picture clues as well as phonetic skills.  Listening to the teacher reading aloud is a key part of the day in every class.  Our termly reading challenge motivates the children and they are keen to read all the books on the list.

In Reception and KS1 children take home a colour banded reading book appropriate to their level.  Every week children read with a teacher or teaching assistant and their book is changed when appropriate. 

In Years 1-6 each child takes part in a guided reading session every week.  In a guided reading session children share a range of reading materials.  The emphasis is placed on higher order reading skills, such as inference and writing conventions that give a story atmosphere.

 ‘ERIC’ (Everyone Reading In Class) time takes place once a week in Key Stage 1&2.  This gives children and all adults the opportunity to enjoy a book/magazine of choice each week.  This is also an opportunity to discuss what they are reading and make recommendations to peers. 

Each class has the opportunity to visit the school library once a week and children can choose to browse and read during lunchtime library sessions. Children can also access the library database online from home to choose books and to read and write reviews.