• Term 1 - All about Me
• Term 2 - School and Home
• Term 3 - Signs

• Term 1 - Witches, Magic and Fear
• Term 2 - Neighbourhoods
• Term 3 - Shipwrecked

Year 10 themes

• Term 1 - Life Journeys / Transport
• Term 2 - School and Friendships
• Term 3 - Sport

After initial assessment each child is placed on a suitable level of one of the many reading schemes used in Key Stage 3.  These are The Harberton Reading Scheme, Wellington Square, Literacy Links, Wolf Hill, Shorty, Read On, First Explorers, Explorers, Literacy World and Wild Cats.  Each child practices word attack strategies and comprehension skills as well as Linguistic Phonics for reading, writing and spelling which helps pupils break words down into sounds to forming multi-syllable words.
 
Talking and Listening
Beechlawn recognise that talking and listening are fundamental skills upon which the educational development of our pupils depends. Through the development of oral, aural and social skills, they learn about language and this equips pupils to demonstrate and refine their learning to become efficient language users. Oral communication is developed through purposeful interaction with peers and teachers and children will be provided with experiences that develop their skills in talking and listening.
 
A Classroom Environment which promotes reading
We have a superbly resources Lifeskills room where pupils have the opportunity to use their talking and listening skills in everyday situations through role playing in a post office, café, shop, telephone conversations, interview techniques, etc.
 
Reading
Beechlawn strives to teach all our children to read and to enjoy a variety of texts so that they will become independent, critical, life-long readers and learners.
 
A Classroom Environment which promotes reading
We aim to provide a classroom environment which promotes a love of books and reading where children feel inspired to read. Each classroom is a language rich environment with lots of environmental print, labels, posters, information, children's work etc. Books are given their rightful place throughout the school. Each room has a class library where books are displayed in a variety of ways. Frequently a display of topic books are easily accessible to the children.
 
Every class is timetabled for the school library which has a wide range of fact and fiction books along with "First News" newspapers.  Class libraries are supplemented with topic based project packs.
 
World Book Day is also celebrated each year, (Thursday 1st March 2012), with many fun activities and competitions taking place to further encourage reading for enjoyment.  Visit www.worldbookday.com for more information.
 
Writing
Children write to express their emotions, to convey their thoughts and opinions and to present evidence of research. By developing these skills, we can equip our pupils to use writing across a range of curricular activities in which they are involved.
 
Beechlawn aims to develop an ability to write effectively in various forms according to purpose and audience. Pupils will be encouraged to develop as independent writers, learning to use conventional spelling, punctuation, grammatical organisation and handwriting.
 
A Classroom Environment which promotes writing
We strive to provide an environment where children are inspired to write.
Word banks, dictionaries and thesauri are available for the children.  Classroom displays also contain language which children may require in their writing and devote time to handwriting practice.
 
Pupils complete two Literacy homeworks per week.
 
Each year pupils participate in many Literacy Competitions such as Young Writers competitions for poetry and short stories.