On Thursday 5th December in Governor Monitoring Week I spent a whole day with Mrs Buttress and learned so much about the teaching of English and Phonics at Mellers. I visited classes in F2 being taught phonics and Years 3 and 5 being taught English on the Power of Reading Scheme. I talked to an inspirational group of pupils from across the age range who spoke passionately and confidently about their love of reading and writing. They spoke of the authors, poems and novels and clearly felt the ‘power of reading’. The pupils all looked forward to receiving books as presents from parents as well as being able to choose books from Waterstone’s as prizes from school.

 

The Power of Reading is a high quality scheme launched by the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education and is used at Mellers as a basis for the English curriculum. It is based on research at the highest academic levels and it is clearly a success  at Mellers. My understanding of it was greatly increased by meeting Katie from The Power of Reading who spent the day with us evaluating our work in English at Mellers.

 

The day was exciting and informative and I will be reporting back to the governing body at the next meeting.