During the inspection, it was found that about half of the Year 2 pupils reach the expected Level 2 in reading. A small group read at a higher level, but their comprehension of the text is not as well developed as their reading skills. The remainder of the pupils read at Level 1, although a few have not reached this level. Their learning is good and they make rapid progress in using their phonic skills. Their lack of knowledge of vocabulary, grammar and idioms, though increasing daily, prevents even faster progress. Teachers in Reception and Year 1 classes keep detailed, diagnostic, helpful reading records showing what books have been read, the level of understanding of the text and the phonics which pupils are finding difficult to remember and use. This information is useful when assessing pupils' progress over time and re-visiting reading skills previously taught. Pupils try hard with their writing. They begin to write sentences about themselves and family events using the correct initial letters. One pupil wrote ?'h wt h' which the teacher wrote as ?'he went home' . Later in the year, the same pupil was able to write ?' I go doc' meaning ?'I go to Dockside' . Progress is good in the development of spelling, using phonics and, in Year 2, most of the pupils can spell common consonant-vowel-consonant words correctly. In Year 2, higher attaining pupils write fluently with a good sense of story and a feeling for audience. Work is punctuated with full stops, capital letters, commas and speech marks, although their use is inconsistent.
The wrong tenses of verbs are often used. For example ?'standed' instead of ?'stood', although this level of usage is consistent with the level of their spoken English. The content of writing is usually news or the retelling of well-known stories. Teachers try to develop the pupils' imaginative writing in the Literacy Hour through asking pupils to change the endings of stories. Examples of this work show that the strategy is helping some pupils to write more imaginatively. Teachers mark written work carefully, putting positive comments to encourage pupils, suggestions for improvements and reminders about how the individual literacy targets are being met. The high quality input, which teachers give in writing lessons, helps all pupils to learn. Teachers are creative in the resources used. In a Year 1 class, a frog hand puppet, which has difficulty with his vowels, helps pupils to identify vowels and spell correctly. In the Year 2 lower attaining class, reading ?'Handa's Surprise', the teacher had real fruit and toy animals to help pupils understand and remember the story. In their writing tasks, pupils were able to read the texts by referring back to the real objects. Learning is encouraged and reinforced through a great variety of well - planned activities. Standards in writing are below average with just under half of the pupils reaching the expected Level 2.
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While they were meant to be on the look out for potential terrorists, Col? Silly sausages, so they SHOULD be stood down!
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