SPEAKING AND LISTENING AT ST PAULS PRIMARY SCHOOL

Parents
Parents

St Pauls Primary School held its first Speaking and Listening workshop on Monday 17 February 2014. 

A presentation began the evening, which referred to the importance of speaking and listening in the curriculum and the aim of the night, which was to understand strategies taught at school and to transfer that into learning at home.

Sherell Thomas (Advanced Skills Teacher) highlighted that speaking and listening can be learnt and conveyed across a number of subjects – Maths, Science, Physical Education and Art.

With around 24 parents in attendance, the workshop ran a carousel of activities, consisting of spelling, listening and responding, promoting reading skills and role play.

Throughout the evening parents were shown short clips and asked a variety of questions in relation to listening and responding.  A debate of well-known TV and book characters got parents into the idea of role play and a spelling test was given to develop parents understanding of phonics.

Head Teacher, Pat Williams commented:   

Parents discussing role play
Parents discussing role play

“Parents are always asking for workshops to help their children at home.  These are very important and help educate our parents on strategies used in the classroom today compared to the days when they were at school. We have already had a Maths workshop last year and tonight it is an English one.

“It is such a shame when parents evenings are held, and you do not get the numbers you are looking for.  But it is pleasing to note that those who do attend appreciate the hard work staff put into delivering these workshops.”

Cara Joshua (parent) said:

“As English is not one of my child’s favourite subjects, it’s important to learn different techniques for me to use to encourage and help when doing homework.  The way children learn today is very different from when I went to school.  I have picked up new concepts, such as phonology (where some letters are commonly grouped together, and how to pronounce them).

“It also helps that when parents attend workshops, we can see that we are not alone in trying to understand new approaches of teaching children important skills within the English curriculum.”  

The evening rounded of with an evaluation, where parents were encouraged to assess the night and give ideas on improving workshops in the future.  Overall the evening showed that communication between school and home is vital.

Two pictures are attached with this release.

SHG

18 February 2014 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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