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Poetry
Intent
We are committed to developing a love of reading. Alongside our class picture books, novels and non-fiction books, we have two class poetry books to be shared throughout the year. These are a starting point, and teachers can add to the core books throughout the year to further develop children’s exposure and enjoyment of poetry.
Through sharing, reading, writing and performing rhymes and poems, we aim to build children’s emotional connection to language and the world around us.
Each year group will encounter a varied selection of poems in reading lessons, where vocabulary and meaning can be explored and explained, together with the development of children’s wider reading skills. Poetry also forms part of our writing curriculum and each year group from Year 1 onwards, has different forms of poetry to explore, perform and compose over a two-year rolling cycle. This allows children the opportunity to learn more about how poetry can be structured and to write their own poems using a wide range of poetic devices. Children are encouraged to perform their own poetry alongside the poems learnt by their year group.
Poems are also used throughout our curriculum to develop vocabulary, fluency and prosody, imagination and empathy. Wherever they are encountered in school, our children are urged to form opinions about their own likes and dislikes and to understand and explain their preferences and respect the thoughts and feelings of others.
We have identified a core set of poems for each year group. Each year group will learn by heart a poem a term to be performed and shared with their peers, parents or visitors. Children will also be encouraged to revisit poems previously learnt. We also seek opportunities throughout the year for children to watch or hear poets reciting and discussing their own work.
Impact
· Developing a poetry friendly classroom and school that inspires, excites and enthuses children and celebrates the value of poetry and language.
· Knowing about and being confident to write and read poetry in a range of models. Understanding that there are many forms, shapes and sizes of poetry and it doesn’t always have to rhyme!
· Providing many and varied opportunities to lift poems from the page and bring them to life – reading poetry aloud, performing, dramatising, joining in and hearing poets perform their own work.
· Encouraging talk about and connecting to children’s personal experience, giving children permission and opportunities to share and write about themselves, their feelings and important events using poetic forms.
· Developing teachers’ knowledge, confidence and expertise in their own poetry repertoire and about the teaching of poetry.
· Building poetry into every aspect of the curriculum and not limiting the study or writing of poetry to the literacy curriculum.
· Appreciating that poetry study supports reading, phonics and language development across all year groups.
· Working with professional poets so that children can understand the process of poetry creation, performance and presentation.
· Understanding the importance of art, drama, music and dance to support and enhance children’s
· poetry writing and develop responses.
· Giving children’s own poetry an audience using a variety of forms.