Subject Leader: Mrs C Gardner

Assistant Leader: Miss M McDonald

At Cumran Primary School we aim to help children develop a love and a curiosity for Language and Literacy. Literacy is at the heart of the NI curriculum and is developed through an integrated approach to the acquisition of talking, listening, reading and writing skills.

Our focus is to develop each child's ability to understand and use language as an integral part of learning in all areas. At Cumran we aim to provide a safe and caring environment in which every child feels secure, can work happily and benefit from a literacy curriculum rich in stimulating, educational experiences. We firmly believe that the development of effective language and literacy is crucial to living and learning.

In Literacy we are focusing on the development of writing through the use of thinking frameworks. Thinking frameworks are consistent visual patterns linked directly to eight specific thought processes. Eric Jensen in his book, Brain Based Learning, (1996) told us that 90% of all information that comes into our brain is visual.  Many studies have demonstrated the powerful effect that visual representations have on learning and memory. Visual thinking frameworks are being used in Cumran to aid in the development of a range of writing types and we can see how children benefit from this visual approach to learning. Take a look at our videos from a parent workshop in the TSPC section of our website on the use of thinking frames and the development of writing using thinking tools made by our pupils.   

World Book Day

To celebrate World Book Day, the pupils took part in a number of activities including a Pyjama Day to share our favourite bedtime reads,  visits from people in the local community who shared their favourite reads, a book scavenger hunt around the school grounds and a World Book Day Quiz.

In addition to this, the pupils all received a wooden spoon to decorate as their favourite book character.  Everyone has been so creative with their spoon designs for World Book Day. It was lovely to see the imagination in these beautiful creations and we were very impressed with all of the hard work.

It has been a very difficult competition to judge! Mrs Hughes from our Board of Governors had the hard task of selecting first and second prize. We were so impressed with the creativity and the hard work, that all children received a little chocolate treat for their efforts. Well done to all the boys and girls.

Take a look at our prize winners from each class below.

Inspiring children to read

We  encourage our pupils to read widely and often. Our children love to visit the school library and choose new books to read and complete quizzes on from our Accelerated Reader Programme.

Take a look below at some of our favourite reads!