Communication & Language
"Communication and language skills are vital for your child's development. These skills will affect their future life chances and relationships. It can also impact your child's ability to learn, make friends and develop ideas and opinions." NHS
Introduction to the Communication and Language Curriculum
Secure communication and language skills are prioritised in our school as they bedrock of all subjects within St. Luke’s. Being competent and confident in these areas lays the foundation for a successful future for our children and it is essential that these skills are nurtured and developed at every stage of their schooling.
Language is fundamental to life and without it, limits experiences, reduces positive and purposeful interactions and creates additional challenge. Having a large bank of vocabulary helps children learn more. Words allow them to make sense of the world around them and therefore opens the doors of opportunity throughout their lives. Going hand in hand with language skills, communication skills are essential. If children cannot communicate effectively, they are limited in all areas of their school life, not only with regard to academic progression, but socially, emotionally and spiritually, too.
This is why we believe that, by fostering and developing the acquisition and understanding of communication and language skills, our children can effectively use with words, share their emotions and communicate appropriately through body language, too. In turn, they will thrive and prosper, not only throughout their primary school careers, but- and perhaps more importantly- in their futures beyond.
To summarise, Communication and Language skills are:
Foundational for learning and development
- Academic success, literacy and critical thinking and overall development
Essential for social and emotional well-being
- Building relationships, emotional regulation and confidence and participation
Important for lifelong success
- Career prospects, making sense of the world and informing life choices
Communication and Language Overview
At St. Luke's, we have embarked on a new curriculum to teach and improve skills needed to communicate effectively and use language confidently.
From EYFS through to Key Stage Two, children will be taught skills that will positively impact their lives and their futures.
Split in to 5 strands, Communication and Language runs through every aspect of school life. It is our aim that within the teaching of these five areas, all children will be better equipped to communicate both in school, and beyond:
- Conversation / Appropriate Interactions (including how we interact with and speak to others)
- Debate and Critical Thinking (including skills broken down into year group objectives, ready to built towards the Debate Mate curriculum, now in Year 5 and Year 6- previously only Year 6)
- Presentation / Performance (including Class Assemblies and Productions)
- Feelings / Emotions / Understanding Others (including being able to understand and control emotions)
- Vocabulary (knowing that the more words we know, helps us to communicate effectively and with greater purpose)
We look forward to sharing more information about this exciting new curriculum in due course.