English

This year, in the Little Lions Early Years Centre, we have continued to focus on communication and language as it is the key to learning and social development. Every half term, the children have explored language-rich core texts from which exciting activities and role-play areas have been planned carefully to encourage and enable the children to use language at every opportunity throughout their day.

In Lion Cubs, irresistible activities and experiences are set up so that our children can learn with their caring adults alongside them modelling language. During the toddler years, our children learn to speak - a significant developmental milestone which is a very exciting and proud time for every family. We share this joy knowing that children who speak well in their home language will have a wonderful foundation on which to learn English. This year, we have optimised language-learning by teaching Key Word Signs which correspond to our children’s precious first words. We teach signs for words such as ‘please’, ‘thank you’, ‘where’ and ‘stop’. We have shared these with parents so that the children can learn with their families at home which helps them remember, understand better and begin to communicate successfully.

This year in Pre Nursery, it has been fantastic to see how the children’s early language skills have continued to develop. We have enjoyed building close relationships with the children, which has helped us to support them with developing both their home language and their English language development. We have carefully planned and created exciting learning environments, which have encouraged the children to communicate and build their vocabulary through their play. This year, the children have enjoyed pretending to be at the airport, the train station, being a vet and playing in the cafe. The children have enjoyed listening to exciting stories, songs and rhymes throughout the year to immerse them in the English language. It is always wonderful to see which stories and songs have become the children’s favourites. In Nursery this year, we have seen huge levels of development with regards to the children’s listening, understanding and the use of both their home and English language. The core texts we have used this year have been chosen carefully to engage and inspire the children and key phrases from these books have often been heard from the children during their play. Julia Donaldson’s Room on the Broom has been a particular favourite! In Nursery, the children have also started to enjoy learning phonics. This, alongside a wealth of mark making opportunities, begins their pathway to early reading and writing skills. It has been wonderful to see the growth of their confidence with the use of language and how this has played such a key role in their year in Nursery.

It has been amazing to see the progress that Reception children have made in all areas of their English learning. We understand how mastery of spoken language leads to greater success in writing, so we have focused on developing their vocabulary and oral storytelling. We introduced a combination of Helicopter Stories and Tales Toolkit which gave the children an opportunity to tell their own imaginative stories incorporating characters, settings, problems and solutions. Watching their classmates acting out their own stories gave them a huge sense of pride and inspired them to write independently. We saw a significant increase in mark making confidence through the introduction of Greg Bottrill’s Message Centre and Drawing Club. Fairy doors magically appeared in our classrooms which sparked more child-initiated writing. There can be no doubt that our Reception children are ready to make their journey to Pre Prep.

In Pre Prep, a focus on writing has seen the children produce some brilliant work. The progression in writing skills has been clear to see as they journey from refining accurate sentences through oral retellings in Year 1, to creating sophisticated texts based on wordless narratives in Year 5. Critical thinking was a focus during reading sessions in the whole of Pre Prep.

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Year 1 loved writing stories based on some of their favourite books such as The Magic Finger by Roald Dahl and Tiddler by Julia Donaldson. Using drama and speaking activities, they have retold stories to develop their language skills, expression and confidence. Critical thinking was developed in reading by studying illustrations in books and asking insightful questions. It has been great to see Year 1 turn into confident readers with a real love for books. Year 2 has had an exciting year of storytelling. We have used the books Oi Get off our Train and Flotsam and Jetsam to inspire the children to write their own stories and playscripts. The children have learnt to plan and rehearse stories before writing them, using role-play and puppets to bring them to life. The children have perfected their editing skills by using ambitious new vocabulary and punctuation to create effects. Our topics have inspired non-fiction writing all about places such as Antarctica. What a successful year!

Some of the highlights in Year 3 English have included incredible newspaper reports on the mysterious egg discovery, persuasive letters to the Thai government about pollution and inspiringly creative quest myths based on the quest of Jason and the Golden Fleece. The children have developed a high level of vocabulary as well as practising and improving their

punctuation skills. They have enjoyed reading a variety of texts together through whole class reading, including The Mystery of The Whistling Caves and Krindlekrax. We are incredibly proud of the children’s enthusiasm, hard work and love for English.

In Year 4, the English lessons are centred around the whole class reading inspiring stories and our fantastic topics. The brilliant book, Kensuke’s Kingdom, inspired the children to write excellent dilemma stories and speaking and listening skills were developed through debates. After that, Year 4 took a trip through the amazing Amazon rainforest by reading the classic book, Journey to the River Sea. This inspired exciting stories set in an endangered rainforest and information texts about the threats to the Amazon. In Term 3, pupils wrote Ancient Greek myths and read about the exciting adventures of Percy Jackson in The Lightning Thief. Year 5 had an amazing learning experience in English this year. We have been writing excellent pieces across a wide range of genres including explanation texts on the formation of a waterfall, newspaper reports based on the book Friend or Foe, as well as amazing narratives on the video The Piano. Through whole class reading, every child engaged in high quality discussions and deepened their understanding of a range of sophisticated texts.

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In March, we had another fun-filled Book Week where we had many exciting activities for the children. These included having mystery readers visit classrooms, a virtual author visit from Emma Cary, a house book quiz and a treasure hunt. We also saw some outstanding costumes as our children dressed up as their favourite book characters. We are also very proud of the 33 Pre Prep students from Year 2 to Year 5 who took part in the prestigious English Speaking Board examinations in April. This assessment marked the end of the students’ commitment and effort in our ESB activity which developed students’ advanced speech, language and presentation skills.

Prep English students have enjoyed a year full of exciting opportunities to develop their language skills, focusing particularly on reading and listening. At the beginning of the year, we welcomed Mrs Godwin in her new role as the Second in English Prep Phase. She has continued building the reading culture in Prep and has been working with the English teachers on Accelerated Reader and guided reading. We have been incredibly impressed with student progress. Not only did most students make accelerated progress in their reading ages, but by March, we already had 30 stu-

dents who had read over a million words each. What an achievement!

The start of March saw yet another fantastic Book Week celebration, which included a highly popular readathon, a virtual visit from Candy Gourlay (a writer shortlisted for the highly prestigious Carnegie Medal) and a special treat for our Word Millionaires; a brunch with the Head Master. Our students also competed in the Kids’ Lit Quiz against teams of students from schools across Bangkok. Our students have been busy in their English lessons too. Year 6 studied Greek Mythology, which has, over the centuries, inspired many writers. Year 6 wrote letters to Prometheus, a news article on the opening of Pandora’s box and a story adaptation of Perseus and Medusa. They also had the opportunity to debate whether gaming is terrible or terrific as well as exploring dragon myths from Asia and Europe, answering the question, ‘Do dragons exist?’ and acting out parts from a variety of Shakespeare’s plays. Year 7 students have excelled this year, learning about the conventions of travel writing, developing amazing holiday destination brochures and writing a collection of poetry based around the theme of family. The study of The Hobbit generated a lot of enthusiasm among the students, who absolutely loved creating The Hobbit book trailers for Y6s to share with their future learning journey with them.

Finally, Year 8 students have been developing their creative and analytical skills ready for their move into SR5. They started the year writing autobiographical diary entries in the character of an important figure from history and studied Macbeth, developing analytical and debating skills on who was most to blame for King Duncan’s murder in the play. They have also had the opportunity to engage with a range of non-fiction and poetry, surrounding issues of social injustice and prejudice, creating poems to reflect their personal experiences. Overall, we are incredibly proud of our Prep students and the progress they have made this academic year.

Once again, students in SR5 English have had a busy and productive year, building on their analytical skills from Prep and developing critical thinking by engaging with ambitious texts. The big initiative this year was extending the Accelerated Reader programme to Year 9 as we encourage our students to become lifelong readers,

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enjoying reading for pleasure. We also worked hard to review our Year 9 curriculum. The students had the opportunity to explore historical and current global world events and social justice issues as part of their study of non-fiction texts. We were incredibly proud of the Year 9 students who took part in Poetry Recitals and wrote their own spoken word poems whilst studying online. Their maturity and engagement with social justice themes were remarkable. Year 9 were also given the opportunity to explore the links between Thai and British culture and themes of class and power as part of their study of the play An Inspector Calls.

Year 10 developed their IGCSE First Language and Literature skills. They engaged well with critical and creative writing and reading skills through the study of set texts and wider reading. These included 1984 and the poems of Carol Ann Duffy, the UK’s first female Poet Laureate. Year 11 students developed grit and determination by preparing for external examinations despite the climate

of uncertainty and the challenge of temporarily returning to online learning halfway through the course. Students also had the opportunity to engage with social justice ideas through their study of The Crucible and its religious, social, and political context.

Our A level teachers would like to recognise the resilience of the Year 12 and 13 English Literature students. This academic year has been a challenging one with the current global situation resulting in the cancellation of their exams. However, their enthusiasm, commitment and level of engagement in lessons has been fantastic throughout. We were impressed with how well students engaged with challenging texts with their emotional and difficult themes. A level students studied The Kite Runner, which deals with the experiences of war and religious conflict, as well as The Handmaid’s Tale and Streetcar Named Desire, which explore the themes of power and misogyny, alongside Shakespeare’s classic tragedies such as Hamlet and Othello, as well as Victorian poetry. This year we have continued our development of a more targeted model of language support through the English for Academic Progress curriculum area. This programme places a huge emphasis on supporting English as an additional language and has been designed specifically to support individual learners who have had less exposure to English. This has enabled them to acquire the language skills required to succeed across the curriculum. It has been most pleasing to celebrate the achievements of the significant number of learners who have succeeded in developing their language proficiency and have progressed on from the English for Academic Progress programme this academic year.

At the end of the year, we are saddened to say goodbye to a number of well established members of staff: Miss Dava, Mrs Kench, Mr Pearce and Mr Tasker, while Mr Howe will move to his exciting new role in the US library. We would like to say a huge thank you for all their hard work and dedication over the years. We will miss them!