We want the children at St. Mary’s to develop a love of reading and writing from their very first day at school and throughout their time at school.

Reading and writing are central to the school day. All children read in school every day and in many different ways. They might read silently, or read with an adult in a guided reading group. Others may read an e-book or complete an activity or book review based on their latest book.

We know that children need to have meaningful reasons, motivations and audiences for their writing. We provide them with a range of life experiences and educational visits to extend and enrich their learning, giving them something to want to write about.

A very important part of the day is our class story, a carefully chosen novel read aloud by the class teacher.

We also encourage children to read at home every evening as part of their home learning.

We also encourage children to use their home languages at school and our teachers have shared some of the strategies they use with other teachers around Ireland by filming videos with the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment for the Primary Language Curriculum toolkit.