St Martin's Primary School

Language and Literacy

Language and Literacy at Foundation Stage

Literacy focuses on developing each child’s ability to understand and use language, both spoken and written, as an integral part of learning in all areas. The development of language and literacy is crucial to living and learning. Language is used to communicate with people, to share and express feelings, to give and obtain information and to understand ideas and develop thoughts.

Language and literacy are considered in a holistic way, taking account of the integral nature of the areas of Talking and Listening, Reading and Writing which extend across all areas of the curriculum.

Language and Literacy at Key Stage 1 and 2

Literacy focuses on developing each child’s ability to understand and use language as an integral part of learning in all areas in order to interact effectively with the world around them, to express themselves creatively and to communicate confidently (through Talking and Listening, Reading and Writing) using a variety of skills and media. Language and Literacy are fundamental prerequisites for thinking, learning and interacting in personal, social and work contexts throughout life. Literacy is therefore a key to learning as well as a key to enjoyment and personal growth.

Literacy Displays around our School

Term 2 Accelerated Reader Prize winners

Congratulations to the following children who received certificates and an Easter treat for super participation in Accelerated Reading during Term 2.

The winners were:

P4: Daire McManus

P5: Aodhan Flanagan (SN) and Dan Keown (MG)

P6: Bella Keaney

P7: Saorlaith Flanagan

Also a big well done to all the children who met their AR targets for this term.

Irish News Young Readers Project -2025

This year all primary seven children took part in the Irish News Young Readers programme. The Irish News Young News Readers Media Project provides a weekly School Edition newspaper accompanied by an educational resource booklet to aid the development of literacy skills and critical thinking at Key Stage 2. The primary seven children completed surveys about their opinions on the programme at the end. They felt they learnt more about respect, what is happening in other parts of the world, football and nutrition. They enjoyed getting to read a paper, the illustrations, completing the hot seating tasks and learning about new places. To make the programme even more beneficial they suggested more articles on farming and football, more interactive tasks and group reading sessions.

World Book Day 2025

Well done to all the children for the creativity and effort they put into World Book Day this year. We saw some amazing costumes from book characters and some beautiful story jars. Winners were picked on the day for the best costumes and jars which was a very difficult decision.