Literacy is taught in the forms of reading and writing at Strathmore and is one of the most crucial subjects in our school day. We work hard to inspire and engage our children with exciting books and stimulus to encourage a real love for reading and writing at Strathmore school.

We highly value reading as a key life skill and are dedicated to enabling pupils to become lifelong readers. We do this through reading vocabulary rich material, learning through sensory stories, guided reading session, listening and understanding skills and shared story times. We intend to encourage pupils to read widely across both fiction and non-fiction to develop knowledge of themselves and the world in which they live; to establish a love of reading; to gain knowledge and ensure access to the wider curriculum; and develop communication skills.

At Strathmore School, we aim for pupils to develop a love of words, a love of written language, and appreciate writing as something that is done for pleasure, as well as purpose. All children from are provided with many opportunities to develop and apply their writing skills in all areas of the curriculum. This skill sits firmly in physical and motor development. It is recognised by professionals that to perform mark-making and handwriting, learners first need to develop physical skills such as hand-eye co-ordination; muscle memory; body control; pencil grasp and letter formation. Handwriting involves many complex skills such as knowledge of the letters of the alphabet and visual, perceptual skills.

The design of the curriculum considers the necessary physical and motor skills progression needed for learners to be able to make marks that may eventually lead to writing letters and words or lead to greater accuracy when using their preferred method of recording using technology.