Latin
BackDeveloping the children’s understanding of vocabulary through the explicit teaching of vocabulary is a whole school priority. Research shows vocabulary size to be one of the strongest indicators of future academic success, and our work with the children on this has been extremely successful not just in improving the children’s vocabulary, but also in increasing their interest in words, improving their ability to read and understand more complex texts and in having a positive impact on the quality of their writing. Etymology (the study of the origin of a word) is an integral part of this and helps hugely with understanding more complex language and texts and as many as 60% of English words come from Latin (this is over 90% of vocabulary in sciences and technology). Therefore we have chosen for all the children in years 3 - 6 to learn Latin as our foreign language. The children find this very helpful to make links in their learning in their reading lessons, benefit them academically in all subjects and also when they learn about the Ancient Romans.
Knollmead on the radio!
In July 2024, some of our senior choir pupils recorded our own radio programme on Surrey Hills Community Radio. Enhancing both our performing arts and languages curricula, the children from Years 4, 5 and 6 presented a show entitled 'The Knollmead Stories': 9 famous tales from Classical Rome and Greece with fundamental morals and messages for our lives today! All our pupils study Latin at Key Stage 2 in order to develop and deepen their grasp of English vocabulary and the structure of language: over 50% of our English lexicon derives from Latin, whilst Latin grammar is well-renowned for providing a very comprehensive understanding of how words and sentences are constructed. The stories also link beautifully to our school values of ambition, inclusivity and resilience: three vital life skills which underpin everything we do at Knollmead. You can listen to the show at any time online by clicking this link!
