Subject Leadership

Subject Leader

Hello there! My name is Mrs Bidwell and I lead English at Frenchwood Community Primary School. I genuinely love to discover new and exciting fiction which I can then share with teachers and children.

One of the best bits of my job is reading the class novel. I love to choose some of my favourite books and then hold a class vote to decide our next novel. This is one of many ways that children are able to access a variety of fiction at Frenchwood.

I am passionate about reading for pleasure and sharing this with children across Frenchwood. One of the most enjoyable aspects of English is leading the FBA (Fantastic Book Awards) Year 6 reading group. In FBA, we share, read and review a range of exciting, new stories as well as choosing our group favourite. 

In 2022, I began our Oracy journey with Voice 21 working with Miss Hindle in key stage 1. We shared the good practice we learnt with Voice 21 across the school. We now encourage children to use sentence stems in our class discussions as well as forming our Oracy trios and circles. We also play Oracy games which help support children to develop their physical oracy skills such as volume, eye contact and body language as well as developing the social strand of oracy where we respond to the ideas of others as well as inviting others to join in the discussion.

I feel that enabling children to communicate effectively is crucial to their confidence and self-development. When children can express their thoughts and feelings, this leads to an improvement in their wellbeing whilst benefitting attainment.