St Peter in Thanet CE Junior School St Peter-in-Thanet CE Junior School

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1 Reviewed April 2010 St Peter in Thanet CE Junior School St Peter-in-Thanet CE Junior School LITERACY POLICY At St Peter in-thanet Junior School we believe that language and literacy is fundamental to the overall development of the child and their access to the curriculum in all its aspects. We aim to deliver quality teaching of basic and higher order reading, writing, speaking and listening skills to enable children to become confident and successful in their literacy, and the application of skills across the wider curriculum and in later life. We follow the New Literacy Framework and other guidance to enable quality learning and teaching to take place. We want all our pupils by the end of Year Six to be able to: - read and write with confidence, fluency and understanding; - be able to orchestrate a full range of reading cues (phonic, graphic, syntactic, contextual) to monitor their reading and correct their mistakes; - understand the sound and spelling system and use this to read and spell accurately; - have fluent and legible handwriting; - have an interest in words and their meaning and a growing vocabulary; - know, understand and be able to write in a range of genres in fiction and poetry, and understand and be familiar with some of the ways in which narratives are structured through basic literary ideas of setting, character and plot; - understand, use and be able to write a range of non-fiction texts; - plan, draft, revise and edit their own writing; - have a suitable technical vocabulary through which to understand and discuss their reading and writing; -be interested in books, read with enjoyment and evaluate and justify their preferences; - through reading and writing, develop their powers of imagination, inventiveness and critical awareness. 1

2 - Objectives: To develop effective Speaking and listening skills, pupils should be taught to; - use, with increasing confidence, the vocabulary and grammar of standard English, - formulate, clarify and express their ideas, - express themselves in a variety of situations and contexts using language which is appropriate to their needs and the intended audience, - listen, understand and respond appropriately to others. To develop as effective readers, pupils should be taught to: - develop their initial reading skills so that they become independent and enthusiastic readers, - find out the information they need in order to research and answer a range of questions, - read a range of texts accurately, fluently and with understanding, - understand and respond to a wide range of books and media texts, - read, analyse and evaluate a wide range of texts, including literature from the English literary heritage and from other cultures and traditions, - understand the variety of written language, and the difference between fiction and non-fiction. To develop as effective writers, pupils should be taught to: - express themselves clearly and precisely for enjoyment, - demonstrate their understanding of how writing enables them to remember, communicate, organise and develop their ideas and information, - develop ideas and communicate meaning to a reader, using a wide ranging vocabulary and effective style, organising and structuring sentences grammatically and whole texts coherently, - write neatly and with accurate spelling and expression, - understand the appropriate use and purpose of an increasing range of written forms, - make use of the expected key features, layout and structure of the full range of non-fiction texts, - write for an increasing range of purposes, matching their language to the needs of the appropriate audience, 2

3 Structure, Organisation and Planning: Teaching and learning at St Peter s Junior School is based on the structure of the Revised Literacy Framework. It is important to remember that the National Curriculum in English is much broader so it is necessary to develop some aspects of English, such as speaking and listening and cross-curricular writing outside of literacy lessons. In addition it has been decided that Guided Reading sessions should take place outside of the literacy lesson (on a daily basis where possible - for mins). During these sessions the teacher works with a focus group whilst the remaining children work independently on a structured variety of activities related to reading. In planning - St Peter s Junior School does not adhere to a single scheme, but draws on the strengths of a variety of materials, including media, ICT and production of own support material where appropriate. Planning is driven by the key objectives and expectations from the individual units of work laid down within the Revised Literacy framework. Teachers then design the activities to meet the particular objective and the individual needs of the children, making specific links to other curricular areas where appropriate. This approach allows for individual teacher initiative and offers more scope for teaching and learning to take place whilst maintaining progression and consistency across each year group and across the school as a whole. Long / Medium Term Plans These are defined in the Revised Literacy Framework, and highlight the particular genre of writing to be explored - in response to this, the unit will cover these themes using the full breadth of the literacy curriculum. These plans should identify the genre to be studied over the unit block, and suggest possible activities using the 3-phase planning approach this aims to lead the children through the genre by highlighting the key features of the text type, familiarising the children through reading a variety of examples. The second phase should identify a range of possible contexts for using this genre and enable the children to plan use of the key features in an appropriate context. The final stage is the application of the first 2 stages. Having become familiar with the expected layout, structure and key features, and having planned suitable ideas, the children will then apply their understanding in writing, shaping and editing their written responses. Short Term Plans: These are weekly plans drawn up by the individual class teachers that identify the specific text focus for the week s work, as well as the Learning Intention (expressed in the form of an I CAN statement), relevant success criteria (generated by the children through shared discussion, where appropriate), shared, guided and independent tasks. These plans also identify the 3

4 resources required for teaching and learning, and identify daily differentiation and specific group focus. The teaching of literacy in our school will include: - explicitly taught and planned sessions following the guidance and objectives of the New Literacy Framework; - genre overviews to identify the success criteria of each unit of work and weekly plans tailored to the needs of our children; - word level work with explicit weekly teaching of spelling strategies and rules and phonics where required (especially in year 3); -sentence level work led by quality texts to develop grammatical awareness and punctuation skills; - text level work involving reading a wide range of genre to develop comprehension skills and scaffold writing; - a range of text types, including cross-curricular writing, modelled to promote sustained composition; - handwriting and presentational skills taught to encourage a clear, fluent, legible style of handwriting; - immersion in a print-rich environment that promotes a reading culture and develops speaking and listening. Phonics: It is our plan (as of Sept 2010) to follow the programme: Letters and Sounds which encapsulates the reading review recommendations led by Jim Rose, (refer to the Rose Report for further details). Phonics using this approach will then be taught where necessary across the key stage (with particular emphasis on year 3). Letters and Sounds is a powerful teaching tool which ensures that young children will be well-placed to read and spell words with fluency and confidence. The Letters and Sounds programme teaches synthetic phonics and is available to parents on request. Spelling. Dedicated time is allocated for teaching and investigating spelling weekly within literacy lessons as well as word level work linking to a related text in the main literacy session. As of September 2010 we will be using the structure as laid out in the Support for Spelling document. This should include: 5 short starter sessions (5-15 mins) over a two week period. The sequence though is designed to be used flexibly; (the number of sessions spent on each part of the sequence will vary according to the needs and ability of the children). During each term, ten sessions should be used for teaching the specific spelling objective and five sessions should be used for the direct teaching of 4

5 spelling strategies, proof-reading, high-frequency words, and specific crosscurricular words. Therefore over a six-week term, there will be approximately ten sessions devoted to the spelling focus and five sessions devoted to broader spelling activities (that could be supplemented by making use of the ideas within the Curriculum Visions resources). (The suggested sequence is the same for every age group and every term). Within spelling we aim for pupils to be able to: - Make explicit mention of PHONICS?? - attempt words for themselves using a range of strategies - write an increasing range of words from memory. - Use a variety of resources to help with spelling eg: dictionaries, word banks, classroom environment, computer spell-checks. - Develop an understanding of spelling patterns through investigations and identifying the exceptions to those rules. - Understand that some prefixes and suffixes can change the meaning of the words. - Use a range of strategies to learn spellings, especially those misspelt in their own work. Sentence level work This includes grammatical awareness, sentence construction, punctuation and the higher skills of grammar. This is taught directly through quality texts, modelled examples and investigation. Grammar for Writing is used where appropriate alongside personal writing, children s examples and participative activities. Sentence level work is taught through the main literacy session and at other times where required. Reading We believe in developing a reading culture throughout the school by creating welcoming book areas in classrooms, a purpose built well stocked school library, and raising the profile of reading through a print rich environment, attractive book displays and promoting the written word at all times. Daily Guided Reading sessions are held across the school, where timetable restraints allow. In each class children are placed in ability groups for reading and read a wide range of reading books. This method of guided reading ensures children are taught a range of reading skills which they practise at school and home. Children are also able to take home a reading book to read to their parent/carer daily. Reading is taught through: 1. Whole class reading that develops listening skills, a love of story and reading for pleasure. This is teacher-led reading with children listening and responding to questions, predictions and vocabulary choices as appropriate to the level of 5

6 the children. In all year groups this should happen regularly, where appropriate within timetable constraints. 2. Shared reading that immerses children in the pattern of story and features of text types. This happens in literacy sessions when introducing text and prior to writing. The teacher models as an expert reader and draws out the key elements of the content. 3. Guided reading that targets children s reading skills. Guided reading takes place in small groups with teacher input using a text targeted at a particular ability group. Each class has its own sets of guided reading texts, that include a wide variety of ability, interest and genre. These daily sessions (where possible) are organised into a carousel of five book related activities, which may include: reading topic books, comics and magazines, completing a reading journal linked to individual reading and reading with the teacher. 4. Independent reading in school and at home. Books are sent home with a reading record or log for communication with parents. Books are changed whenever necessary by teaching assistants or teachers. Children may choose their own book to take home and these are changed regularly. Some children are also given scheme books to further support their reading skills. 5 The reading environment. The print rich environment encourages children to interact with displays, to follow instructions and signs, promoting functional language. Within the classroom the reading area is attractive and inviting, books are clearly accessible. Themed displays are encouraged along with opportunities to write book reviews and show homemade books. Books are also displayed and promoted around the classroom and the whole learning environment of the school. 6 The school library provides reference and reading materials. Each class visits the library every week, and the pupils are encouraged to read and exchange their books regularly. The school also encourages all children to join and use their local library. Writing We believe that writing should be a creative/developmental process both at a functional and an imaginative level. All attempts at writing are valued and we know that all children have potential to be successful writers. Immersion in reading, talk and preparation for writing is essential to the writing development process. Writing is taught through: 6

7 1. Shared writing that is modelled by the teacher as the expert writer with contributions from the children. This is teacher-led writing with children watching and contributing ideas. Shared writing is not exclusive to literacy sessions and can be taught within Foundation subjects. The emphasis may be on the generation of ideas, grammatical awareness, spelling and phonics, compositional, transcriptional, presentational and text level skills or other key strategies needed in writing. Not all of these can be modelled in one session, but the teacher as the expert writer leads the cumulative writing process. 2. Guided writing that targets children at their point of writing. Guided writing takes place in small groups with a teaching focus using targets and writing already modelled. The main part of the session is spent by the child writing with the adult intervening as appropriate. 3. Independent writing. Throughout the school children need opportunities to develop their confidence and practise their writing skills. All writing activities should have a purpose and quality should be promoted through book making, publication or presentation to another audience. Writing is modelled and supported in the hope of developing quality, thoughtful writing. Independent writing is supported through the use of dictionaries, word banks, writing frames or plans and alphabet cards as appropriate. 4. Writing environment. The school environment celebrates quality writing through displays of work in both handwritten and typed form as well as signs and labels. Opportunities for writing are planned for and accessible throughout the learning environment and school day. As part of encouraging a writing environment that sees pupils aiming their work at a real audience, and real life context we hold an annual writing competition, to tie in with the spring term parents evening, in order to celebrate the pupils work in the form of an exhibition. Handwriting It is important for the pupils to be able to write clearly and develop a fluent and legible handwriting style. We aim for pupils to be able to: - use the cursive formation described and modelled in Suzanne Tiburtius book Write on target, which follows on from KS1 model used at Callis Grange - form letters correctly - use upper and lower case letters appropriately - continue to use a joined style from year 3 - use a correct and comfortable pencil/pen grip 7

8 Speaking and listening In line with the New Literacy Framework, we believe that speaking and listening is fundamental to children s development and that confidence in this area is essential to be successful in all areas of literacy. The four strands to speaking and listening are: 1. speaking; 2. listening and responding; 3. group discussion and interaction 4. drama. These oral skills are directly taught, modelled and sensitively encouraged in whole class and small group settings. Opportunities across the whole curriculum are planned for and developed. Children play an active part in presentations, topic talks, group discussions, debates and drama activities on a weekly basis. We follow the guidance and ideas from the New Literacy Framework to support the teaching and learning of speaking and listening. Digital videos, tapes and photos are a means of capturing progress and keeping records. Assessment At St Peter-in-Thanet we use A.P.P. (Assessing Pupils Progress)to assess the children s writing ability 3 x annually. Teachers will select 6 children who are in their own class and also in their Literacy set, these children should ideally be spread across the ability range within the set. Using the A.P.P. approach staff will look in depth at these 6 pupils and use these level judgements to assess the full range of pupils within their literacy set. In May each year, we also complete SATS / optional SATS tests in each year group in order to assess the pupils against National Curriculum level descriptors in writing, reading and spelling, and these results are communicated to parents through the end of year report. From A.P.P. outcomes staff will set class literacy targets each term and discuss these with children so that they are clear how they can make progress across the next term. Both these assessments are used to inform planning and to target teaching to the needs of the children as well as to track progress. Formal assessments across the school are monitored regularly by the Assessment Coordinator to check assessment is happening and to record results for tracking. The Literacy Coordinator monitors this data, to check it is meaningful, relevant, shows progress, matches to the policy and planning and for evaluation of learning and teaching. Regular marking of children s writing is also completed by the teacher providing a positive comment that is specifically linked to the Learning 8

9 Objective, and a target, where necessary in order to move children on in their writing. Reporting takes place three times a year during parents evenings, and annually through a comprehensive and detailed written report. Equal opportunities: All children have equal access to the English curriculum. Positive images in terms of gender and ethnicity are promoted throughout the school, both in the use of language and in the provision of resources. Health and Safety: Guidelines in the health and safety policy will apply with regard to the use of ICT, all school based activities and out of school activities related to English. ICT: Information and Communication Technology is used to enhance the learning experience and support effective teaching. All classes have an interactive whiteboard and computer and there is a computer suite available with one computer per child. This suite is available for use within literacy lessons once a week in each year group, and additional slots may be arranged where required. There are a range of writing and teaching programs on all computers to support the teaching and acquisition of literacy skills and for presentation of work. A flipchart, whiteboard or visualiser needs to be used for teacher modelling of writing, for handwriting and some Shared Writing sessions. Additional Events: Book Week: Book Week takes place in the autumn term when we organise events to promote reading and writing. Children write book reviews, stories, poetry and other artistic activities. A book fair is held which is very popular with children, parents and staff. Book Week ends with a character event where children and staff are invited to dress up as a book character. Writing Competition: An annual writing competition will be held, with the aim of encouraging and inspiring pupils across the school to develop their extended writing skills. This competition will have a particular theme to act as a stimulus and inspiration for the pupils writing. An exhibition of all the work will then be held to celebrate the pupils successes; this will take place to tie in with the spring parents evening. Time allocation: There are five allocated literacy hours per week in each class, which are identified on the timetable. Additional Guided Reading sessions will take place 9

10 in each class at least twice weekly, with additional sessions where timetable allows. The subject leader The Literacy Co-ordinator works in conjunction with the S.M.T. The role of the subject leader involves: - modelling good practice; - being responsible for the upgrading and ordering of resources and arranging for their storage; - keeping informed about developments and new initiatives to support the teaching of language and literacy and ensure staff are informed; - auditing needs and organise staff training; - training staff in teaching and learning of literacy; - monitoring planning on an annual basis with the head teacher; scrutiny of books and lesson observations with constructive feedback; - supporting teachers in planning and using resources; - organising an annual school book week and writing competition in collaboration with other staff; - updating the school policy when necessary. Resourcing: English funding will be within the school budget plan for each financial year. This policy was reviewed by the Literacy Co-ordinator, in April Policy Review: April