Intent:
At Greenhaugh Primary we love books and reading and we want our children to feel the same way!
A rigorous approach to teaching phonics supports excellent phonic knowledge and skills that can be applied across the curriculum.
Implementation:
We have a holistic approach to the teaching of reading and implement the following:
- We teach phonics using the synthetic phonics programme called ‘Read Write Inc’ (RWI). Daily lessons involve practising speed sounds, reading green (decodable) and red (non decodable) words, reading RWI stories and building fluency and comprehension. Writing is also incorporated into the programme; as well as using 'Fred talk' to teach spelling of green and red words children learn to 'hold a sentence' and then write it. Children work through progressive 'sets' of sounds in the phonics programme, learning and developing their phonic knowledge. If a child has not reached the expected standard at the end of KS1, RWI is used as an intervention in KS2 to reach their age-related expectation.
- Children have the opportunity to read with an adult four times each week. Any child identified as struggling with reading will read with an adult (or take part in an additional speed sounds practice) daily.
- Children are given access to a wide range of texts that are broadly age-related to match the National Curriculum, differentiated in order to develop confidence or challenge. All children are given a book to take home that is matched to their ability, encouraging them to practise their reading skills. Children still on the RWI programme read RWI books in school and RWI Book Bag books at home. Once RWI is completed they use the Big Cat Collins. Children are also able to choose library books that their grown up can share with them.
- Reading habits at home are monitored through our Home/School Diaries. We expect families to read books with their child on a daily basis and communicate with us in the Home/School Diary.
- Each classroom has a selection of books on display reflecting current learning or core class texts.
- We will write in the Home/School Diary each week, to let parents know about what reading has taken place in school and to give question prompts that parents might like to use at home.
- This offers opportunities for the children to apply their reading skills across the curriculum. We also have our well-stocked library and class bookshelves offering children a choice from a wide range of genres and authors.
- Within English lessons children access a range of high quality texts and they also have daily story time.
- We have a reading volunteer who works with children on a weekly basis.
Impact:
Our aim is for our children to become fluent readers by the end of KS1, developing their fluency and comprehension as they progress through the school. Regular reading with adults in school means that teachers are very aware as to the progress a child is making in reading. However, more formal assessments are made using the statutory assessments at the end of both Key Stages. These results are measured against the reading attainment of children nationally. Attainment in phonics is measured by the phonics screening test at the end of Year 1 and regular 6 weekly ‘Read Write Inc’ assessments are carried out to measure progress. Further up the school ‘Collins Big Cat’ assessments are used to inform Class Teachers of on-going progress and to select appropriate texts for each child.
By the time children leave Greenhaugh Primary, we aim for our children to be competent readers who achieve well in the statutory requirements but can also readily apply their reading skills in the wider world. We encourage our children to develop a love for reading and enter the magical world that texts can open up to them. Reading for pleasure is promoted as part of our reading curriculum and children are encouraged to experience a wide range of literature across a wide range of genres, cultures and styles. This is to encourage a love of author styles and a variety of texts and be able to review, compare and contrast what they read objectively and to be able to understand and make the most of our exciting world.
Intent:
At Greenhaugh Primary School, we endeavour to create a love for literacy. We want every child to leave us with the skills of an excellent writer who:
- Has the ability to write with fluency and has an author’s voice;
- Can think about the impact they want their writing to have on the reader and know how they will achieve this;
- Have a sophisticated bank of vocabulary and an excellent knowledge of writing techniques to extend details or description; be able to choose and use word order for emphasis or effect;
- Can structure and organise their writing to suit the genre they are writing and include a variety of sentence structures and appropriate lay out;
- Displays excellent transcription skills that ensure their writing is well presented, punctuated, spelled correctly and neat;
- Re-reads, edits and improves their writing so that every piece of writing they produce is to the best of their ability and better than the last.
Throughout their time at Greenhaugh Primary School, children develop their skills by exploring a whole range of different genres, with a focus on exploring a range of models of excellence and using these to guide the drafting and editing process. We also strive to develop a real enjoyment of writing in all subjects across the curriculum. We expect the highest standards of writing every time a child writes in any subject.
Implementation:
At Greenhaugh we recognise that the really effective writer will reach a stage when the mechanical aspects of writing, such as spelling and punctuation, become second nature to them. At this point children are able to give all their attention to experimenting with language and form to engage and inform their readers.
Staff embed and develop rules and strategies at the point of writing, allowing children to experiment, demonstrating and exploring the decisions writers make as the writing happens. Staff guide learners through the whole process (modelling the way a writer thinks through shared and guided writing sessions) so that the process becomes familiar and fully understood by all learners.
Effective teaching will focus on particular aspects of the writing process (e.g. planning an explanation, instructional writing, an argument or a story, or revising a draft to change and improve it).
At Greenhaugh we believe it is essential that teaching develops pupils’ competence. In addition, pupils are taught how to plan, revise and evaluate their writing. These aspects of writing have been incorporated into the programmes of study for composition.
To support this, in Class 1 children are taught to learn to write sentences by:
• saying out loud what they are going to write about
• composing a sentence orally before writing it
• sequencing sentences to form short narratives
• re-reading what they have written to check that it makes sense
• discuss what they have written with the teacher or other pupils
• read their writing aloud, clearly enough to be heard by their peers and the teacher
To develop their understanding of the basic skills;
• leaving spaces between words
• joining words and joining clauses using ‘and’ and other conjunctions
• beginning to punctuate sentences using a capital letter and a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark
• using a capital letter for names of people, places, the days of the week, and the personal pronoun ‘I’
Children are given the opportunity to develop positive attitudes towards and stamina for writing by:
• writing narratives about personal experiences and those of others (real and fictional)
• writing about real events
• writing poetry
• writing for different purposes
At Key Stage 2 children will develop a sustained fluency and stamina that allows them to create cohesive extended writing. They follow the process of:
• Planning
• Drafting
• Evaluate and edit
Children in Key Stage 2 will read their own writing aloud to a group or the whole class, using appropriate intonation and controlling the tone and volume so that the meaning is clear
Create immersion in the text; inspire enough to generate ideas, plan and write; for pupils to be able and confident to proof read and redraft;- Ensure that the vocabulary is taught, along with the spelling focus;
- Use trips and visiting experts to stimulate and focus creative writing experiences;
- Encourage publishing of children’s writing in various ways to appeal to a wider global audience
- understand and apply the fundamental principles of spelling, grammar and punctuation in their writing;
- evaluate, improve and redraft their writing:
- be competent, confident and creative writers;
- develop an author’s voice;
- develop competence in transcription (spelling and handwriting) and composition (articulating ideas and structuring them in speech and writing) at national expectation and at greater depth;
- use their writing skills in subjects across the curriculum;
- develop a love of writing as a means of communication and expression.