Literacy

Intent

At Staincliffe CE Junior school we believe that a quality Literacy curriculum is at the heart of everything we do, as not only is it taught in a daily discrete lesson, but it is the cornerstone of the entire curriculum.  Our main aim is to ensure that every child becomes primary literate and makes good progress from their starting points in reading, writing, speaking and listening.

We aim to inspire an appreciation of our rich and varied literary heritage and a joy of reading widely. We use a range of high quality texts where children are immersed in rich vocabulary. Through reading in particular, pupils have a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually.

We recognise the importance of nurturing a culture where children take pride in their writing, can write clearly and accurately, develop their own creativity and adapt their language and style for a range of contexts. We want to inspire children to be confident in the art of speaking and listening and who can use discussion both to communicate and further their own learning.

Implementation

Writing

To ensure high standards of teaching and learning in Writing, we implement a curriculum that is progressive and inclusive throughout the whole school.

Our Writing curriculum is delivered through

• Lessons that are planned so that skills are taught, developed and revisited in a sequential way which promotes learning and retention of knowledge and skills
• Strategies are used throughout the school which encourage oral composition and rehearsal as part of the writing process
• Pupils are given a language rich curriculum and environment and are shown how to effectively select and use well-chosen interesting and adventurous language in their writing
• A high level of exposure to writing a wide variety of genres
• Shared and modelled writing leading to independent writing
• Opportunities for writing cross-curricular
• Developing their own legible cursive writing style
• Holding moderation meeting in order to ensure consistent standards across year groups and school

To track the progress of our writers

• We assess the writing against the success criteria and provide support for children who are still working towards or are below national expectations
• By looking to see if the skills learned in spelling and SPAG are embedded into independent writing
• Capture pupil voice at regular intervals

Reading 

To ensure high standards, reading skills are taught. We implement a curriculum that is progressive and inclusive throughout school in order to build children’s confidence and love of reading.

Our Reading curriculum is delivered though

• A wide variety of engaging texts which promote a better understanding and respect for the world in which we live and others’ opinions
• Building on previous learning to ensure good progress from every child’s starting point
• Modelling good reading skills
• Whole class reading
• Class based discussions on texts
• Breaking down and teaching discrete reading skills for comprehension via VIPERS
• Encouraging, sharing and promoting the use of ambitious vocabulary
• Frequently listening to children read
• Reading aloud and performing

To track the progress of our readers

• The contributions they make to in-class discussions
• Questions for children to apply learning and to demonstrate depths of understanding
• Capture pupil voice at regular intervals
• Their confidence and fluency when reading aloud
• Formal, termly Reading tests
• Teachers assess children in lessons as well as pupils self assessing.

Impact

 Writing

As writers, the children will have

• The ability to independently write a wide variety of genres, taking into account vocabulary choices, purpose and audience
• An understanding of grammar terminology and how to use this effectively
• Developed an appropriate tone through writing in order to effectively engage the reader
• Be able to differentiate between formal and informal language
• Be able to edit and craft language purposefully thinking about author’s intent
• Developed speaking and listening skills and the ability to orally practise these through class discussions and debates

Our writing curriculum is high quality, well thought out and planned to demonstrate progression. If children are keeping up with our curriculum, they are deemed to be making good or better progress and support is put in place for those working towards the year group objectives.

Reading

By the time they leave us, as readers, our children will:

• Read fluently and with good understanding
• Develop the habit of reading widely and often for both pleasure and information
• Appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage
• Acquire a wide vocabulary and develop the ability to work out unknown words by using taught reading and grammar skills
• Been introduced to a wide variety of texts
• A joy for reading
• An increased confidence in reading aloud and performing
• Be able to have the skills to break down unfamiliar words
• They can compare and contrast texts and have a good knowledge of authors
• They will have developed increased inference and decoding skills
• They will be able to justify their views and give reasons for them using the text as evidence

Our reading curriculum is high quality, well-thought out and planned to demonstrate progression. If children are keeping up with our curriculum, they are deemed to be making good or better progress and support is put in place for those still working towards the year group objectives.

For a more detailed look into our Literacy curriculum and how we cover Writing, Reading, SPAG, Phonics and Handwriting throughout the school, please click on the tabs attached to Literacy.