Welcome to our Literacy page!
At All Saints’, we promote confidence and competence in the skills of speaking and listening; reading and writing; across the whole curriculum; develop an enjoyment and love of reading through practical activities, exploration and discussion.
Speaking and Listening
All our children are encouraged to communicate confidently, their ideas. The language rich and interactive classroom provides ample opportunities to develop the ability to orally express themselves clearly and confidently. Most of the lessons have a high focus on discussion and collaboration, as well as drama and role play activities and debates.
Reading
A high priority is given to reading to ensure that the children develop vital skills as well as adopt reading as a pleasurable routine.
In EYS and KS1, there is a daily phonics session; children are introduced to sounds and taught how to apply their knowledge to reading and writing. They are also encouraged to develop both fluency and understanding through discussion of books with the adult they share it with.
In KS1 and KS2, our daily guided reading sessions provide opportunities for the enjoyment of a rich variety of genres and the teaching of a range of decoding and comprehension techniques. There is a central resource base consisting of the amazing Project X Origin reading books alongside an array of good quality texts by significant authors. Each class also has an initiating interactive book corner.
Writing
From the Foundation Stage to KS 2, children are taught to make links between sounds and letters, write in all areas of the curriculum, and write a variety of text types confidently and independently through shared, guided and independent writing tasks with real audiences. The children participate in a Whole school Big Write activity every half term which provides an opportunity for every child writing through a common theme and or cross assessment Daily lessons are used to develop children’s use of vocabulary, punctuation and cohesion. They are encouraged to edit their writing to improve the quality and to review the skills learnt in writing at the end of the week.
Assessment
All schools will be adopting an assessment procedure ‘without levels’ or more precisely, without numerical levels. Why? From September 2015, the Government directed huge changes in the way that children in schools are to be assessed. This is to tie in with the New National Curriculum that started to be used by all schools at the beginning of this Academic Year. This is a new way of thinking for schools, and assessment will look very different to how it has done for the past 20 years.
The DfE want to avoid what has been termed ‘The level Race’ where children have moved through the old National Curriculum levels quickly to achieve higher attainment. The old National Curriculum was sub-divided into levels, but these were not linked to their national curriculum year group. The DfE believe that a significant number were able to achieve a Level 5 or 6 in a test—but were not secure at that level. The feeling from the DfE is that the old national curriculum and the levels system failed to adequately ensure that children had a breadth and depth of knowledge at each national curriculum level
How can parents and carers help?
- Read with your child or encourage your child to read independently everyday for at least 20 minutes.
- Sign your child’s reading record.
- Allow time for quality talk with your child in order to develop their oracy.
- Provide various opportunities for your child to write for purpose – shopping lists, diary entries, travel logs, letters and stories.
- Attend and contribute to teacher consultation meetings.
- Allow time for your child to visit the local library.
- Support their children with English homework activities and praise their children for their effort and achievement in English.
- Communicate and work with the school whenever further support is needed to develop their children’s English skills and understanding
- Use our online books.
Downloads
Please click on the links below for more information.