Curriculum | Literacy

The school is committed to working within the structure of the National Literacy Strategy in order to:

• Enable all pupils to succeed in developing speaking, listening, reading and writing skills to the best of their abilities;
• Encourage in children a sense of enjoyment, fun and purpose in reading and writing;
• Develop pupils' confidence in reading and writing for learning, social, life-management and leisure purposes;
• Give all pupils access to literate of good quality which is appropriate to their age and/or level of attainment and which will encourage progress in the attainment of literacy skills;
• Introduce all pupils to a range and breadth of differenct types of text (including Audio-Visual formats).

Whilst recognising the value and effectiveness of the class/group teaching approach favoured by the National Literacy Strategy, we also value the positive impact on the progress of pupils with SEN of small specialist language and reading groups as well as individual reading sessions.

In literacy we focus on the development of expressive language.

Literacy Skills Delivery at Key Stages 1 & 2

Pupils work in small ability based reading and language groups according to their various needs and in the most suitable grouping to address their specific problems with language/reading skills acquisition.

Pupils who are more independent in their learning to read work through the Oxford Reading Tree scheme in groups which reflect their abilities and potential to make progress. The phonics programme is delivered using the Jolly Phonics Scheme.

Literacy Skills Delivery at Key Stages 3 & 4

Most pupils work in ability based reading and language groups (numbers will vary according to ability) according to their various needs. They work in the most suitable groups to address their specific problems with language/reading skills acquisition.

Individual pupils who require intensive building up of word and phonic skills have access to specific programmes on a 1:1 basis.

Pupils at all key stages also attend Speech and Language Therapy sessions where their statement of SEN or other authoritative directive prescribes this. Whilst every effort will be made by the school to enable Speech and Language Therapy, this is an Authority provision and cannot be guaranteed by the school. The school endeavours to consult with Speech and Language therapists in order to co-ordinate the work done by them with pupils and the work done in classrooms. The amount of time of Speech and Language Therapy depends on the needs of the pupils and the availability of therapists.

Literacy Time

Time spent varies according to class/ability group and also according to pupils' capacity for keeping on task. In general, Literacy Time runs for between 40 minutes to one hour per day. The time can be used as a more practical, introductory or concluding activity to the Literacy Time (e.g. drama, 'talking about' activities, using modes/objects of reference, art work, etc.) Throughout Literacy Time, tasks are differenciated to meet the needs of Upper, Middle and Lower Attainers.

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