Our outstanding team which focuses on Literacy across the school ensures that standards are high and that all pupils strive to achieve their very best. The focus is always to ensure that children are supported with the skills they need to continue their progress.
We have been using Read, Write Inc (RWI) as an intervention programme in Key Stage 2 since January 2012 and as our school phonics programme since October 2012. It is taught by our committed and fully trained RWI teachers to secure good reading progress for all children.
A designated slot in the timetable is reserved daily for this reading and phonics’ programme. This time is ‘set in stone’ and is a non-negotiable within the King Athelstan curriculum. Children are assessed every half term and placed into groups according to their reading ability.
Our RWI programmes are carefully managed by our RWI Manager – Jane Bennett
RWI teaching begins formally in Reception, with most children completing the programme by the end of Year 2.
Children are taught to:
Pie Corbett once wrote that:
Children who read plenty of memorable stories avidly and repetitively, or are read a regular ‘bedtime story’, will implicitly internalise language patterns. Many of these children have the skill to draw on this resource for their own writing. Traditional tales are significant because they loiter in the mind powerfully due to their rhythmic, repetitive language but also because of their powerful images – wolves and trolls tend to hang around! Ted Hughes felt such tales were crucial because they offered ‘blueprints for the imagination’…
Reading is vital in developing children’s reading and writing skills. Those children who do not attend a RWI phonics’ session participate in Guided Reading lessons which focus on enhancing and developing children’s reading and comprehension skills. We have also launched a brand new range of Home Reading books to facilitate and encourage lots of reading at home too.
Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling (SPAG) has continued to develop as a key focus in the teaching of English. Each year group delivers a wide range of specific SPAG skills. These are vital tools which support children deliver accurate and grammatically sound pieces of writing.
We develop aspiring writers by teaching it daily. The children learn to write for a variety of purposes by writing in different styles such as: recounts; non-chronological reports; narrative; play-scripts etc… The aim is to make lessons very inter-active with a real focus on partner talk. Teachers modelling and sharing writing are also key features of lessons. In addition, we ensure that children also have opportunities to write across the curriculum with our focus on cross-curricular activities.
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