Literacy Policy

June 2012

1. Rationale

The study ofLiteracy develops children’s abilities to speak, listen, read and write for a wide range of audiences and purposes, using language to learn and to communicate ideas, views and feelings. It enables children to express themselves creatively and imaginatively, as they become enthusiastic and critical readers and writers of stories, poetry and drama, as well as non-fiction and media texts. Children gain an understanding of how language works by looking at its patterns, structures and origins and use their knowledge, skills and understanding in speaking, reading and writing across a range of contexts.

At HighgatePrimary School we recognise the entitlement of all pupils to an education that enables them to become literate members of society. The acquisition of literacy skills enables pupils to express themselves creatively and imaginatively, to communicate effectively with others and thereby, to participate with confidence, awareness and success in the communities and societies in which they live.

2. Aims

In partnership with parents, we aim to raise standards in literacy and to promote the personal development of every child by providing them with an equal opportunity to develop their skills in speaking and listening, reading and writing.

In particular we aim to:

  • provide opportunities for children to secure the learning that has taken place in literacy by applying their literacy knowledge and skills into their work across the curriculum;
  • provide systems for assessment, monitoring and reporting progress and attainment in Literacy that demonstrate consistency to staff, children, parentsand governors;
  • support children to speak clearly and audibly in ways which take account of their listeners;
  • encourage children to listen with concentration in order to be able to identify the main points of what they have heard;
  • enable children to adapt their speech to a wide range of circumstances and demands;
  • develop children’s abilities to reflect on their own and others’ contributions and on the language used;
  • encourage children to become enthusiastic and reflective readers through interaction with an appropriate range of stimulating and challenging texts;
  • encourage children to develop a positive self image as a writer, enjoying writing in a range of forms andrecognising its value as a tool for communication;
  • enable children to write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences
  • enable children to write with accuracy and meaning in a wide range of genre, through enabling them to develop a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic convention
  • enable children to use feedback provided to guide them on how to improve their work;
  • use ICT to support and enhance the Literacy curriculum; an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions;
  • planappropriately differentiated learning opportunities to meet the needs of individual learners and groups

3. Planning

Teachers are encouraged,wherever possible, to link planning for daily Literacy lessons to the Highgate Primary Curriculum (HPC) year group topic, using the HPC as a structure for plans that develop children’s literacy skills.

The following documents are used to ensure breadth of coverage and progression in planning:

  • The Early Learning Goals of the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum which inform planning for the Foundation Stage classes.
  • The Letters and Sounds materials which form the basis of phonics planning in the Foundation Stage and Key Stage One
  • The Primary National Framework for Literacy which underpins our planning across Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 as the basis for implementing the statutory requirements of the National Curriculum programmes of study for English.
  • The Nelson Handwriting scheme, which is used throughout the school to inform planning for handwriting.

A. Planning in the Foundation Stage

The Early Learning Goals from the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum, which underpin the curriculum planning for children aged three to five, inform the planned literacy curriculum for children in Nursery and Reception classes. Where appropriate, teachers may also refer to the Primary National Framework for Literacy when planning for children working at higher levels. Teachers link their planning for whole-class literacy-based lessons and activities to the current Highgate Primary Curriculum (HPC) class topic.

The Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum involves a combination of child-initiated learning with short, focused learning sessions that may be delivered to either the whole class or small groups. Literacy is taught as an integral part of our school day and literacy planning comprises of the key elements of reading, writing, phonics, handwriting and speaking and listening. All children are given the opportunity to:

  • talk and communicate in a widening range of situations;
  • respond to adults and to each other; to listen carefully;
  • practise and extend their range of vocabulary and communication skills
  • explore, enjoy, learn about, and use words and text in a range of situations.

Children in Reception classes have a whole class phonics session for 15 minutes daily, based on Letters

and Sounds and complimented by Jolly Phonics materials. Children in the Nursery take part in regular

planned activities involving sound discrimination and orally blending sounds.

B. Phonics planning in the Foundation Stage and Key Stage One

A daily discrete twenty minute session of high-quality, systematic phonic work is planned for all Key Stage One classes using the Letters and Sounds materials. Regular phonics sessions may also be planned for classes or groups within Lower Key Stage Two, as appropriate to the needs of the children. Daily phonics lesson planning follows the teaching sequence: review; teach; practise; apply.

Teachers should plan to teach children:

  • grapheme-phoneme (letter-sound) correspondences (the alphabetic principle) in a clearly defined, incremental sequence
  • to apply the skill of blending (synthesising) phonemes in order, through a word to read it
  • to apply the skills of segmenting words into their constituent phonemes to spell
  • that blending and segmenting are reversible processes.
  • how to articulate phonemes clearly and precisely

C. Planning in Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2

Literacy planning is organised into three main blocks: narrative (plays and scripts), non-fiction and poetry. These blocks are further divided into suggested units of learning and teaching, which are delivered over a period of two to four weeks. The narrative, non fiction and poetry blocks provide support for planning and teaching for literacy across the year. The number of units varies from year group to year group and planning materials for each unit can currently be accessed on-line through the Primary Framework or National Archives websites.

Teachers are also expected to plan for opportunities to develop and apply literacy skills across the curriculum, linking specific literacy learning objectives to the HPC learning targets. This is intended to enhance children's literacy and communication skills, as it broadens and enhances children's command of literacy skills by providing them with a range of different contexts in which to use and practise these skills.

When planning a teaching sequence for literacy, teachersare expected to start from a thorough knowledge of the children's existing literacy knowledge, skills and understanding and should be clear about the learning outcomes they intend children to achieve. Teachers are expected to identify any areas or gaps in current planning which require attention and ensure that there are effective arrangements in place for monitoring the implementation of their plans. Assessments are therefore used to plan the next steps in learning, in accordance with the principles of effective Assessment for Learning. As well as thorough assessment within each year, teachers’ planningshould build on knowledge and skills gained in the previous stage of learning.

Learning objectives from the Primary National Framework for Literacy for each year are organised into 12 strands, grouped within the three main areas of:

  • Speaking and listening: Speak and listen for a wide range of purposes in different contexts (4 strands)
  • Reading: Read a wide range of texts on print and on screen(3 strands)
  • Writing: Write a wide range of texts on paper and screen (5 strands)

(See Appendix 1)

In planning, teachers make connections between the 12 strands of the Framework, which feed into each other and support well-rounded language development.

Long-term Planning

The Primary National Framework for Literacy identifies the key objectives in literacy that we teach in each year group throughout Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2. A Long Term Plan which provides a yearly overview is used to identify the order in which units will be taught across the year and links have been made between these units and HPC topics to ensure that the teaching of daily literacy lessons is set within a meaningful context.

Medium-term Planning

Medium-term plans identify learning objectives to be taught across the 12 strands and group them together into cohesive units of teaching, along with thepurposeful, cross-curricular links that will provide the context for that teachingand learning.These plans define what we teach and ensure an appropriate balance and distribution of learning objectives across each term.

Each planned unit should:

  • Cover the development of speaking and listening, reading and writing and lead to learning at a challenging pace towards end-of-year expectations or beyond.
  • Have regular teaching at word-level and sentence-level embedded within it, or identified as discrete teaching alongside it, to ensure children achieve these critical learning objectives in a coherent and progressive way.
  • Follow and build upon the teaching sequence, from reading into writing and developing comprehension.
  • Fully integrate the appropriate use of ICT opportunities to develop key aspects of learning and assessment opportunities. Planning should identify opportunities for literacy learning both within dedicated literacy teaching time and also across the whole curriculum.
  • Involve a wide variety of enjoyable and engaging learning opportunities, related to children's experience, building on previous learning and therefore appropriately personalised.
  • Identify the particular needs of children working below or significantly below age-related expectations and the needs of gifted and talented children working significantly above those expectations and plan to meet these needs.

Medium term planning is divided into teaching sequences involving three (or sometimes four) phases:

Phase 1: Familiarisation with the genre/text. This includes:

  • shared reading
  • decoding
  • developing understanding and comprehension of the genre/text
  • text analysis

Phase 2: Gathering ideas. This includes:

  • Gathering ideas and content:
  • Visual literacy, drama, role play, speaking and listening,
  • Short writing opportunities

Phase 3: Shared and independent planning and writing. This includes:

  • planning
  • teacher demonstration
  • shared writing
  • independent and guided writing:
  • editing and publishing

Phase 4: Sometimes there is a fourth phase, if speaking and listening activities form the outcome for one of the phases before writing take place.

(See Appendix 2)

Short-term Planning

All class teachers complete a weekly (short-term) literacy plan. This lists the specific learning objectives for speaking and listening, reading and writing to be taught over the week and should give details of shared reading or writing activities;activities planned to meet specific word or sentence level objectives;guided writing activities; independent group activities; and plenary sessions. It also includes details of what each group of children will be learning, including differentiation for groups and individuals; additional adult support; use of ICT; resources; and assessment opportunities. Specific reference should be made to children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) and to the role of TAs in supporting their learning.

Weekly plans are working documents and should be amended as the unit is being taught, based on assessment of learning, in order to reflect progress made and to meet identified next step learning objectives. Teachers are encouraged to annotate planning to reflect amendments that have made.

Class teachers keep weekly literacy plans in their planning files and the plans are monitored by Phase Leaders and by the Literacy Subject Leader in retrospect, on a half-termly basis.

Guided Writing Planning

Planning for guided writing is matched to the specific needs of pupils. Children are selected for the group according to identified gaps in learning or next steps targets, which are identified through focused marking and the use of the APP tracking grids. Guided writing groups may therefore change from week to week.

Handwriting Planning

Teachers complete weekly plans for handwriting, based on the Nelson Handwriting scheme, identifying key skills to be taught, organisation, resources, delivery and differentiation, including specific reference toprovision for children with Special Educational Needs, including children from the Blanche Nevile department.

Guided Reading Planning

Teachers complete a weekly plan for guided reading, indicating the texts to be read and the key objectives for each guided reading group; independent activities for non-focus groups (where applicable); organisation of groups; resources; and differentiation for children with Special Educational Needs, including children from the Blanche Nevile department.

Planning for inclusion

Teachers should plan for literacy teaching in order to meet the needs of all children. Planning should also ensure that the needs of children within specific groups, such as those with special educational needs, gifted and talented children and EAL (English as an additional language) learners, are addressed through differentiated support to match children's learning needs. Teaching units are amended to support differentiation for groups and individuals. This means that the learning objectives and content of a unit should be selected to produce a personalised unit for the needs and abilities of a range of learners.

4.Teaching and Learning

We aim to develop children’s knowledge, skills, and understanding in English through daily literacy lessons that involve whole-class teaching, guided group teaching and independent activities. During these lessons, children experience whole-class shared reading,shared writing or speaking and listening; a guided group or independent activity; anda whole-class plenary, along with mini-plenaries where applicable, to review progress and learning.

Duringindependent activities, children often work in matched ability groups of up to six children, but may also work in mixed ability groups, where appropriate to the learning objective of the session. Guided groups are led by the class teacher or teaching assistant (TA) and children are selected for the group based on shared next step learning targets or gaps in learning identified through focused marking and APP assessment. Certain aspects of literacy such as handwriting, phonics, spelling and guided reading are usually taught as discrete sessions, outside daily literacy lesson.

Children have the opportunity to experience a wide range of texts and to use a range of resources,including dictionaries, thesauruses, phonics mats, high frequency word lists, ICT resources and writing frames to support their work. Children should be provided with regular opportunities to use ICT in literacy lessons to enhance and extend their learning. Wherever possible, we aim to provide opportunities for children to use and apply their literacy skills and learning in other areas of the curriculum through the Highgate Primary Curriculum (HPC).

Time Allocation

Teachers plan daily literacy lessons. They aim to ensure a balance of speaking and listening, reading and writing objectives over a unit of work and, once a week, allocate up to an hour for extended writing. Teachers aim to allocate additional time to literacy objectives, through making links between specific literacy learning objectives and the HPC learning targets, in order to provide meaningful contexts for children to secure the learning that has taken place in literacy lessons. Teachers also plan regular guided and/or independent reading activities, handwriting sessions and class story sessions

Speaking and Listening (EN1)

At Highgate Primary, we believe that the four strands within EN1 (Speaking, Listening, Group Discussion and Interaction and Drama)are essential vehicles for developing language skills. We aim to providea learning environment which encourages all pupils to feel secure in developing their speaking and listening skills and in making contributions to group and class discussion. To this end, the objectives relating to these strands aretaught as part ofall Primary Framework for Literacy unitsand through the HPC topics.

Teachers employ a number of different approaches to facilitate the teaching and learning of the four strands within EN1, including talk partners, talk for writing, peer marking, hot seating, role play, freeze-frame, puppets, class and group discussion,debates, assemblies and drama productions, ‘show and tell’, story sacks andschool council meetings.

Reading (EN2)

The Programmes of Study for reading consist of two dimensions:

  • Word reading
  • Comprehension (both listening and reading)

Independent Reading

Teachers aim to provide regular opportunities for children to read independently outside the daily literacy lesson. Teachers also aim to read to the whole class regularly from a wide range of narrative, non-fiction and poetry texts, as appropriate to the age-range and interests of the class. Each class has a book corner, with a selection of fiction, non-fiction and poetry books. There are also displays to encourage the use of the book corner.

Home-School Reading

Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1: