Miss Fleming is our Literacy Subject Leader as she is enthusiastic about developing children’s skills in preparation for their life long learning journey. She believes that laying the foundations early on makes a real difference to a child’s development, which is why she has ensured high quality phonics teaching and learning occurs daily, and, reading within the Early Years is given a priority where reading is presented at every opportunity.
Miss Fleming is passionate about developing the love of reading within school and has worked hard to ensure that children are provided with the very best opportunities to develop a love of reading, through timely visits to the local library; developing a reading scheme through Accelerated Reader to allow children independent choice in their reading and continually revising book choices to ensure children are continually stimulated to read for pleasure. She works regularly with other schools and agencies to ensure that teaching and learning of Literacy is at the forefront of your child’s education, proving high quality texts and new methods of teaching and learning to enhance your child’s progression.
Mrs C Howarth
Intent
At Our Lady and St Anselm’s, we believe that sound literacy skills are essential for progress across the curriculum and to prepare pupils effectively for tasks of adult life.
All teachers have a responsibility to develop pupils’ competence in reading, writing, speaking and listening in their own subjects and to ensure that pupils become competent users of language, and can access the curriculum effectively and achieve their potential.
Children arrive into reception working below average within reading and writing on Development Matters. This means early emphasis needs to be put into these children acquiring the basic skills necessary to develop early within KS1. The development of literacy skills across the curriculum will be implemented according to the following guidelines:
- Schemes of work will specify how literacy skills are reinforced within their subject areas.
- Staff will follow whole school policies on marking and literacy.
- pupils lacking basic literacy skills will be identified, and the special educational needs coordinator SENCO and head of literacy will advise teaching staff on supporting pupils with reading and writing difficulties.
- All assessment and testing will take place according to the school’s Assessment Policy.
- Teachers will be expected to uphold high standards and deliver lessons of high-quality, using effective and up-to-date teaching methods and tasks.
We aim to develop pupils’ abilities within an integrated programme of Speaking & Listening, Reading & Writing. Pupils will be given opportunities to interrelate the requirements of English within a broad and balanced approach to the teaching of English across the curriculum, with opportunities to consolidate and reinforce taught literacy skills.
At Our Lady and St Anselm’s R.C. Primary school we strive for children to be a ‘Primary Literate Pupil.’
By the age of 11 we aim for a child to be able to:
- read and write with confidence, fluency and understanding, orchestrating a range of independent strategies to self-monitor and correct.
- have an interest in books and read for enjoyment
- have an interest in words, their meanings; developing a growing vocabulary in spoken and written forms.
- understand a range of text types and genres – be able to write in a variety of styles and forms appropriate to the situation.
- be developing the powers of imagination, inventiveness and critical awareness.
- have a suitable technical vocabulary to articulate their responses.
At OLSA, every child is given the opportunity to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to become analytical readers and competent authors. We promote the enjoyment of reading by carefully selecting high-quality texts that are used for learning across the curriculum. By providing our children with the skills to read, they are able to broaden their knowledge in a range of subject disciplines.
Children are exposed to a word rich curriculum through the use of working walls and revision of key words. Through immersion in high-quality texts, teachers identify and explicitly teach rich and varied vocabulary, providing them with the tools to become confident communicators, readers and writers. The reason for this is simple: to close the vocabulary gap for our most disadvantaged children.
Carefully planned writing lessons using The Write Stuff and Lancashire planning allow our children to develop their skills, by adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences. They are given the opportunity to apply their skills across the curriculum and they are encouraged to use language effectively to create a desired effect on the reader. Our intention is that by the time children leave OLSA, they have had the opportunity to master skills in speaking, reading and writing that will prepare them for secondary education and life beyond the school gates.
Policy & Learning Journeys
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