At Valence, we believe immersion through speaking and listening, reading and writing, is how our pupils explore and make sense of the world beyond their own experiences. They acquire knowledge and build on what they already know.
Intent
At Valence, we believe immersion through speaking and listening, reading and writing, is how our pupils explore and make sense of the world beyond their own experiences. They acquire knowledge and build on what they already know. In order to create a lifelong enjoyment of literacy, we ensure our curriculum is diverse. This reflects the rich cultures of our families, enabling pupils to relate and connect to their learning.
Through literacy, pupils are empowered to communicate effectively about what makes them unique, valued and respected. Pupils have opportunities throughout the day to engage in high-quality literacy, allowing them opportunities to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually.
We equip pupils from Early Years through to the end of Year 6 with lifelong communication skills to be independently successful beyond primary school.
Implementation
Our literacy curriculum is planned around high-quality texts, which have been carefully selected to inspire awe, wonder, curiosity and imagination in every child. At the same time, texts expose our pupils to challenging themes and powerful examples of vocabulary and language structures, that children successfully apply independently in their own talk for writing.
Early Years
Through daily story time sessions, whole class shared reading sessions and small group guided reading sessions, our pupils begin to observe and practise early reading behaviours that allow them to work towards the Early Learning Goals. Staff creatively plan independent learning through play activities, that link to story themes within role-play and small-world play areas. Our youngest pupils have opportunities to re-enact and mimic familiar rhymes and stories collaboratively with their peers. Pupils participate in whole class and group phonic sessions, which allow them to understand the relationship between letters and sounds and begin to segment and blend simple words. In addition to this, pupils develop their mark making skills, and progress towards writing meaningful, phrases and sentences independently, using their phonic and keyword knowledge.
Key Stage 1
Pupils in Years 1 and 2 wholeheartedly participate in daily whole-class literacy lessons, which centre around a high-quality core text. They have plenty of opportunities to discuss the genre, characters, events, their predictions and unfamiliar vocabulary, through carefully thought-out questioning. Independent writing tasks enable pupils to show their understanding of what they have read.
In KS1, small group guided reading sessions, use a more challenging shared text, allowing pupils to practise their decoding skills and express their understanding. There is a balance of teacher and child talk, with discussion and questions carefully planned in line with the KS1 reading domains. Pupils have the opportunity to dive deeper into the text and share their thoughts.
Whilst pupils in Year 1 continue to develop their decoding skills through daily phonic sessions. The majority of our Year 2 pupils progress on to ‘spelling and vocabulary’ sessions. These sessions encourage pupils to use chunking methods to decode, read, interpret and spell more ambitious vocabulary, that links to the core text, other areas of learning and the National Curriculum.
Writing in KS1 builds on from the intense immersion, centred around the core text within daily lessons. Pupils are taught the whole process, from planning through to writing and editing. The focus is for our pupils to write effectively and coherently for different purposes, drawing on their reading to inform the vocabulary and grammar of their writing.
Key Stage 2
From Year 3 to Year 6, whole class teacher-led reading lessons are planned with enough copies of the text for one book between two pupils. In most cases, a single text can last 3-6 weeks, allowing for plenty of time to explore the plot of the story and the characters involved. The pitch of the text is higher than what pupils would be able to read independently. Teachers model reading fluency through the echo reading model, which allows pupils to observe adults and peers demonstrating how to respond appropriately to the range of punctuation within a text as well as understand the misconceptions that arise when punctuation is ignored. From thereon, pupils are able to echo what they have heard and are encouraged to apply fluency when reading aloud and independently. The teaching of comprehension skills are explicitly linked to the whole class text, where carefully planned questions allow pupils to express their understanding of the text orally and in written form to meet the requirements of the KS2 reading content domains.
The core text inspires our writing outcomes in KS2, where pupils draw on their understanding of character, plot and setting to create a portfolio of work samples that engage and sustain the reader`s interest. The writing samples vary from stories, poems and a range of non-fiction writing styles.
Downloads
- Literacy - Handwriting Overview (PDF)
- Literacy - Spelling Overview (PDF)
- Literacy - Writing Overview (PDF)
- Literacy - Writing Exepectations Yr1-6 (PDF)
- Literacy - Reading Progression Grid (PDF)
