Little Heath Primary School
ENGLISH AND LITERACY POLICY
Literacy Policy Statement
We believe that through reading and writing and speaking and listening, children develop their powers
of imagination, inventiveness and critical awareness.
Literacy is defined as the united skills and knowledge of reading, writing and oral language. In order
for children to become literate they must understand that the written word is a representation of the
spoken word and that both have a variety of forms related to purpose. The acquisition of good literacy
skills is of vital importance since children will be using language both written and spoken to create,
investigate, question, explain, discuss and record in all areas of the curriculum and later throughout
their lives.
At Little Heath we aim for all pupils to be able to
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Read, write and speak with confidence, fluency and understanding.
Use a full and appropriate range of strategies; phonic, graphic, grammatical and
contextual to deal with reading and writing challenges independently.
Understand the connections between the spoken and written word.
Discuss reading and writing comprehensively, expressing opinions, explaining
techniques and justifying preferences about a wide range of fiction and non-fiction texts,
using suitable technical vocabulary.
Enjoy books, accessing them as they require them or where it is necessary for them to
do so.
Around the school, children will be seen
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Discussing aspects of literacy learning.
Interacting with each other and the staff, contributing to discussions, offering positive
criticisms leading to the improvement of reading and writing.
Working with a sense of urgency, being part of a well-paced learning environment and
showing an understanding of the need to make progress.
Demonstrating an understanding of their strengths and of the next steps needed to make
this progress through self-assessment.
To be ambitious and to have high expectations for personal successes.
Teachers will
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Have a clear understanding of the objectives being taught, openly sharing these with the
children.
Support and scaffold the children in creating success criteria.
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Plan for well-paced lessons which drive learning forward, using various resources.
Pass on their optimism and high expectations for success to the children.
Appropriately use a range of teaching strategies, including:
- Direction
- Targeted questioning
- Demonstration
- Initiating and guiding exploration
- Modelling
- Discussing and challenging ideas generated by the children
- Scaffolding
- Assessment for learning techniques
- Explanation
- Making next steps clear.
Listen and respond to children in a sensitive and supportive manner, discussing and
evaluating children’s successes.
Consider opportunities for developing literacy skills across the curriculum.
Be mindful of the literacy needs of the child in all subject areas and differentiate
questions and activities to allow all children access.
Inclusion
All children will have full access to the Literacy curriculum. Any intensive additional support that is
required will take place where possible either during the independent session, allowing the child to
benefit from the rich literacy environment, or at other times during the school day as available.
Any IEPs or other individual or group learning programs will be linked where appropriate, to the
suitable Year and Term objective from the National curriculum.
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Reading Policy
Aims:
To enable children to become independent fluent readers, to read for pleasure or information and to
have a love of books, not merely decoding marks on a page. Meaning should always be of paramount
importance.
At Little Heath Primary School, we believe that all children should be treated as individuals and that
the teaching of reading should suit individual children. We aim to promote the reading of a broad
range of story, information and poetry books as well as books made by the children, but stress that
there is no one method, medium, approach device or philosophy that holds the key to the learning of
reading.
We aim to foster positive attitudes towards books and encourage children to become attentive
listeners and library users, to handle books with care and respect, to be book owners and reflective
readers. We encourage links between reading and writing, especially in their own writing (book
making, writing own stories etc.)
Approach
Teachers will teach and encourage the use of a range of appropriate decoding skills to develop fluent
readers:
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Phonic decoding (e.g. blending/segmenting of sounds in words).
Build up, in the context of reading, a vocabulary of words recognizable on sight.
Word shapes.
Picture cues.
Using the meaning of a passage to decipher new words.
Make informed guesses and self-correct in the light of additional information, e.g. reading
ahead or looking back.
Encouragement of sustained independent reading.
Encouragement of reading aloud, clearly, fluently and to an audience.
Use reading diaries as a means of communication between home and school, recording
children’s progress and children’s own thoughts on their learning.
Use of reading journals to aid children’s reflection on their reading.
Ability to learn and recite poetry by heart.
Teachers will plan for a coherent approach to reading using the Foundation Stage Curriculum and
National Curriculum main sources, enabling continuity and progression to take place through a
structured framework of activities. Letters and Sounds will be used to teach phonics and this can be
supported by other materials, for example Jolly Phonics or Read, Write, Inc. Teachers will be
responsible for directing and encouraging children’s learning and assessing children’s abilities and
progress by drawing from the breadth of materials available as well as other books that match the
children’s abilities.
Assessment of Reading
Reading development is assessed by Class Teachers and Teaching Assistants. In Key Stage One
class teachers aim to hear individual children read once a week and in guided reading once a week.
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In Year 3, 4 and 5 individual children are heard to read as often as possible and in guided reading
groups once a week. In Year 6 children are heard to read as often as possible and in groups, in
lessons, where appropriate. Children with delayed reading skills are heard read more frequently by an
adult.
Assessments of the children’s progress towards assessment focuses are recorded regularly through
methods chosen by individual teachers and on the Little Heath tracking sheets.
End of Key Stage One results are based on teacher assessment with one test to inform these. End of
Key Stage Two assessments are taken by Y6 at present, but this will change after 2015.
In Key Stage One a diagnostic running record test from the QCA materials can be used to assess
reading in September. This allows the teacher to find out where weaknesses lie and enables them to
support the child appropriately. This can then be repeated for children who are in need of further
support in February.
In key stage two a diagnostic reading conference will be carried out with children who achieve
significantly lower than expected for their age.
SEN: Children identified by the class teacher as reading significantly below their expected level will
be re-tested by the SEN coordinator if required.
Writing Policy
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Aims:
1. To ensure that all children leave the school at the end of Y6 with the ability to write in a variety
of fiction and non-fiction forms with confidence, grammatical accuracy and independence.
2. That children should use writing effectively for a number of different purposes:
 Note taking.
 Precising longer passages of writing.
 Communication in various styles to express feelings and thoughts.
 Informational texts.
 Instructional writing.
 Persuasive and discursive writing.
 Reports.
 Explanations.
3. That children should be able to write using structure and vocabulary appropriate to audiences
and purposes.
4. That children should develop a love for writing and enjoy writing for pleasure.
Approach
Using various sources and providing a range of guided, shared and independent learning
opportunities, teachers will follow the teaching sequence for writing:
Read:
Establish an audience and purpose for writing and provide rich reading, drama, visual literacy and
speaking and listening opportunities.
Analyse:
Define the features of the text and support the children in establishing success criteria.
Plan
Provide a stimulus for writing.
Write
Support children’s writing process through shared composition, scribing, integrating word and
sentence level with text objectives.
Review
Provide clear feedback linked to the success criteria, supporting the children in reflecting on their
next steps.
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Ensure children’s written work is valued and shared both inside and outside class through
providing a purpose and audience, class books, enactment of play scripts, display, email,
competitions, publication, etc.
Support the development of independent writing through:
Regular guided writing sessions that support group target setting.
Writing frames.
Teacher feedback that supports them in understanding their next steps.
Use children’s work as the basis for teaching editing and redrafting.
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Monitor children’s progress to ensure continuity and progression, providing support for the
development of key skills for children who have not yet mastered them and further challenges
for the most able.
Assessment of Writing
Writing is assessed by class teachers on a weekly basis according to specific learning objectives
planned in the literacy lesson. In years one to six a piece of independent writing is assessed half
termly. This is moderated across key stages and examples are kept for reference.
End of Key Stage One results are based on teacher assessment with one test to inform these. End of
Key Stage Two levels are based on teacher assessment from a selection of pieces of writing.
Spelling
Spelling in the Foundation Stage and Key Stage One is taught through the Letters and Sounds
phonic program and developed through Word Level work in literacy lessons. Home school
spellings support the teaching of phonics and the high frequency and tricky words. The WRITE
word system is used to provide further support for the learning of high frequency words.
In Key Stage Two Letters and Sounds is used to continue the teaching of spelling rules where it is
needed. Spelling is also taught through word level work in literacy lessons and is supported with
the use of spelling bank and Alpha to Omega.
Phonic knowledge is tracked throughout the school using the Letters and Sounds assessment grid
and given to the teacher at the beginning of the school year.
Handwriting
Teachers model handwriting and teach pupils letter formation regularly throughout the week in
Reception, KS1 and KS2. Teachers introduce joined handwriting from Year 1. Our aim is for all pupils
to have joined handwriting by the end of Year 3. By the end of year 6 we would like all children to be
able to write at speed and neatly in their own cursive writing style in readiness for secondary school.
Speaking and Listening Policy
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At Little Heath School, all children will:
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Develop the necessary skills to use the English language confidently, accurately and
appropriately.
Be able to speak clearly fluently and cogently.
Be able to listen to the spoken word attentively with understanding, pleasure and empathy.
Aims:
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To encourage children to voice increasingly independent ideas in a variety of settings and for a
variety of audiences.
To encourage children to ask questions and voice opinions in appropriate ways.
To make children aware of the need to give and receive clear instructions.
To foster tolerance and acceptance of other people’s views, whether they differ from or agree
with their own.
To promote listening, considering and responsive skills through discussions and observations.
Approach
At Foundation and Key Stage 1, pupils will be taught to:
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Speak with clear diction and appropriate intonation.
Choose words with precision.
Organize what they say.
Focus on the main points.
Include relevant detail.
Take into account the needs of their listeners.
Listen, understand and respond to others.
Sustain concentration whilst listening.
Remember specific points.
Make relevant comments.
Listen to others’ reactions.
Ask questions to clarify their understanding.
Identify and respond to sound patterns in language (for example rhyme, alliteration and
wordplay).
At Key Stage 2, pupils will be taught to:
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Speak with confidence in a range of contexts.
Adapt their speech for a range of purposes and audiences.
Use vocabulary and syntax that enables communication of more complex meanings.
Gain and maintain the interest and response of different audiences.
Choose material relevant to the topic and to the listeners.
Show clear shape and organization with an introduction and an ending.
Speak audibly and clearly, using spoken standard English in formal contexts.
Evaluate their speech and reflect upon how it varies.
Listen, understand and respond appropriately.
Identify the gist or key points in discussion and evaluate what they hear.
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Ask relevant questions to clarify, extend and follow up ideas.
Recall and re-present important features of an argument, talk, reading or television
programme.
Identify the features of language used for a specific purpose, respond to others appropriately,
taking account of what they say.
Assessment of Speaking and listening
The development of children’s speaking and listening skills is assessed by class teachers termly.
This policy will be reviewed every three years.
Date of staff agreement:
Date of agreement by Governing Body:
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