Literacy

Intent

At Dame Dorothy Primary School, we expect the children to leave Year 6:

reading and writing with confidence, fluency and understanding, using a range of independent strategies;

• take responsibility for their own learning including self-monitoring and correcting their own errors
• with a love of reading and a desire to read for enjoyment
• with an interest in words and their meanings; developing a growing vocabulary in relation to grammatical terminology
• understanding a range of text types, media types and genres
• able to write in a variety of styles and forms appropriate to the situation
• using their developing creativity, imagination, inventiveness and critical awareness
• having a suitable technical vocabulary to articulate their responses in any discussion.

Implementation

At Dame Dorothy Primary School, we embrace the mastery approach to the teaching and learning of literacy; an approach which expects all children to reach or exceed national expectations. High expectations of progress apply equally to children working above, at, or below age-related expectations, including those who have been identified as having special educational needs. There is an expectation of participation, fulfilment and success; and teaching and learning is characterised by ambitious objectives, rapid, targeted intervention to keep pupils on track and rigorous ‘Assessment for Learning’ strategies to check and maintain pupil progress. The teacher’s priority is to support children so that they can keep up with the pace of learning and make good rates of progress.

Our Literacy lessons develop pupils’ spoken language, reading, writing, grammar, punctuation and vocabulary. English is taught through a ‘whole class novel approach’, in both Key stage 1 and 2. High quality texts are accessed to support the teaching of reading and writing both in Literacy lessons and across the wider curriculum. Where possible, texts are selected to support topic work.

Our pupils are encouraged to read for pleasure and to read widely.

Impact

Children of Dame Dorothy Primary School leave for secondary school as confident readers and the skills to write across a variety of genres for specific audiences and purpose. Their vocabulary and knowledge of the world has been broadened by their immersion in books, film and images.