Literacy

Learning Together, Rooted in God.

OUR SCHOOL STATEMENT OF INTENT

Learning together, rooted in God, pupils at St Lawrence Church of England Primary School are easy to distinguish by the personal qualities they present. They are happy, confident, articulate children with a love of learning, who recognise and celebrate their own individuality and that of other members of our community. They are generous, kind and welcoming; they are forgiving and understand justice. With God by their side, they face the world with resilience, integrity and joy.

READING

The school Statement of Intent forms the basis of all that we do in reading.  We learn together and we are rooted in God in all that we read.  Reading forms a large part of a child’s day and will be used across the curriculum

NURTURING A CREATIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

At Barton St Lawrence, we aim:

• for children to become enthusiastic and motivated readers
• to develop children’s confidence in reading a wide variety of genres and text types
• for children to have the skills to decode words in order to be able to read fluently with understanding of what they have read.
• to encourage a love of literature and an enjoyment of reading for pleasure
• to use reading to provoke thought within children.

OUR CURRICULUM PROVISION

The schools main independent reading scheme is ‘Oxford Reading Tree’ including series within such as Snapdragons, InFact, Explore and Story Sparkers.  Our guided reading sets are differentiated between KS1 and KS2.  In KS1, we follow Project X, Alien Adventures and Graphic Novels and in Key Stage 2, we use the Badger scheme for fiction titles and Rigby Navigator for non-fiction titles.   All children have the opportunity to read a wide variety of books in a structured, challenging and progressive approach. All books are colour banded and this ensures appropriate challenge is provided for all children. Children are also encouraged to enhance their reading through schools weekly library loan service where books are also colour banded. Library sessions are run by our Year 6 Librarians who have been specially trained. 

The majority of children leave Barton St.Lawrence confident, competent readers with a love of reading. The reading scheme across school is constantly evolving and as a result children are provided with books that not only challenge but also interest them and encourage a love of reading. 

We encourage reading for pleasure through children having a choice of challenging and enriching texts as well as building in time for children to read independently and as part of a whole class. All children have daily opportunities to read a variety of material in school and with the help of other adults and opportunities in class, we ensure readers are heard regularly.

EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY

Our whole curriculum is shaped by our school vision which aims to enable all children, regardless of background, ability, additional needs, to flourish to become the very best version of themselves they can possibly be.

Regardless of background, ability or additional needs, by the time children leave Barton St.Lawrence, they will:

• be enthusiastic and motivated readers who are confident and will enjoy reading a wide variety of genres and text types
• have the skills to decode words in order to be able to read fluently with a secure understanding of what they have read
• be inspired by literature and will read for pleasure.

EVENTS AND VISITS

• Author visits locally
• A mobile library bus visits school each month; children are encouraged to use this facility to exchange or loan library books
• We take part in World Book Day each year and the Reading coordinator and Reading child leads help run this day
• We are part of Lancashire’s Reading Initiative
• We take part in book club each year as run by the Library service
• Our topics are enhanced by library loans to immerse children in a particular topic
• We use paired reading between classes
• Each class has a class novel; we link this to film or theatre wherever possible

PLANNING, ASSESSMENT, PROGRESSION AND EVALUATION

We follow Lancashire Topic plans which are underpinned by the National Curriculum and supported by a clear skills and knowledge progression. This ensures that skills and knowledge are built on year by year and sequenced appropriately to maximise learning for all children. We have a skills-based approach to reading within regular Guided Reading lessons; we focus heavily on introducing new and challenging vocabulary as well as exploring retrieval techniques, explanations and summaries of our reading.  Here, our reading curriculum links closely with our writing curriculum; we use a text-based approach that enables us to create opportunities for reading, discussion and writing within English and reading lessons.

In early KS1, there is a greater emphasis on phonics; this is then applied throughout the rest of the school to consolidate what has been learnt. Within daily phonic sessions, children have the opportunity to revisit previous learning, practise and apply new skills in structured but engaging ways. 

Please follow this link to our 

Overview of Literacy Provision

We have been awarded an 'Innovative Practice' Award for our teaching of Grammar.  We are very proud that the school has achieved this award.   

WRITING

From the time the children join our school they are encouraged to write for a range of reasons and audiences. At all times we aim to ensure that they have 'real reasons' for writing and understand the importance of this skill. This begins in the Foundation Stage with role play writing, eg listing things they need or writing notes to others. At this stage the writing is understood by the child but does not necessarily consist of correctly formed letters or words. By the time they leave St Lawrence's children will have mastered the techniques of constructing well planned and exciting writing. In handwriting the children are taught to use approach strokes from Foundation Stage and a fully cursive style is introduced in Key Stage 1. Research shows that teaching handwriting in this way aids both the speed of recording and the accuracy of spelling.

GRAMMAR AND PUNCTUATION

With the new Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation (SPAG) test introduced in 2013, school has re-evaluated the teaching and learning of grammar within school.  We are now proud to report, that we have  developed an internal teaching and assessment system as well as improved the provision of teaching of punctuation and grammar.  Our approach is based around academic research, and our interactive teaching allows children to have fun whilst they learn.  We have recently been awarded an 'Innovative Award' for the teaching of grammar and punctuation in May 2013.

SPELLING

We have a whole-school approach to the teaching of spelling.  We follow Letters and Sounds as a guide, splitting the teaching and learning of spelling and phonics into phases 2-6.  

Further details can be found in the Spelling and Phonics section of the website

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