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Literacy
Our Vision for Literacy at Timberley Academy
We aim to create a positive reading and writing culture in school, where both are promoted, enjoyed and considered 'a pleasure' for all pupils.
Reading
We aim for all pupils to be able to read easily, fluently and with good understanding.
Through choosing quality texts, from our rich and varied literary heritage, we want pupils to develop a love of reading and a good knowledge of a range of authors, and be able to understand more about the world in which they live, through the knowledge they've gained from the texts.
Writing
We want pupils to acquire a wide vocabulary, a solid understanding of grammar and be able to spell new words by effectively applying the spelling patterns and rules they learn throughout their time at Timberley.
We aim for pupils to write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences.
Spoken Language
We aim for pupils to use discussion in order to learn, elaborating and explaining clearly their understanding and ideas.
We aim for pupils to have good speaking and listening skills, and experience of making formal presentation, debate, drama and discussion.
English at timberley academy intent implementation impact
The Literacy Team
At Timberley, we have a Literacy Team made up of teacher representatives from across school. The Team meets regularly to plan and review annual Literacy and costing plans, discuss new research, review data, carry out monitoring and discuss and initiate new actions. Each representative contributes expertise from their area of school and leads on implementation of new initiatives or approaches in their phase.
The team is currently made up of:
- Mrs Harris- Head
- Mrs Cambridge - Year 1 teacher Reading Lead
- Mrs Morris - Y6 teacher and PSHE Lead
- Miss Lench - Year 1 teacher
- Mrs Griffiths - Year 5 teacher and KS2 Literacy Lead
- Mrs Collins - Year teacher and KS1 Literacy Lead
At Timberley, we use RWI Phonics and Ready, Steady, Write! to deliver the bulk of the English curriculum. Targeted pupils in KS2 also take part in the Fresh Start or Direct Phonics programme to support them with phonics progression. We use Complete Comprehension to deliver discrete reading comprehension lessons from Year 2 onwards, No Nonsense Spelling to deliver the KS2 spelling curriculum and Letter Join and Pen Pals to deliver handwriting. Ongoing phonics assessments and PIRA assessments tests are used to monitor pupil progress in reading. Writing is assessed by teachers using a bank of key concepts that have been adapted from The National Curriculum. In-school and external moderation is used to validate teachers' judgements.
Our English Key Concepts grid has been developed using The National Curriculum alongside the provision of the schemes used in school to make clear to all stakeholders what the intended knowledge and skills pupils are expected to acquire are, at each stage of their journey through school. These Key concept grids match teacher assessment grids, so that pupils are being assessed each year on their progress towards learning key concepts.
This year, we are working on:
- Promoting Reading for pleasure across school; we are continuing to build up on the success of last year where we created a new reading areas, worked with Book Mark and The National Literacy Trust.
- Improving reading across school; we work closely with Ruth Broadhead from RWI and are implementing new approaches following our work with the Little Sutton English Hub. We are continue work on an implementation plan for reading comprehension that was implemented inSeptember 2022.
- Improving writing across school; we are working on an implementation for whole school writing. We are currently in the explore phase of this.
- Improving pupils' opportunities to improve speech and language in EYFS, using Helicopter Stories, Drawing Club and Poetry Basket. Following our work with St Matthews Research school, we will be implementing a structure to our oracy curriculum.
- Other exciting initiatives such as our Parent and staff book exchanges, Word of the Week to promote vocabulary, our fantastic library which is a real hub of the school, snuggle up suitcases in KS1 and story backpacks across school to promote reading at home .
- Closing gaps in learning caused by the pandemic, through our involvement with the National Tutoring Programme. Pupils across school will be taking part in online and in-school tuition as well as school-led tutoring; these will be funded by Recovery Premium and the School-Led tutoring Grant. We are partnered with TLC Live! and FFT Lightning Squad.
Please contact school if you would like any more information on our Literacy Team or how we are working hard to improve standards of English across school
Reading at Timberley Academy
Here at Timberley Academy, we’re Fred’s Pal! The acronym Fred’s Pal helps us to identify how we support our children to read.
Fidelity – we understand the importance of fidelity to an SSP programme, from learning sounds through to fluency of reading. At Timberley Academy, we follow the Ruth Miskin Read, Write, Inc. Phonics programme.
Reception – We know that the best way to support our children in learning to read is phonics first and phonics fast. So our reception children make a strong start on their reading journey. This includes daily speed sound lessons, word time, spelling and handwriting.
Expertise – We have a team of teachers and teaching assistants who are RWI phonics experts. They receive regular coaching, training and updates to ensure we have a consistent approach to the teaching of phonics and early reading.
Decodable books – We have RWI Book Bag books as home readers. These books are carefully matched to the children’s phonic knowledge, allowing them to succeed in reading at home as well as in school.
Stories – Only the best! At Timberley Academy, we promote a love of reading by indulging the children in a range of good quality books. This not only includes the texts in lessons, but also for story time – with class story time boxes being delivered to classes full of fiction, non-fiction and poetry books by a range of different authors, chosen carefully from our rich and varied literary heritage. It doesn’t stop there! We have a fully accessible library in school for the children to visit with their class and take books away to read at home with their families. We also run a weekly Parent Book Exchange for parents to donate and take away books to read at home (both adult and children's) in order to promote reading in our community.
Progress of the lowest 20% - Our half termly RWI assessments allow us to monitor children who need extra support with their reading. The class reading profiles from Years 1-6 highlight the lowest 20% of readers and identifies the support they receive, whether that be daily 1-1 tutoring, group interventions or support from the National Tutoring Programme.
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Leaders – The SLT and Literacy team here at Timberley Academy value the importance of reading and ensure every child is supported on their reading journey. With support from our RWI Consultant, we receive regular training and updates to make sure there is a consistent approach to the teaching of reading across school.
Important Documents
Presentation and Handwriting Policy
Information for Parents
RWI Phonics
Read Write Inc. Phonics teaches children to read accurately and fluently with good comprehension. They learn to form each letter, spell correctly, and compose their ideas step-by-step.
Reading
Children learn the English alphabetic code: first they learn one way to read the 40+ sounds and blend these sounds into words, then learn to read the same sounds with alternative graphemes.
They experience success from the very beginning. Lively phonic books are closely matched to their increasing knowledge of phonics and ‘tricky’ words and, as children re-read the stories, their fluency increases.
Along with a thought-provoking introduction, prompts for thinking out loud and discussion, children are helped to read with a storyteller’s voice.
Writing
The children write every day, rehearsing out loud what they want to say, before spelling the words using the graphemes and ‘tricky’ words they know.
They practise handwriting every day: sitting at a table comfortably, they learn correct letter formation and how to join letters speedily and legibly.
Children’s composition (ideas, vocabulary and grammar) is developed by drawing on their own experiences and talking about the stories they read.
RWI Literacy & Language
Read Write Inc. Literacy and Language follows on from Phonics and Comprehension.
This complete literacy programme for fluent readers in Years 2 to Year 6 teaches children to read, write and discuss texts with maturity.
The beautifully written stories and non-fiction texts are written by well-known authors to engage children in studying whole texts.
Detailed lesson plans for teaching comprehension, vocabulary and grammar give teachers time to prepare engaging lessons.
At times, teachers may teach blocks of writing and grammar separately to Literacy and Language. Following careful monitoring of teaching and work scrutiny, and from qualitative feedback from teachers and pupils, we have adapted some units of Literacy and Language in order to better suit the needs of our pupils and to improve engagement in lessons. Teachers and leaders worked closely together to create medium term plans, mapping out when and how teachers may be adapting units or teaching standalone blocks that link to IPC projects (for example, writing instructions linked to the Y4 project around Egypt).
Literacy and Language documents
Spelling
At Timberley, we use the No Nonsense Spelling scheme to support our planning and teaching of spelling.
The No Nonsense Spelling Programme offers teachers a comprehensive yet accessible progression in the teaching of spelling. Guidance, rather than prescription, is provided on how to teach the strategies, knowledge and skills pupils need to learn.
The focus of the programme is on the teaching of spelling, which embraces knowledge of spelling conventions - patterns and rules; but integral to the teaching is the opportunity to promote the learning of spellings, including statutory words, common exception words and persona spellings.
This scheme is used as a tool for planning and teachers are encouraged to use their discretion as to what needs to be taught for the pupils in their class.
In Year 5 and 6, individual spellings are sent home to be tested to using the statutory words lists.
Story Time
Storytime is timetabled for every year group throughout school. We feel it is important for children to enjoy a story at the end of a busy day. In Key Stage Two, teachers will chose texts from the Windows and Mirrors booklist, provided by Read Write Inc and the Recommended Reads for their year group. This ensures that children are being exposed to books that are age-appropriate and that books aren't being repeatedly studied across year groups.
We are extremely lucky to have Miss Dunn, our librarian, who has a fantastic wealth of knowledge regarding children's literature. She is able to use children's interests and guide them to other authors that may engage them too!
Talk Through Stories
From September 2023, we will be introducing the use of RWI's Talk Through Stories. We know that reading to children benefits them in a whole host of ways- they are being exposed to how books work, the voices that can be used, the vocabulary, the grammatical structures, the way authors choose to present the writing, alongside so many other ways. This is why we have chosen to use Talk Through Stories in across school. We have created a 'Super Six' book list for Reception to Year 2 for each term. These are the books that children will be studying in their story time. Each book lasts for a week- this allows teachers the freedom to also read books of interest to the children each half term, as we know that there is an endless list of fantastic literature that we want our children to be exposed to. During the week, the children will be really unpicking the story through a range of discussions and activities. In Nursery 1 and Nursery 2, we will be asking teachers to use books that are appropriate from the Talk Through Stories list to read and unpick at the level of the their children.
When teachers are choosing books to read with their classes outside of the Literary Cannon and the Talk Through Stories list, we ask them to consider books from the Windows and Mirrors book list from RWI, as well as the Recommended Reads from Books for Topics, that are regularly updated. We want to create an environment whereby children are exposed to a whole range of books that are diverse and cultural, and allow each child to see themselves in, or through, texts.
Reading Lists
Recommended-Reads-PreSchool-Poster.pdf
-Recommended-Reads-Reception-Poster.pdf
Recommended-Reads-Year-1-Poster.pdf
Recommended-Reads-Year-2-Poster.pdf
Recommended-Reads-Year-3-Poster.pdf
Recommended-Reads-Year-4-Poster.pdf
Recommended-Reads-Year-5-Poster.pdf
