Literacy Policy
Ethos Statement.
As a Church in Wales School, we aim to be a dynamic Christian community, dedicated to all our members developing their full potential educationally, socially and spiritually.
Introduction
This document is a statement of the aims, principles and strategies for teaching and learning English at our school.
It is our aim to provide for our children continuity and consistency of approach both within year groups and across the whole school from Nursery to Year 6.
Statement of Principles
To enable our children to:
- Develop their full potential in all areas of language so that the demands of their adult lives may be met enabling them to speak, read and write clearly and effectively.
- Extend their repertoire systematically so that they grow in creativity, intensity and sensibility.
- Understand that language and literacy are Key Skills and need to be developed across all areas of the curriculum.
- Be aware of our cultural heritage and become competent and confident in their use of language and be lead to an appreciation of the works of great writers.
- Be given access to a range of cultures including that of Wales.
- Develop their critical faculty both textually and pictorially. It is essential that they know the processes by which meanings are conveyed in print and the ways in which advertisements and other media carry values so that they may become discerning consumers.
Aims:
Our aims in teaching English are that all children will develop the necessary skills to use the English language confidently, appropriately and accurately to the best of their ability and to:
- be able to speak clearly, fluently and coherently in a variety of situations and for different audiences;
- be able to listen to the spoken word attentively in a variety of situations in order to be able to identify the main points of what they have heard.
- to develop a confidence and independence in reading through an appropriate focus on word, sentence and text level knowledge;
- to establish reading as a pleasurable and useful activity;
- to develop enthusiastic and reflective readers through contact with challenging texts;
- to enable children to communicate with clarity in a wide range of contexts, for a variety of purposes and for a variety of audiences;
- to write using appropriate punctuation and grammar and accurate spelling;
- to develop legible handwriting in both printed and joined up styles and to understand that different forms of handwriting are needed for different purposes
- to increase their ability to use planning, drafting and editing to improve their work.
The school aims to develop good independent work habits so that children achieve their full potential. To this end children are encouraged to be:
- purposeful in their thought and presentation
- independent in their thought and action
- co-operative in group situations
- imaginative, creative and flexible
- confident in class /school assemblies and plays
- capable of furthering their own learning through the use of books, ICT and media.
We aim to develop a positive and enquiring attitude to English.
Teaching and Learning Styles.
At Magor School we use a variety of teaching and learning styles in English lessons, as recommended by the National Literacy Strategy. Our principle aim is to develop children?s knowledge, skills and understanding in English. We do this through a daily lesson that has a high proportion of whole-class and group teaching, in which we study a wide range of texts as defined by the National Literacy Strategy. Activities are carried out at text, sentence and word levels.
Oracy.
Helping children acquire good conversational skills is the foundation on which all language is acquired. It provides the groundwork for listening to others as well as for discussion, debate and argument, skills that will be required across the whole curriculum. Children are taught to express themselves confidently and clearly for a variety of purposes and to different audiences. Strategies used to encourage speaking and listening skills include role-play, drama, class discussions, debates, ?hot? seating and Circle Time.
Opportunities are taken during the year to visit local theatres and to invite theatre groups into school so that the children listen to the diction of professional performers.