Literacy
Intent
At Palm Bay we are passionate about the teaching of Literacy, which underpins all other learning. The intent of the Literacy Curriculum at Palm Bay is to develop resilient, fluent and confident writers and readers; to foster and promote a love of reading and writing, through the provision of a wide range of diverse and stimulating texts and to ensure that all children leave Palm Bay secondary school ready and will equally be phase ready in reading and writing.
Implementation
Reading
Early reading is taught through the systematic and structured programme of Read Write Inc Phonics from Reception to Year 2. This is taught alongside regular reading opportunities from a wide range of diverse, rich and stimulating texts. After finishing the Read Write Inc (RWI) Phonics programme, children are taught comprehension skills through the use of Vipers in Year 2 and Destination Reader in KS2. Destination Reader provides a clear reading curriculum, which builds on the tools taught in RWI and explicitly teaches core comprehension skills. RWI, Star Reader and Accelerated Reader programmes are in place to support the robust assessment of reading and aids teacher judgement in levelling home reading texts. Enrichment opportunities are provided through timetabled storytimes and library visits. Reading for Pleasure is actively encouraged and children are able to enjoy their class book corners, which are offer a wide range of choice.
Writing
A robust curriculum has been carefully plotted using rich texts, chosen by the Literacy team to enable a variety of writing opportunities. These texts have tailored writing objectives linked to them, which link to specific National Curriculum grammar requirements that scaffold writing. There is a clearly planned progression of spelling, punctuation and grammar (SPaG) to aid the retrieval of key skills, which builds on the fundamentals throughout the children’s academic career. Writing opportunities are created across the curriculum so the children can experience different forms of writing and can write for different purposes. The progression of knowledge and skills is monitored by subject Leads and Curriculum Leads.
In Literacy, all lessons and activities are designed to be inclusive and are adapted to enable all children to access the curriculum.
Impact
- Demonstrate love for learning, engagement and enjoyment
- New learning built upon and linked to previous knowledge
- Encouraged to engage in deeper thinking, through high-quality questioning
- Independence and choice of materials and resources used
- Learn and develop new skills
- Apply learning to real-life situations and roles