Subject Leader : Tom Prescott

At Holy Trinity our aim is that all children should be strong writers, independent readers and confident speakers and listeners. We look to instill enjoyment and rich vocabulary and as much diversity as possible into our literacy curriculum.

READING

Intent 

Love of reading / Reading fluency / range of reading skills

The reading curriculum is designed to provide opportunities for pupils to discover a love of reading, to become fluent readers and provide children with the reading skills they will need to open doors into all subjects and areas of life. We want our children to be inspired, we endeavour to nurture a love of reading that will stay with your child for their whole life. We work hard to ensure that children build on the foundations of the ELS Phonics programme. To motivate and excite children, we provided opportunities to read an array of interesting texts related to our Humanities pathways, as well as be ensuring that children are read to by an adult everyday.

Implementation

To ensure all children are fluent readers, staff at Holy Trinity ensure that Children in Reception and Y1 have a daily 30-minute phonics lesson following the accredited, systematic synthetic phonics programme: Essential Letters and Sounds (for more information please see the phonics section). From Y2 – Y6 children receive a daily 30-minute Guided Reading lesson with opportunities learn and practise the following reading skills:

• vocabulary
• retrieval
• summary
• inference
• prediction

Children are given are regular opportunities to read individually, in groups or as a whole class, in all lessons. Accelerated Reader provides us with termly summative assessments which track the child’s progress, reading level and fluency. Informed by this, teacher are able to match children with books from our school library which is tracked in class by teachers and TAs and through reading records, where parents play an important role in ensuring they read with the their child as much as possible. Children needing extra reading support have access to Phonics Hub which is set up this year to support children in Years 3, 4 and 5 to support children who need help, as well as interventions offered by members of staff.

this through opportunities such as BookMark reading volunteer, additional 1:1 reading in class and/or tutoring from the Covid Catch-Up Tutor.

Impact

To ensure consistency throughout the school, leaders ensure that:

• Staff receive regular training
• Termly summative assessments are monitored and appropriate intervention put in place following Pupil Progress meetings with SLT.
• Parents are provided with information throughout the year about how to support their child.
• Learning walks provide opportunities for both formal and informal feedback
• We regularly invest in new literature for reading for pleasure

Early Reading and Phonics 

At Holy Trinity, we provide our Phonics and Early Reading offer through the Essential Letters and Sounds programme.

This programme matches, or exceeds, the expectations of the national curriculum and the early learning goals. The sequence of reading texts, that directly links to every phase of the ELS programme, demonstrate a cumulative progression in phonics knowledge.

For children, re-reading words and sentences that they can decode (sound out) until they are fluent (read with ease and precision) is a key part of learning to read. By reading texts several times, children have the greatest opportunity to achieve this fluency.

The texts sent home are carefully matched to the teaching taking place in school. Our children will be practising what they have been taught in school with their families at home.

Reading at home

Children take books from the large selection available in the library and classroom to read at home. There is an expectation that children read at home daily. Reading journals are provided for parents to communicate their observations on their child’s reading progress with the class teacher.

In Key Stage 2, books going home reflect each child’s ability based on our rigorous assessment of every child. On completing a book, children take a quiz on Accelerated Reader at school, demonstrating their understanding by answering comprehension questions. In addition, Holy Trinity now offers the fantastic online resource MyON, with a library of over a thousand books, which can be read at home, at the touch of a button.

The teaching of reading, including the systematic teaching of synthetic phonics, begins from the minute our children arrive in Reception.

Phonics is at the heart of teaching our children to become independent readers at Holy Trinity. Children are explicitly taught the sounds related to each letter or combination of letters and learn how to apply this knowledge when reading. Both the reading and spelling of tricky or exception words are also taught so that children are encouraged to recognise these words on sight. 

Writing

At Holy Trinity, we have introduced a brand new writing strategy, based on the National Literacy Trust and IPEELL structure, to improve the quality and outcomes of writing. 

The first step towards becoming a fluent independent writer begins with developing a positive attitude towards writing. Using affirmations and goal setting, the children establish a positive and motivated mind set before writing. Children develop a deeper understanding of the text type and genre by using PAT (purpose, audience and type) which is applied when starting a new unit of writing.

Before writing, the children deconstruct a model text; this enables them to develop a more analytical and guided approach to understanding the type and purpose of the text. IPEELL (Introduction, Point, Elaborate, Ending, Links, Language) provides a method and solid framework to help the child to organise their writing. Teachers explicitly model the thought process, positive self-talk, planning and composition whilst referring regularly to the IPEELL components.

Unaided independent writing then takes place using the plans and positive self-talk reminders. The IPEELL structure is also used to evaluate and score their writing, enabling them to independently edit their work and set goals. This methodical and structured approach to writing offers the opportunity for all children to become confident and aspirational writers.

At Holy Trinity, writing is inextricably linked to the topics of our bespoke curriculum, based on local topics or meaningful real life issues. Memorable experiences such as acting, educational visits, music and art  ensure that children are stimulated, immersed and passionate when completing their writing tasks.

Each term, a high quality core text is used to expose the children to a diverse range of literature and to inspire enjoyment and creativity. At the beginning of each literacy lesson, children learn about Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar, which is further embedded throughout the week. Children will learn an ambitious range of tier 3 vocabulary linked to the topic and core text, as well as the statutory spellings.