St Mary's Catholic Primary School

Literacy

1. Overview

The ‘basic’ school curriculum includes the ‘national curriculum’, as well as religious education and sex education.

The national curriculum is a set of subjects and standards used by primary and secondary schools so children learn the same things. It covers what subjects are taught and the standards children should reach in each subject.

Other types of school like academies and private schools don’t have to follow the national curriculum. Academies must teach a broad and balanced curriculum including English, maths and science. They must also teach religious education.

Some elements of the National curriculum that relate to Literacy:

Grammar and Punctuation in the new National Curriculum

Year 1

Punctuation terms and concepts (statutory requirements)

• Separation of words with spaces
• Introduction to capital letters, full stops, question marks and exclamation marks to demarcate sentences
• Capital letters for names and for the personal pronoun I

Grammar terms and concepts (statutory requirements)

• Letter
• Capital letter
• Word
• Singular
• Plural
• Sentence
• Punctuation
• Full stop
• Question mark
• Exclamation mark

Year 2

Punctuation terms and concepts (statutory requirements)

• Use of capital letters, full-stops, question marks to demarcate sentences
• Commas to separate items in a list
• Apostrophes to mark where letters are missing spelling

Grammar terms and concepts (statutory requirements)

• Noun
• Noun phrase
• Statement
• Question
• Exclamation
• Command
• Compound
• Adjective
• Verb
• Suffix
• Tense (past/present)
• Apostrophe
• Comma

Year 3

Punctuation terms and concepts (statutory requirements)

• Introduction to inverted commas to punctuate direct speech
• Use of the present perfect form of verbs instead of the simple past (e.g., He has gone out to play contrasted with He went out to play)

Grammar terms and concepts (statutory requirements)

• Adverb
• Preposition
• Conjunction
• Word family
• Prefix
• Clause
• Subordinate clause
• Direct speech
• Consonant
• Letter
• Vowel
• Inverted commas (or 'speech marks')

Year 4

Punctuation terms and concepts (statutory requirements)

• Use of inverted commas and other punctuation to indicate direct speech, e.g., a comma after the reporting clause; end punctuation within inverted commas (e.g., The conductor shouted, "Sit down!")
• Apostrophes to mark singular and plural possession (e.g., the girl's name, the girls' names)
• Use of commas after fronted adverbials

Grammar terms and concepts (statutory requirements)

• Determiner
• Pronoun
• Possessive
• Pronoun
• Adverbial

Year 5

Punctuation terms and concepts (statutory requirements)

• Brackets, dashes or commas to indicate parenthesis
• Use of commas to clarify meaning or avoid ambiguity
• Relative clauses beginning with who, which, where, when, whose, that, or an omitted relative pronoun

Grammar terms and concepts (statutory requirements)

• Modal verb
• Relative pronoun
• Relative clause
• Parenthesis
• Bracket
• Dash
• Cohesion
• Ambiguity

Year 6

Punctuation terms and concepts (statutory requirements)

• Use of the semi-colon, colon and dash to mark the boundary between independent clauses (e.g., It's raining; I'm fed up.)
• Use of the colon to introduce a list
• Punctuation of bullet points to list information
• How hyphens can be used to avoid ambiguity (e.g., man eating shark vs. man-eating shark, or recover vs. re-cover)

Grammar terms and concepts (statutory requirements)

• Subject
• Object
• Active
• Passive
• Synonym
• Antonym
• Ellipsis
• Hyphen
• Colon
• Semi-colon
• Bullet points

Poetry in the new primary English programme of study

Key Stage 1

National Curriculum programme of study (statutory requirements)

Pupils should be taught to develop pleasure in reading, motivation to read, vocabulary and understanding by:

• listening to and discussing a wide range of poems, stories and non-fiction at a level beyond that at which they can read independently
• learning to appreciate rhymes and poems, and recite some by heart

Lower Key Stage 2

National Curriculum programme of study (statutory requirements)

Pupils should be taught to develop pleasure in reading, motivation to read, vocabulary and understanding by:

• listening to, discussing and expressing views about a wide range of poetry (including contemporary and classic), stories and non-fiction at a level beyond that at which they can read independently
• recognising simple recurring literary language in stories and poetry
• continuing to build up a repertoire of poems learnt by heart, appreciating these and reciting some, with appropriate intonation to make the meaning clear.

Upper Key Stage 2

National Curriculum programme of study (statutory requirements)

Pupils should be taught to develop positive attitudes to reading and understanding of what they read by:

• listening to and discussing a wide range of fiction, poetry, plays, non-fiction and reference books or textbooks
• preparing poems and play scripts to read aloud and to perform, showing understanding through intonation, tone, volume and action
• recognising some different forms of poetry (e.g. free verse, narrative poetry)

Spelling in the new National Curriculum

Lower Key Stage 2 (years three and four)

Statutory word list

Upper Key Stage 2 (years five and six)

Statutory word list

Literacy

At St Mary’s we believe literacy is a fundamental part of every child's education and we are committed to ensuring that literacy skills are promoted throughout the curriculum, as well as in daily lessons. We ensure continuity and progression in the teaching of the subject, in addition to the integration of literacy within our other curriculum areas. We aim to encourage a love and enthusiasm for reading and writing that will serve our children well as they move through life. Underpinning the literacy opportunities found throughout the curriculum are high expectations and an ethos of high achievement.

Speaking
Our aim is to teach children to communicate clearly and with confidence in a range of situations. We develop their skills for self-expression, extend their vocabulary and build up the grammatical constructs which are necessary to develop and express more complex thoughts. Children are given opportunities to speak in formal (e.g. class assemblies, school productions, presentations etc.) and informal situations (circle time, 'show and tell' etc.), both prepared and unprepared. They benefit from group work, discussion and debate in literacy lessons throughout the curriculum. We understand and aim to promote the importance of talk as a basis for writing.

Listening
We believe that good listening is the key to most learning and mental development, and we therefore promote active listening. Through this, children can achieve mental focus and development, improved thinking skills, socially accepted behaviour and the ability to reflect. This is achieved through insistence on mental focus, listening games and activities, the modelling of standard English and a range of other activities.

Writing
Writing does not exist in our culture in a separate, unrelated space or as an isolated pursuit. It is a meaningful activity, completely linked to a wide range of literacy events, with very clear purposes. It develops best where opportunities are provided for extended discussion and developmental talk to support and encourage the writing process. Writing has a better chance of succeeding with pupils who increasingly understand about how a range of texts, carefully constructed for identified audiences, can interact to serve social and learning purposes. In KS2 we teach a lot of our writing through novels as this supports and scaffolds the different genres.

We aim to:

• ensure pupils read widely, frequently and independently to make greater progress in writing
• focus on text level objectives such as: What purpose(s) does this work serve? What is characteristic of these sorts of texts? How do published authors achieve these written outcomes?
• provide constant feedback in the literacy sessions through 'talk partners', teacher / other adults and at the time of composition
• ensure shared and guided reading form key features of literacy sessions, involving a balance of reading and writing
• provide opportunities to work on sustained pieces of writing, in which new skills and knowledge should be encouraged
• recognise the importance of integrating the specific skills taught with good opportunities to use them in genuine writing contexts
• encourage pupils to articulate their own thoughts, insights, problems, fears, enthusiasms - how they feel about themselves as writers and their levels of self-esteem

Reading
Reading is a complex skill with many components. Successful approaches to the teaching of reading should encourage children to use a variety of strategies in their pursuit of meaning. Reading should be a valuable and rewarding aspect to children's learning and consequently should open the door to a world of knowledge. We aim to:

• encourage a love of reading
• build on the child's prior knowledge and literacy experience
• recognise and value the parents / carers role as prime educators in the pre-school years, and work together to develop the child's reading skills
• teach our pupils to become confident, independent, reflective readers who read from a range of texts for a variety of purposes
• deliver a structured and progressive whole school approach to the teaching of reading
• create a reading culture by providing a rich language environment within the classroom and throughout the school
• select appropriate resources to motivate, challenge and extend pupils effectively
• identify pupils who require additional support and intervene at an early stage
• monitor reading progress and levels of attainment closely
• promote an ethos of achievement by setting high expectations and challenging targets

A structured phonics programme, ‘Read Write Inc. is delivered  in Upper Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 by teachers and Learning Support Assistants. This is extended into Key Stage 2 where appropriate. Children’s progress in phonics is closely monitored and children progress through the phases and move groups according to needs.

St Mary's Teaching of Reading

Drama
At St Mary’s we believe that drama and role play are powerful tools for learning, both in its own right and in developing skills across the curriculum. Drama utilises children's natural ability to play and imagine other worlds as well as provide purposeful and meaningful contexts for learning - both real and imaginary. It also provides opportunities to develop empathy and a strong sense of community allowing for social learning. Staff use a range of drama strategies and conventions within their lessons, such as Teacher in Role and Hot-Seating to bring their lessons to life. Our aim is to use drama as a learning medium to:

• ensure every child succeeds
• build on what learners already know
• make learning vivid and real
• make the learning an enjoyable and challenging experience
• enrich the learning experience
• promote assessment for learning

Enrichment
At St Mary’s we aim to ensure that all children are engaged and excited by literacy. To achieve this we provide a great variety of opportunities for children to experience literacy in a wider context. As well as this, children participate regularly in assemblies, performances and masses and other liturgies within the church’s year.