Literacy Subject Leader Planning Statement

At Rickmansworth Park School, Unicef’s charter on the Rights of the Child underpins all we do.

Article 28 (right to education) Every child has the right to an education.

Primary education must be free. Secondary education must be available to every child. Discipline in schools must respect children’s human dignity. Wealthy countries must help poorer countries achieve this.

Article 29 (goals of education) Education must develop every child’s personality, talents and abilities to the full.

Education must encourage the child’s respect for human rights, as well as respect for their parents, their own and other cultures, and the environment.

At Rickmansworth Park School, teachers strive to deliver consistently high-quality literacy lessons for their classes from day one in Reception. We believe that learning to read is the foundation for all future learning.

We follow Read Write Inc. Phonics, a DfE-validated systematic synthetic phonics programme with a whole-school approach to teaching early reading and writing, designed to ensure progress for every child, in every primary school.

Following the RWI programme, teachers teach with energy and enjoyment, from the very first sounds, to helping children develop fluency and comprehension. They engage children in the best stories that reflect all children’s lives. Children learn first to read sounds and very quickly blend them into words. They then apply this phonic knowledge to read and comprehend Storybooks that are carefully matched to the sounds they know. Children learn to read these books with a storyteller’s voice.

Later on in their literacy journey, fluent readers in Years 2 to Year 6 are taught to read, write and discuss texts with maturity. Writing skills are developed through immersion in a wide variety of quality texts covering different cultures and settings, providing set of experiences for the children. These include fiction and non-fiction and all genres of writing.

Our curriculum is embellished with enrichment activities such as live author events, stage productions and class assemblies and book fairs through our excellent local bookshop.

What makes our Literacy curriculum exceptional?

1. It is underpinned by aims, values & purpose

e.g. Article 29 UN Convention of Rights of the Child: Education must develop every child’s personality, talents and abilities to the full. It must encourage the child’s respect for human rights, as well as respect for their parents, their own and other cultures, and the environment.

• Rickmansworth Park School Guiding Principles   

2. It develops the whole person – knowledge, skills, understanding & attitudes.

• Our carefully selected literacy scheme of work covers a wide variety of different genres and cultures.    

3. It is broad and balanced.

• Literacy scheme includes listening to poems, watching videos, reading different types of texts, SPaG skills and speaking and listening.
• Books used and shared in school cover a range of cultures, settings and issues.

4. There is clear progression in subject knowledge and skills.

See Subject Leader planning and progression documents

5. It is filled with rich first-hand experiences.

• Literacy links are made across the year and across year groups through assembly and class stories, theatre visits, performances, Book Fairs.
• In addition, the quality of literature that we provide is a very broad range of genres at all levels.

6. It is flexible and responsive to individual needs and interests.

• Multiple opportunities to perform every year, including class assemblies and whole school shows.
• Children work at their own level and are supported to make progress as measured against their own starting point and ability. Gaps or misunderstandings are picked up and catch-up interventions are put in place.

7. It has an eye on the future and the needs of future citizens.

• Digital writing and editing in Computing
• Learning for Life
• Developing children’s potential and interest in performance and the spoken word.          

8. It encourages the use of environments and expertise beyond the classroom.

• Author visit to school
• Regular, daily reading class stories
• Class assemblies
• Wall displays
• All staff have English as their first language
• High quality modelling of language across the whole school

9. It makes meaningful links between areas of knowledge across the curriculum.

• Book talk from children to their class
• TA 1:1 interventions pick up on any misconceptions
• Children all work with talk (learning) partners
• RWInc is rigorously assessed each half term
• Reading buddies provide opportunities for children who don’t read/share books at home

10. It has a local, national and global dimension.

• Learning for Life         

11. It is supported by high quality Subject Leader CPD.

• Rebecca Loza – RWInc consultant
• Nick Cannon – Literacy consultant
• Staff meetings regularly cover literacy developments/issues
• Literacy Team developed
• TA training regularly updated

12. SMSC is embedded within the curriculum.

(See SMSC Subject Statement)

Social, Moral, Spiritual, Cultural Links – English

Spiritual

English supports spiritual development by engaging children with poetry, fiction and drama. Through English children can explore and engage with the feelings and values found in a wide range of genre.

Moral

English supports moral development by enabling children to look, discuss and evaluate  a range of social and moral issues found in a wide range of genre including newspapers, fiction, television and other media.

Social

English supports social development by helping children to understand how written and spoken language has changed over time. It also covers social attitudes to the use of language.

Cultural

English supports cultural development by exposing children to a wide range of written and spoken language from a range of cultures. In addition, it supports children to become confident and competent in their own language, which is vital to their individual identity.