“The whole world opened up to me when I learned to read”

Mary McCleod Bethune

 

Statement of Intent:

At Trewidland, we believe that the ability to read is a life-long, vitally important and pleasurable skill which is a priority for all our children.  For this reason, reading is taught, practised and developed across the whole curriculum as well as being addressed in lessons where the key focus is specifically on teaching the children to read with fluency, accuracy and understanding. Our overarching ambition is that all our children will become enthusiastic, independent and reflective readers who enjoy reading and for whom it provides a key gateway to learning and to life.  We focus upon vocabulary development within reading and across our curriculum. 

Implementation:

So, how do we do this, and what are the principal measures we put in place to achieve this ambition?

• There is ample research evidence that the best way of launching children into reading is through phonics which is a system by which pupils learn the sounds associated with both individual letters and combinations of letters. We therefore start by building a secure phonics foundation through using the widely acclaimed Read Write Inc. (RWI) phonics system. 
• We ensure that the pupils regularly read to us. This enables the staff including our teaching assistants, to support and review the progress of individual pupils and to encourage in every child a love of reading and literature. 
• We ensure that there are regular opportunities for staff to develop and share best practice in the teaching of reading, and where appropriate, to benefit, for example, from contacts with other schools in the SMART Trust, Read Write Inc specialists and The Kernow English Hub. 
• At Trewidland, parents play a key role in supporting the development of their child’s reading by regularly listening to them read and by engaging them in conversations about their understanding of their reading. This home-based element is a vital part of the learning process.

 

 

English Curriculum: 

We have adapted Literacy Tree Planning to our school structure & setting. 

What is Literacy Tree?

Literacy Tree is a complete, book-based platform for primary schools that covers all requirements of the Primary English curriculum. It can be used as a complete scheme of work or adopted and adapted to suit the needs of your school, academy or trust. The books we choose help children to grow ideas and expand their minds. We only choose significant and important children's literature to create our book-based resources.

It starts at the roots. We provide book-based planning sequences, Writing Roots, which embed complete curriculum coverage and engage children to write with clear audience and purpose. Our Teach Through a Text pedagogy is the backbone of each sequence.

We sow a seed with Spelling Seeds. We provide a sequence for teaching spelling and vocabulary in context, through investigation and at the point of application. Spelling Seeds complement Writing Roots and use the same texts to provide further short writing opportunities.
We grow literary knowledge through Literary Leaves. We provide a range of sequenced activities that take children through whole books to teach reading comprehension and create critical readers. Literary Leaves use novels, poetry collections and high-quality, non-fiction books that connect to the Writing Roots through Literary Themes.

Our Adapted KS2 Plans linked to our topics: