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Anlaby
Acre Heads Primary School |
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Introduction
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Information for Parents
In Autumn 1998 the school held a meeting for parents to find out more about our approach to the National Literacy Strategy. We hope that this information will help answer many of the questions which were considered at the meeting for those of you who unfortunately could not attend. Miss Hind is the school's Literacy Coordinator and she is being assisted this year by Mrs Sumpton. The government has provided schools with a huge training pack in order to prepare teachers for teaching according to a particular framework and this has been used in a large number of special staff training sessions. We have started to introduce parts of the National Literacy Strategy already and over the next year we will bring in more and more of the suggested activities. Literacy is basically reading and writing, but the literacy hour will also include many other skills such as speaking, listening and handwriting. What is the National Literacy Strategy? This provides a framework for teaching in order to reach national targets in children's abilities in literacy. A key part of the National Literacy Strategy is the Literacy Hour. The Literacy Hour has been designed to provide children with carefully thought out and well taught lessons in literacy every day. Why is it happening at Acre Heads? Simple. To make your child more literate, to improve their reading and writing skills alongside other important skills. Literacy Hour Diagram:Click to enlarge
Shared Reading/Writing A whole class activity in which the teacher works with the class using a 'big book' or an enlarged piece of writing. Shared reading involves the class reading together and talking about what they have read. Shared writing involves the class working together to learn and use a variety of writing skills. Word/Sentence Work A whole class activity which focuses on the teaching of phonics (letter sounds) and spelling at Key Stage 1. At Key Stage 2 this work is extended to include punctuation and grammar. Group/Independent Work Two things happen during this time.
Plenary A whole class activity which includes looking back and thinking about what has been learned Who created the Literacy Hour? The Literacy Strategy is the result of a long project which schools across the country were involved in last year. The result of trialling various teaching methods and deciding what children should learn and be able to do at particular ages is the National Literacy Strategy Framework for Teaching, which we are basing our lessons on at the moment. According to the results of the project these methods of teaching are the most successful in most schools. We want your children to be as successful as possible in all that they do and so we are putting a lot of effort into making this strategy work. When will my child read to an adult? There are many times when the teacher or other adults in the school will hear your child read and all the teachers will be keeping their usual close eye on how your child's reading is progressing. Because of the structure of the Literacy hour teachers may not hear all children read as often on a one-to-one basis as in the past, but overall the Literacy Hour will increase the time given for teachers to directly teach the skills needed in reading. Non-Teaching Assistants, Child Support Assistants, work experience students and of course, parent helpers all have a great part to play in the school’s literacy work. All can help with hearing children read, under the supervision of the teachers and also help with playing literacy games and preparing activities for the children. Helpers will have more time to prepare things now because classes will be busy working with the teacher for much of the literacy hour. If you would like to help in the classroom please talk to your child’s teacher or call in at the office. What about children’s different abilities? In the whole class sessions teachers will continue to use all their skills in matching questions to children so they can be involved at their own level. The trials of the Literacy Strategy last year showed that the less able pupils really benefited from working with their more able classmates and through careful choice of materials, questions and activities the more able children had their abilities increased as well. When working in the group activities the work will continue to be chosen to match the needs and abilities of the children. Children identified as having special educational needs will still receive the additional help they have always been given. Reading, writing, speaking and listening are things that can happen at home as well as at school. Many parents already work with their children at home on reading and giving your children reasons for writing (shopping lists, letters, stories, notes etc.) is always a good idea. Next year the school intends to introduce further 'homework' for the children and we hope you will support this as fully as possible to help your child improve in many areas. The children will still be bringing reading books home to read and enjoy together. Helping your child to understand how important reading and writing are is very important. Encourage them to read as much as possible from an early age – signs, cereal boxes, etc. Helping your child to learn any spellings sent from school is also an important thing you can do with your child at home. The National Year of Reading started in September and there are many things happening this year which parents can get involved in which will help develop reading skills - for example the BBCs DynaMo scheme. For the Literacy Hour to work children will have to become more independent in their learning. This is something we have always tried to develop at Acre Heads, but is even more essential now. Parents can help to promote independence at home by encouraging children to find their own answers to things through the use of dictionaries, encyclopaedias, atlases and reference books. Anything which encourages children to have fun with letters and words is good to try at home. Scrabble, Upwords, crosswords, wordsearches etc. can all help children want to read and understand words. What else is happening at the school? The government have given all schools some money to help buy new resources for teaching literacy. The school has also committed more money than usual from its budget for resources to help introduce the National Literacy Strategy. We have already bought many ‘big books’ and a variety of textbooks, posters, cassettes and other things which will all help to make our literacy teaching successful. The Friends of Acre Heads are also involved in raising more funds for additional books. Alongside the introduction of the National Literacy Strategy the school is also introducing a new reading scheme (The Oxford Reading Tree) which we feel will improve the reading skills and the enjoyment of reading for the children. This will be phased in across the whole school over the next few years. New reading books are also being bought for children throughout the school. Please remember that not all reading books are used to improve reading, some slightly easier books may be given to encourage reading for enjoyment or information and some may be given to help introduce new ideas or new words. Children should be reading at a level where they feel comfortable and confident, enabling them to make steady progress through the reading scheme.
Dr J.A.Bennett (Headteacher), Miss M.J.Hind (Deputy Headteacher, Literacy Coordinator) Mrs K.Sumpton (Assistant Literacy Coordinator)
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