Overview and Intent

Literacy Overview Cycle B                                                                                             September 2020 / 2021

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

English: Intent, Implementation and Impact document.                                                                  April 2020

Intent

• To develop a curriculum that is ambitious and designed to give all pupils (particularly SEND and PP children) the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life.
• To establish a coherent and cumulative curriculum that puts pupils in the best possible position for future learning and employment.
• To show the same ambition for all pupils.
• To give pupils a broad and balanced curriculum.

We believe that reading is at the heart of the English, and the wider, curriculum. If we can cultivate highly motivated readers who enjoy a range of fiction and non-fiction texts they will in turn develop a wider vocabulary; stronger oracy skills and more comprehensive writing pieces. To support staff in developing these skills we have invested in the Read Write Inc. Phonics, Spelling and Literacy and Language schemes. It is also the intent that using the schemes throughout school will allow us to develop:

1. A thread of pedagogy whilst allowing teachers to use their own personality in delivering lessons.
2. A common teaching language that will allow consistency for pupils throughout school – this will be of greatest benefit to our SEND pupils who need the most support.
3. Classroom routines throughout school that will support all pupils and be of greatest benefit to our SEND pupils.
4. Assessment timetables, materials and records for each half term that will create a ‘thread’ of measurable progress through school.
5. Identification of pupils who are ‘falling behind’ and putting effective interventions in place to ‘close the gap’.

 

Whilst we value the structure and resources of the Read Write Inc scheme we also want to remain mindful of our own specific targets in school and the changing landscape in education. As a result we also intend to:

1. Use reliable research (ie the EEF) to inform decisions that are being made in school.
2. Ensure vocabulary remains to have a ‘spot-light’ for learning.
3. Monitor the ‘Impact’ the approach is having on pupil progress, especially SEND and boys writing outcomes.
4. Begin exploring the principles of cognition and meta-cognition as a tool for teaching and learning.
5. Identify the ‘cultural capital’ experiences we offer our pupils.

 

 

Implementation.

In order to reach the above aims and intentions, we have taken some time to evaluate the current routines and systems that were in place in school. Observing lessons; taking part in learning walks; conducting ‘books looks’; talking to staff; analysing data (and understanding how data is collected and recorded); taking part in CPD briefings; researching teaching materials and best practice; attending cluster meetings and moderation events; sharing information and discussions with governors; creating action plans and using previous teaching experience and knowledge have all lead to – and all will continue to be a part of –  the intent statement outlined above.

As a staff team we will be committed to embracing the principles of ‘Purpose, Passion, Pace, Participation and Praise’ that the Read Write Inc programmes advocate and is key to implementing the consistent pedagogy, language, routines, assessment and interventions thoughout school. By being faithful to the assessment regimes and closely monitoring pupil progress we should be able to implement any interventions in a timely manner to ensure all children ‘keep pace’ with learning. However, these things take time and stability to embed, develop and refine and if we are to truly embrace RWInc as a school it needs to have every member of staff on board. The approaches suggested by the RWinc scheme is very much akin to the Embedding Formative Assessment strategy by Dylan Wiliam, which uses a Teacher Learning Community (TLC) group to explore and implement new teaching strategies. This is a model we will use to support our development of the ‘Reading Leader’ role used in the RWInc programme to strengthen staff pedagogy and meta-cognition of the principles of the scheme.

 

As a school we will maintain teacher CPD and encourage personal development to encourage informed judgements to made as to how to cater for and support groups of children and individuals within a class. For example, there has been for some time increasing research to show that ‘vocabulary rich’ children are better able to access the curriculum and therefore make better progress. Whilst RWInc addresses the acquisition of vocabulary the research shows that the gap between vocab rich and vocab poor children continues to widen over time unless specific steps are taken to address this. What the research does not suggest is ‘grouping’ vocab poor children together for ‘word interventions’ but instead ensuring that the ‘same ambition for all pupils’ is implemented in the classroom thereby exposing all children to a wide and eve- increasing vocabulary. Which is why in our intent statement we aim to maintain the extra ‘spotlight’ on vocabulary across the whole of the curriculum.

 

Impact.

It is our aim to have in pace these three steps to enable us to monitor the impact our intent and implantation is having.

• For our writing assessment we will populate the National Curriculum criteria grids on the Mastro Cornerstones platform. This will allow us to record teacher assessment centrally and to track progress through school.
•  Children will produce an independent piece of writing for assessment each half term which will then be assessed and a copy of the piece placed in a pupil ‘writing progress folder’ for ease of moderation though school and within the cluster. Extra assessments will need to be made in Y2 and Y6 for end of Key Stage teacher assessment and these grids are already in place and being used by the relevant staff
• It is my intention to measure impact in Reading and Writing in the penultimate week of each half term. This allows teachers to assess the progress made that half term, identify any children that are falling behind (and put the relevant interventions in place) and plan accordingly for the subsequent half-term.
• We will continue to use the PiRa, PuMa and EGPaS assessments to inform our summative assessments at the end of each term.

These measures will be reviewed and adapted accordingly throughout the next academic year.