Literacy
Literacy - The Capel Way
At Capel Manor Primary School, we learn about and explore various aspects of Literacy; reading, writing, spelling, vocabulary & oracy. A high-quality literacy education equips pupils to express thoughts and ideas in written form, decode written text and understand its meaning, develop the ability to comprehend spoken language and the ability to communicate effectively. Our literacy curriculum is designed to empower pupils to read, write, speak, and listen effectively, enabling them to understand and communicate with the world around them.
Writing
Our curriculum is designed for pupils to build on their skills and understanding through different writing styles and engaging texts or stimuli. Our writing units allow children to explore a range of texts and develop their imagination and own unique writing style.
The writing units and core texts used by each year group across the school are mapped out in our Writing Curriculum Progression Document. In this document, the learning is organised into termly objectives drawn from the National Curriculum to allow teachers to plan and break down learning based on their class and individual pupils’ needs.
Learning is organised under the following areas:
- Spelling, punctuation and grammar (See also half termly units in the Spelling Progression document.)
- Composition (Planning, writing and editing)
- Transcription (handwriting)
In KS1, there is a greater initial focus on immersion and a hook to engage the children in the writing unit. They have opportunities to explore the text through hands-on activities, group work and vocabulary collection. They then build their final piece of writing throughout the week.
In KS2, our writing units follow a 2-3 week structure. The first week involves immersion and vocabulary building and the second week focuses on writing, editing and improving in order to publish their final piece of writing.
To ensure that teaching meets an agreed expectation for each term and year group, key learning outcomes are identified in our Writing Milestones
.
During lessons, the children are provided with a set of ‘steps to success’ to support their learning and to help them consider ways of improving their writing in order to make continuous progress. This also supports them to ensure that there are opportunities to embed all of the above aspects of writing where appropriate.
Click here to view the Capel Writing Curriculum
Phonics
At Capel Manor we believe that all our children can become fluent readers and writers. We teach early reading and phonics through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised.
We teach phonics for 30 minutes a day. In Reception, we build from 10-minute lessons, with additional daily oral blending games, to full-length lessons. Children in Reception are taught to read and spell words using Phase 2 and 3 GPCs, and words with adjacent consonants (Phase 4) with fluency and accuracy. Alongside this we use the Little Wandle Rhyme time videos and accompanying phonological awareness planning to complement and reinforce our Phase 2 teaching.
Children in Year 1 review Phases 3 and 4 and are taught to read and spell words using Phase 5 GPCs with fluency and accuracy. Any child in Reception and Year 1 who needs additional practice has “Keep-up support.”
In Year 2 we ensure that children have completed the Little Wandle Year 1 progression with gaps addressed through daily phonics lessons until they are ready to progress to whole class reading sessions. Once all Year 1 content has been taught and assessed, we teach the Bridge to spelling before moving to the Spelling units. Children in Year 2 and Key Stage 2 with gaps in their phonic knowledge have daily phonics teaching and follow the Rapid Catch-up programme.
Click here to view the Capel Phonics Handbook
Reading
Our reading curriculum is designed to develop pupil’s vocabulary and language skills, decoding skills and their understanding of different text types. It also helps students develop their independence and confidence when reading aloud or discussing the text as a class.
In EYFS and Year 1, there is a more collaborative approach to reading, where children are encouraged to talk about the text, characters and key events. Alongside this we teach group reading practice sessions using the Collins Big Cat for Little Wandle books. These sessions use books matched to the children’s secure phonic knowledge. The reading practice sessions focus on three key reading skills: decoding, prosody and comprehension.
In Year 2 and across Key Stage 2, a structured whole class reading approach is used to provide children with the skills to complete tasks more independently and develop their comprehension of more complex texts. The children focus on a range of reading skills when exploring a text; summarising, predicting, clarifying, retrieval and inference. These skills help pupils when developing their understanding of vocabulary and texts as a whole.
Click here to view the Capel Reading Curriculum
Spelling
Our spelling curriculum is designed to develop children's ability to recognise, understand, and accurately use spelling patterns, rules, and strategies.
In EYFS and Year 1, spelling is taught as part of the Little Wandle phonics lessons.
In Year 2 spelling is taught using the Little Wandle Bridge to Spelling and Spelling units.
In Key Stage 2 we follow the Collins progression to ensure that the curriculum is progressive and aligns with the objectives of each year group. Each spelling unit allows children to revisit previous spelling rules and patterns before progressing onto the next. The pupils have a spelling test each week to check their understanding and retention of the spelling rules taught in their current unit. Spelling is also assessed termly via NFER tests to help class teachers measure progress and identify areas for development.
Click here to view the Capel Spelling Curriculum
Vocabulary and Oracy
In Literacy, through an age related progression of “Expectations for Talk”, children learn to:
- Listen and respond appropriately to adults and their peers
- Ask relevant questions to extend understanding and knowledge
- Use relevant strategies to build vocabulary related to writing topics
- Articulate and justify answers, arguments and opinions
- Consider and evaluate different viewpoints, and build on others’ contributions
- Actively participate in discussions and interact with listeners
- Select and use appropriate registers for effective communication
- Become confident and clear communicators
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