Our Vision for Literacy at Timberley Academy

We aim to create a positive reading and writing culture in school, where both are promoted, enjoyed and considered 'a pleasure' for all pupils.

Reading

We aim for all pupils to be able to read easily, fluently and with good understanding.

Through choosing quality texts, from our rich and varied literary heritage, we want pupils to develop a love of reading and a good knowledge of a range of authors, and be able to understand more about the world in which they live, through the knowledge they've gained from the texts.

Writing

We want pupils to acquire a wide vocabulary, a solid understanding of grammar and be able to spell new words by effectively applying the spelling patterns and rules they learn throughout their time at Timberley.

We aim for pupils to write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences.

Spoken Language

We aim for pupils to use discussion in order to learn, elaborating and explaining clearly their understanding and ideas.

We aim for pupils to have good speaking and listening skills, and experience of making formal presentation, debate, drama and discussion.

The Literacy Team

At Timberley, we have a Literacy Team made up of teacher representatives from across school. The Team meets regularly to plan and review annual Literacy and costing plans, discuss new research, review data, carry out monitoring and discuss and initiate new actions. Each representative contributes expertise from their area of school and leads on implementation of new initiatives or approaches in their phase. 

The team is currently made up of:

Mrs Harris-  Head

Mrs Cambridge - Year 1 teacher Reading Lead 

Mrs Morris - Y6 teacher and PSHE Lead (maternity leave)

Miss Lench - Reception teacher 

Mrs Griffiths - Y3 teacher and KS2 Literacy Lead

Mrs Collins - Y2 teacher and KS1 Literacy Lead

At Timberley, we use RWI Phonics and RWI Literacy and Language to deliver the bulk of the English curriculum. Targeted pupils in KS2 also take part in the Fresh Start programme to support them with phonics progression. We use Complete Comprehension to deliver discrete reading comprehension lessons from Year 2 onwards, No Nonsense Spelling to deliver the KS2 spelling curriculum and Letter Join and  Pen Pals to deliver handwriting. Ongoing phonics assessments and PIRA assessments tests are used to monitor pupil progress in reading. Writing is assessed by teachers using a bank of key concepts that have been adapted from The National Curriculum. In-school and external moderation is used to validate teachers' judgements. 

Our English Key Concepts grid has been developed using The National Curriculum alongside the provision of the schemes used in school to make clear to all stakeholders what the intended knowledge and skills pupils are expected to acquire are, at each stage of their journey through school. These Key concept grids match teacher assessment grids, so that pupils are being assessed each year on their progress towards learning key concepts. 

This year, we are working on:

- Promoting Reading for pleasure across school; we are continuing to build up on the success of last year where we created a new reading areas, worked with Book Mark and The National Literacy Trust.  

- Improving reading across school; we work closely with Ruth Broadhead from RWI and are implementing new approaches following our work with the Little Sutton English Hub. We are continue work on an implementation plan for reading comprehension that was implemented inSeptember 2022.

- Improving writing across school; we are working on an implementation for whole school writing. We are currently in the explore phase of this. 

- Improving pupils' opportunities to improve speech and language in EYFS, using Helicopter Stories, Drawing Club and Poetry Basket. Following our work with St Matthews Research school, we will be implementing a structure to our oracy curriculum.  

- Other exciting initiatives such as our Parent and staff book exchanges, Word of the Week to promote vocabulary, our fantastic library which is a real hub of the school, snuggle up suitcases in KS1 and story backpacks across school to promote reading at home . 

- Closing gaps in learning caused by the pandemic, through our involvement with the National Tutoring Programme. Pupils across school will be taking part in online and in-school tuition as well as school-led tutoring; these will be funded by Recovery Premium and the School-Led tutoring Grant. We are partnered with TLC Live! and FFT Lightning Squad. 

Please contact school if you would like any more information on our Literacy Team or how we are working hard to improve standards of English across school.

Reading at Timberley Academy

Here at Timberley Academy, we’re Fred’s Pal! The acronym Fred’s Pal helps us to identify how we support our children to read.

Fidelity – we understand the importance of fidelity to an SSP programme, from learning sounds through to fluency of reading. At Timberley Academy, we follow the Ruth Miskin Read, Write, Inc. Phonics programme.

Reception – We know that the best way to support our children in learning to read is phonics first and phonics fast. So our reception children make a strong start on their reading journey. This includes daily speed sound lessons, word time, spelling and handwriting.

Expertise – We have a team of teachers and teaching assistants who are RWI phonics experts. They receive regular coaching, training and updates to ensure we have a consistent approach to the teaching of phonics and early reading.

Decodable books – We have RWI Book Bag books as home readers. These books are carefully matched to the children’s phonic knowledge, allowing them to succeed in reading at home as well as in school.

Stories – Only the best! At Timberley Academy, we promote a love of reading by indulging the children in a range of good quality books. This not only includes the texts in lessons, but also for story time – with class story time boxes being delivered to classes full of fiction, non-fiction and poetry books by a range of different authors, chosen carefully from our rich and varied literary heritage. It doesn’t stop there! We have a fully accessible library in school for the children to visit with their class and take books away to read at home with their families. We also run a weekly Parent Book Exchange for parents to donate and take away books to read at home (both adult and children's) in order to promote reading in our community.

Progress of the lowest 20% - Our half termly RWI assessments allow us to monitor children who need extra support with their reading. The class reading profiles from Years 1-6 highlight the lowest 20% of readers and identifies the support they receive, whether that be daily 1-1 tutoring, group interventions or support from the National Tutoring Programme.

and

Leaders – The SLT and Literacy team here at Timberley Academy value the importance of reading and ensure every child is supported on their reading journey. With support from our RWI Consultant, we receive regular training and updates to make sure there is a consistent approach to the teaching of reading across school.