We want our school community to SHINE as readers, writers and communicators.

Intent 

At Cookham Rise, we teach children to be able to communicate in English through high quality teaching of reading, writing, spoken language, grammar, punctuation, vocabulary, spelling and handwriting.  Our intent is to create a positive reading and writing culture where these are an exciting and enjoyable method of communication for all children.  Through these activities, our children will learn to write clearly, accurately and with coherence.  They will be able to write for a range of audiences and purposes, changing the style and language as appropriate.  Through reading high quality texts, children will acquire a wide vocabulary and a solid foundation of grammar and will have developed strategies to develop their understanding further.  They will be able to apply spelling patterns and rules they have learned at school.   

Implementation 

Reading is the key driver of our curriculum at Cookham Rise.  We use a variety of initiatives to develop children’s love of reading.  We are fortunate to have a public library next door to the school where all children can independently choose a book each week.  We also use our school library membership to organise reading groups and workshops with authors over Zoom and in person where possible.  Children learning phonics take home a Read Write Inc book matched to their specific phonic knowledge each week, alongside a RWI 'bookbag book' which is also phonetically matched.  Our phonics teachers are highly trained and receive regular coaching.  The Read Write Inc programme is tightly structured and provides a clear picture of progression.  This programme encourages the development of fluency through grapheme phoneme correspondence as well as the re-reading of texts. 

When children move off the RWI phonics programme (at some point in Year 2) they move onto Literacy Tree. Their work is then based around a wide range of high quality and significant children's literature chosen to engage, challenge and support children to be critical readers and confident and informed writers.

Children read every day.  Whilst on the phonics programme, the teacher listens in as they read to each other.  Once they have finished the phonics scheme, they are able to make their own choices in reading from books in the classroom which have been selected to reflect the levels of reading of that cohort.  All children have a reading record book where home reading is recorded.  Children in upper key stage 2 will have a class reading book of their own to take home and read for discussion in class. Children are read to every day in order to expose them to rich vocabulary and discussion.   

Children’s writing is celebrated at Cookham Rise.  Each week we have a star writer whose work is published in the school newsletter.  We develop writing confidence from the very beginning encouraging independence and using strategies that are taught systematically.   We take a text-based approach to writing which inspires the writing across different planned genres throughout the school.  We teach skills of spelling and grammar both explicitly and through the texts that are being studied.  We take opportunities to write for different purposes such as for competitions and writing to individuals and organisations relating to our topics.  Staff have had training from the Occupational Therapy team to develop strategies to help children with fine and gross motor skills and support them in developing stamina for writing. 

We give children opportunities for speaking and listening in class by encouraging them to discuss with their peers, rather than a ‘hands up’ approach.  Children also have opportunities to perform in plays and access a range of poetry.

Impact 

Our performance in the annual phonics screening check shows the impact of our high quality phonics teaching.  Over the last three years, our average (mean) pass rate is 94% which is well above the national average.   

In Key Stage 1, our children are exceeding the national average in both reading and writing and working at greater depth.  This pattern continues in Key Stage 2 with children achieving beyond the national average in reading, writing and spelling and grammar.   

Children are regularly assessed in phonics to monitor the impact of teaching and will be regrouped to either accelerate their learning or given further interventions to support them with any areas of difficulty.   

Spelling rules are taught daily from year 2 and regular assessments are used to identify any gaps in knowledge and rules are revisited if necessary.  In upper key stage 2, children are given class sets of books to read at home and work on in school which promotes a shared understanding and opportunity for rich discussions of the text.   

We promote a love of reading from Reception through our selection of high quality texts and the mystery reader initiative where a parent will arrive at school to read a favourite story book and completely surprise their child.   Reading books are often linked to a topic, but may also be read for pure enjoyment.  We select texts that give the children exposure to challenging vocabulary which they wouldn’t be able to read independently.  Reading is assessed in Reception and Year one using phonics assessments and then through NTS assessments and KS2 SATs.

The quality of children's writing is looked at during regular pupil progress meetings and discussed as a staff team.  Not only do we offer children cross-curriculum opportunities for writing, but we have also had success in writing and spelling competitions.  Children develop skills and achieve well at Cookham Rise and are ready to start the next stage of their education.  Their work across the curriculum is of a high quality.   

How do we teach Literacy at Cookham Rise?

Immersion activities

We believe that immersing children in a range of creative activities before reading and writing means that they are fully prepared, and excited, about the journey ahead of them. Through immersing a child within our themes, trips to relevant places and having visitors into school we aim to get the best from children in both their reading and writing.

Clear purpose

We aim to provide children with a clear purpose to all reading, and especially writing tasks. Whether it's an invitation to the headteacher to attend a class assembly, an email to an author or an article for a school newsletter, our children know why the quality of their writing matters: because there will be a real audience for their published work.

Meaningful planning

Where possible, learning in English is linked with our creative curriculum theme. Well in advance of starting a new theme teachers collaborate and share their ideas for planning through a mind mapping process. Meaningful, creative activities are planned for, ensuring that all staff members know exactly what the children will be learning and why. RWI Language and Literacy is also used as a basis for our work.

Focused on strategies

We ensure that specific reading strategies are modelled explicitly to the class; this provides children with a holistic bank of skills to draw upon. This could include scanning a text, making an inference, predicting or creating a mental image. Our teachers use 'think aloud' statements to model to the children how these skills are used, and how they can help them become better readers. These strategies are then shared as a class, and then assessed in follow up guided reading activities.

Inspirational learning environment

Not only do we aim to display the children's work creatively, but there is a range of learning prompts to inspire and support all pupils. We want to encourage our children to discover new texts, genres and authors, and all of our children are members of Cookham library next door to school.

Drama to engage and inspire

The use of drama is such a powerful tool and staff use a range of techniques to promote the exploration of characters, situations and historical events. This process expands the pupils' imaginations, and provides them with the ideas they need to give their writing that extra spark and flair.

Rigorous teaching of spelling and phonics

In the infants, RWI phonics is streamed, so all children can benefit from tailored teaching, making maximum progress as a result. All phonics and spelling activities are fun and multi-sensory the aim being to meet all learning styles in the class. In the juniors, we try to make homework spelling lists as personalised to the child as possible to ensure that the spelling patterns stick in a meaningful way.

Grammar concepts taught creatively

Children begin to understand grammar concepts, and start to apply them in their own writing, when they start to read with a writer's mind. Punctuation rules and techniques are drawn from shared texts; texts which the children have already been immersed in and have a good understanding of. Exploring these, and embedding them creatively is how the learning takes place.

Peer and self assessment

With a clear marking key, success criteria and purpose in mind, children set about assessing either their own, or a partner's piece of writing. Modelled through the teacher's own formative marking, pupils know what the expectations are. They search for successful examples of the learning intention, articulating their responses to the work, checking the writing matches any targets and giving constructive feedback. Seeing the children learn in this way is hugely positive.