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Literacy

Helping children to become literate
 

Without the basic literacy foundations laid at an early age, children are likely to struggle in later life to have full access to other areas of learning, to find a job or even to cope with everyday tasks. Literate primary pupils should be able to:

  • read and write with confidence, fluency and understanding 
  • use speaking and listening skills appropriately and confidently
  • monitor their reading and correct their own mistakes
  • understand the sound and spelling system and use this to read and spell accurately
  • have fluent and legible handwriting
  • have an interest in words and their meanings and a growing vocabulary
  • know about, understand and be able to write fiction and poetry
  • understand and be familiar with some of the ways in which narratives are structured through basic literary ideas of setting, character and plot
  • understand, use and be able to write a range of non-fiction texts
  • plan, draft, revise and edit their own writing
  • have a suitable technical vocabulary through which to understand and discuss their reading and writing
  • be interested in books, read with enjoyment and evaluate and justify their preferences
  • develop their powers of imagination, inventiveness and critical awareness through reading and writing

The National Curriculum for English helps your child gain these skills through reading and writing - but also through speaking and listening.

Primary National Strategy

The Primary National Strategy (PNS), which grew out of the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies, is raising educational standards for all primary aged pupils. Under the literacy element of the PNS all pupils receive regular, discrete literacy teaching, providing a balance of word, sentence and text level work. In the 2006 Key Stage 2 tests, 79 per cent of 11 year olds achieved the expected standard for their age, an increase of 14 per cent since 1998.

Literacy teaching under the PNS is based on extensive research and good practice, which shows that the most successful literacy teaching is interactive, allowing children's contributions to be encouraged, expected and extended. It shifts the balance of teaching from individualised work towards more whole class and group teaching, which allows more direct teaching time and means that pupils spend more time learning and working together. It maximises opportunities for:

  • high-quality oral work
  • guided reading and writing
  • structured teaching of phonics, spelling and grammar
  • shared reading and writing

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