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WHO ARE WE?• Collaboration with Plymouth Teaching School

• Roles of SLE & PLE

• A team of Literacy leaders and specialists

Aim:

To reach out to ALL Plymouth schools, to provide training

opportunities for all teachers, to keep up to date with current

and future curriculum changes, tackling challenges together!

WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN THE NEW CURRICULUM FOR YOUR SCHOOL?

P O S I T I V E S :

• Huge opportunities to be creative

• Renewed focus on audience and purpose

• It encourages higher expectations

• It’s not that different!

C H A L L E N G E S :

• Higher expectations for children lower down the Key Stages

• Assessment and levelling changes

• The meta-language – teachers and TA understanding

• Reading for pleasure – home versus school

• Working together across ALL Plymouth schools –

• Targeted and purposeful CPD with all staff

• Open dialogue, using and sharing of quality resources

• Developing & sharing a consistent assessment policy

• Use of ICT – blogging, radio etc

S O L U T I O N S :

NUTS AND BOLTS OF THE NEW CURRICULUM…

Reading• Word-reading

• Comprehension

• Discussion about books

• Attitudes to reading

• Phonics/spelling

Writing• Composition

• Transcription

• Poetry

• Grammar and punctuation

• Spelling

Spoken Language• Drama

• Speaking & listening

• Oral storytelling

HEADLINES• In the new English programmes of study there is:

• Year-by-year specification at Key Stage 1, with Key Stage 2 curriculum organized in two-year blocks.

• Less focus on specific text types and genres.

• More flexibility about what to teach in many areas.

READING• Word reading: the National Curriculum for Key Stage 2 continues

to refer to word reading, both in terms of pupils applying their knowledge to understand the meaning of new words and for children working well below age-related expectations in Years 3 and 4

• Comprehension: less detailed prescription on genres and text types, although pupils should continue to read books with a range of different structures in Years 3 to 6

• Writing: greater emphasis on spelling, grammar and punctuation, including statutory lists of words to be learnt in Lower and Upper Key Stage 2 in Years 3 to 6

• More detail is included on handwriting in Years 3 and 4

READING FOR PLEASURE• There is a focus on reading for pleasure with all

children encouraged to “read widely across both fiction and non-fiction …, to establish an appreciation and love of reading, and to gain knowledge across the curriculum.”18 

• This is important to increase pupils’ vocabulary. Reading for pleasure is also emphasized in the introductory section on language and literacy, which states that schools “should provide library facilities and set ambitious expectations for reading at home”.19

HTTPS://GLOBAL.OUP.COM/EDUCATION/CONTENT/PRIMARY/KEY-ISSUES/READING-PLEASURE/?REGION=UK

Achieving reading for pleasure

SPOKEN LANGUAGE• As with all subjects of the new National Curriculum 2014,

spoken language is embedded and is highlighted in the English curriculum with the inclusion of reciting poetry, debates etc. The introduction to the spoken language curriculum emphasises that all children should have the opportunity to participate and gain knowledge, skills and understanding of drama.

•    There is a single, discrete programme of study for spoken language for Years 1 – 6, which highlights the importance of vocabulary development.

WRITING: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW• The English programme of study includes continued

emphasis on systematic synthetic phonics, including a progression in teaching which will be familiar to schools already using high quality approaches to teaching systematic synthetic phonics.

• At all levels, there is emphasis on spelling, punctuation and grammar, as well as vocabulary development.

• Staff must become familiar with the appendix relevant to each year group

PHONICS• The new National Curriculum covers the two dimensions of

the simple view of reading – word reading and language comprehension.

• Phonics for spelling and the programme of study for word reading and spelling are statutory which means reading must be taught using phonics.

• Although there is more emphasis on teaching reading using systematic synthetic phonics, you will be able to teach the grapheme-phoneme correspondence and the common exception words in the order set out in your quality phonics programme (which ever one you use)

GRAMMAR, PUNCTUATION AND SPELLING

• The new National Curriculum states that pupils should “acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language”.21 This is particularly important for "articulating and communicating ideas"22 when writing.

• In 2013, Year 6 pupils sat the first English, grammar, punctuation and spelling test. The new National Curriculum puts a lot of emphasis on these aspects of English with appendices including lists of words that children must learn to spell, as well as the grammar and punctuation that they must learn in each year. Staff must refer to the National Curriculum appendices which set out statutory requirements for grammar, punctuation and spelling, as well as the terminology that children are expected to learn.

• These are different- lots of content has moved down into Key stage 1 and lower KS2.

KEY STAGE 1 SUMMARY• Word reading: there is an emphasis on re-reading books and reading aloud

in Years 1 and 2

• Comprehension: there is increased focus on engaging with and interpreting texts in Years 1 and 2

• Spoken language: pupils will be expected to recite some poems by heart in Years 1 and 2

• Transcription: some elements are now introduced earlier such as use of prefixes and suffixes now in Years 1 and 2

• Composition: there is an increased focus and more detail is included on grammar and punctuation. Check the appendices for Years 1 and 2

• Writing: there is increased challenge, including developing “stamina”23 for writing through longer compositions in Years 1 and 2

• Writing: pupils will be expected to write from memory simple sentences dictated by the teacher that include words taught so far in Years 1 and 2

KEY STAGE 2 SUMMARY• The programme of study is set out in two

blocks for Lower (Years 3 and 4) and Upper Key Stage 2 (Years 5 and 6).

• Key changes include the emphasis on spelling, punctuation and grammar and there is also no listing of genres for writing.

• Poetry also has a larger element in spoken language.

• Teach grammar through context• Implicit before explicit• Through demonstration then application• Cumulatively – one example of progression can

be found at http://www.talk4writing.co.uk/portfolio-items/year-on-year-progress

HOW DOES THE NEW CURRICULUM WORK WITH THE LIPS PROJECT?

LITERACY IN THE NEW CURRICULUMWhat might it look like?

What aspects of literacy did you see/hear?

STRATEGIC PLANNING

Audit - Where are you now?

Action – What needs to be done?

Dissemination – who, what and when?

WHAT CAN PLYMOUTH LITERACY NETWORK OFFER?

• Initial meeting in January for Literacy coordinators and teaching staff who have an interest or strength in literacy to network and get updated information and resources on the New Curriculum.

• Future INSETS for all staff to share resources and have up to date training.

• Workshops, CPD and advice from leaders in literacy, including advisers from National Literacy trust, Somerset literacy network and the Specialist Leaders in Education (SLE) already supporting literacy in the city.