Literacy

At Streatham Wells, we believe literacy is the key to open all doors. Literacy skills are fundamental to a child’s progress in school and have an impact on their successes in later life. The interlinked skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing overflow into every aspect of school life and are used in every curriculum subject. We firmly believe that every child can achieve their potential and make progress in literacy, regardless of any barriers to learning that they may have.

We provide a range of high-quality, diverse texts to inspire a love of reading. From classics to graphic novels to non-fiction texts, we use beautiful books as a door to open new worlds.

We aim to ensure that:

Our teaching promotes a life-long enjoyment of reading, writing, storytelling and all aspects of the use of language;

Children’s achievement is raised in all aspects of language;

Streatham Wells values the home language of all children;

Children are set appropriate targets through feedback and work is planned in line with their abilities so that they can make progress as individuals and experience success;

Achievement is assessed and monitored so that we can work towards raising standards;

A broad and balanced curriculum is delivered, based on the National Curriculum, Primary Framework for Literacy and Early Years Foundation Stage and adapted to suit the needs of children at Streatham Wells.

Pupils at Streatham Wells Primary School will leave Year 6:

reading and writing with confidence, fluency and understanding, using a range of independent strategies to take responsibility for their own learning including self-monitoring and correcting their own errors;

with a love of reading and a desire to read for pleasure;

understanding a range of text types, media types and genres;

able to write in a variety of styles and forms appropriate to the situation;

able to articulate themselves verbally in a variety of different situations with varying degrees of formality;

having a suitable technical vocabulary to respectfully articulate their responses in any discussion.

Phonics

We follow the Read Write Inc programme to teach phonics and reading. Read Write Inc starts in Nursery where children learn the Set 1 Speed Sounds. The Read Write Inc learning journey then continues into Reception and Key Stage 1. Children are assessed at the end of each half term, are grouped accordingly and progress through the programme providing suitable challenges for their assessed phonics level.

For more information on the Read Write Inc programme and how to support your child at home, click here.

Phonics Screening Check

In Key Stage 1 children are assessed at the end of Year 1 using a Government Statutory Assessment Tool known as the Phonics Screening Check. This screening check confirms whether the child has learnt phonic decoding to an appropriate standard and will identify sounds needing further consolidation in Year 2. For more information on the Phonics Screening check and for suggestions on how to support your child at home please click here.

We pride ourselves on our wonderful school library space, and classroom libraries too. We have books which represent all people within our school community and our wider community. We have books which both feature characters and are written by people from a range of ethnicities, heritages, neuro and physical diversities, LGBTQ-inclusive families and a wealth of different family make-ups and also different languages. Here are some of the wonderful books from our taught curriculum and in our school reading spaces.