Literacy Intent
At Dereham Church Of England Infant and Nursery Academy, we believe that speaking and listening skills are essential for children to participate fully in school and society beyond. Therefore, it is our aim to ensure all children learn to communicate with the confidence and the accuracy necessary to articulate feelings, opinions and ideas.
We are passionate about developing our children’s love of reading and equipping them with the building blocks they need to become competent, confident and fluent readers. We understand the significance of parents and carers in supporting their children to develop both word reading and comprehension skills, and therefore endeavour to build a home school partnership, which enables parents and carers to have the tools to support their children with reading at home.
Alongside reading and communication skills, writing is an integral part of our curriculum. We aim to provide exciting writing opportunities, through a variety of memorable hands on experiences and high quality texts. Throughout their time at DCINS, children will learn to become enthusiastic, independent writers who see themselves as authors and poets.
Our goal is to provide reading and writing experiences, which allow imaginations to flourish.
Literacy Implementation
The foundations for strong speaking and listening skills are laid in Nursery. During their first year with us, children have many opportunities to interact with adults and other children throughout the day in a language rich environment. Adults use techniques such as commenting, narrating play and recasting in order to support children’s communication skills. As children become confident communicators, further opportunities are given to speak in a variety of contexts such as show and tell, performing and working collaboratively.
Developing a love of reading and making sure that every child learns to read with confidence and fluency is at the heart of our curriculum, therefore we ensure that phonics is taught on a daily basis from Nursery. We use the ‘Super Sounds’ pre phonics programme in Nursery and follow the ‘Essential Letters and Sounds Programme’ from Reception upwards. Every member of staff receives regular ELS training to ensure that every phonics session is of high quality and meets the needs of all of our children.
Children are given opportunities throughout the week to read their decodable phonics book as part of a paired read during phonics lessons and with an adult on a 1:1 basis. Teachers regularly read a variety of fiction, non fiction and poetry in order to develop vocabulary and comprehension skills. Each classroom has an inviting reading corner where children can access a range of books to help embed their love of stories and reading. Children across the school have regular opportunities to engage with a wide range of reading for pleasure events such as library bus sessions, reading cafes, theatre trips and library visits.
We use the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education’s Power of Reading to support the teaching of reading and writing across the school. Children engage with high quality texts, delving deep into the characters and themes through the use of role play and drama techniques. These techniques encourage children’s imaginations to flourish and are an essential part of the writing progress.
Literacy Impact
Children’s progress in literacy is continually reviewed using Salford reading, phonics tracker and regular teacher assessments. Children also complete the phonics screening check in Year 1 and the end of key stage assessments in Year 2. Teachers take part in regular internal and external moderation to ensure progress can be seen across all year groups and that assessments are valid.
The implementation of our literacy curriculum ensures that by the time children leave Dereham Church Infant and Nursery, they are confident and effective communicators, both in speaking and writing. Furthermore, they will possess the literacy skills needed for their next steps in education and will have developed an enjoyment for reading and writing which will continue into adulthood.
Literacy Long Term Plan
Nursery Medium Term Plans
Reception Medium Term Plans
Year 1 Medium Term Plans
Year 2 Medium Term Plans
