NEW NATIONAL CURRICULUM

LITERACY

The Heights Federation

CHANGES IN THE NEW CURRICULUM The New National Curriculum is broken down into the following areas:

•Spoken Language

•Reading (Word Reading and Comprehension)

•Writing (Spelling, handwriting, composition and grammar/punctuation)

SPOKEN LANGUAGE

Spoken language is not defined by year groups but a set of principles which should be embedded into all subjects and for all children in years 1-6. It builds upon the spoken language elements from Reception Year.

There is a greater emphasis upon drama, poetry and performance for a variety of audiences.

READING

Phonics and phonological awareness is still strongly emphasised particularly in the Early Years and Key Stage 1 and where necessary for Key Stage 2 children. Word reading is an important part of the curriculum.

There is still a Year 1 phonics screening.

There is greater emphasis upon the reading of poetry as part of the wide range of texts children should be exposed to.

We as a school still strongly believe that there is a place for children both reading to you as adults and being read to as children.

READING AND PARENTS

■Children and young people who do not achieve expected levels of literacy are likely to be from disadvantaged backgrounds.

■14% of children in lower income homes rarely or never read books for pleasure.

■Only 1 in 5 parents easily find the opportunity to read to their children.

■Parents are the most important reading role models for children and young people. (National Literacy Trust, Reaching Out with Role Models, April 2009)

■10 to 16 year-olds who read for pleasure do better at school. (2013 research by Dr Alice Sullivan and Matt Brown from the Institute of Education)

■Reading for pleasure is more important for children's cognitive development than their parents' level of education. (2013 research by Dr Alice Sullivan and Matt Brown from the Institute of Education)

SPELLING AND PUNCTUATION

There are spelling lists for each year group which are available to take away today. Spelling forms part of the SPAG test for year 6 pupils and will form part of the testing process for Year 2 children from 2015-2016 academic year.

Children should be taught spelling rules and there is also a need for children to write dictated sentences.

WRITING

There is a need for children to know grammatical terms used when reading and writing so that they can talk about their writing and the writing of others.

For example, children will need to know:

•The use of terms such as conjunctions (NOT CONNECTIVES), adverbs, prepositions, fronted adverbials etc.

SATS TESTS

Children in Year 2 and Year 6 will still sit the end of Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 government tests.

This current school year children will sit the old style papers which cover objectives from the previous national curriculum.

In the 2015-2016 academic year (current Y1 and current Y5) children will sit the new style tests. These are very different to the SATS papers we have worked with previously and samples are available for you to look at.