Intent
At Hawthorns we understand the importance of connecting the teaching of Speaking, Listening, reading, phonics
and writing. Our frameworks have been chosen to support and guide the teaching in the Literacy areas to develop
children’s skills.
Speaking and Listening:
At Hawthorns we know that speaking and listening are the foundations of literacy. We believe that in order for
children to develop their speaking and listening skills, they need to be provided with intrinsically motivating things
to listen to and speak about. We have created the Hawthorns Speaking and Listening frameworks , guided by
PIVATS 5th Edition, to enable us to track pupils progress. We use a range of approaches to support the S&L
development, such as attention autism, Colourful Semantics, ELKLAN, talk 4 writing and many more.
Reading:
At Hawthorns, we believe reading opens up the world of learning, it brings great pleasure and enjoyment and
builds children’s self-esteem and confidence.
There are numerous approaches to teaching reading throughout the school so we have developed a ‘Hawthorns
Reading Framework’, which we believe embodies the essential ingredients to promote accelerated progress in
Reading.
Quality resources and creative approaches ensure learning opportunities are engaging, fun and capture the
imagination.
We encourage all our parents to work in partnership with us to support their children in developing reading skills
because we know that our pupils greatly benefit when home and school work together.
Phonics:
At Hawthorns, we understand that a secure knowledge of phonics is the foundation for reading.
Phonics is taught through the 6 different levels of the Systematic, Synthetic Twinkl Phonics Framework. These
levels gradually progress in difficulty, and it has been proven many times to be the most effective way of children
learning to read and spell.
Phonic activities are set within a broad and rich language curriculum and the transfer of knowledge and skills are
encouraged whenever possible.
Writing:
At Hawthorns, we believe that writing, along with reading, is one of the most important skills that any child can
acquire. Writing and reading are interwoven and the development of one supports the development of the other.
As an important life skill, it builds children’s self-esteem and confidence and supports pupils in other areas of
learning.
Learning to write requires highly skilled teaching, which for Hawthorns pupils, must be explicit, systematic and
carefully scaffolded.
To this end, a bespoke Writing Framework has been developed which allows for creative approaches such as
talk4writing and colourful semantics. Quality resources and creative approaches ensure these learning
opportunities are engaging and relevant.
Implementation
Speaking & Listening
At Hawthorns, the speaking and listening frameworks are split into key areas.
The Listening framework has 6 areas:
• Early Listening
• Listening to others
• Listening to instructions
• Listening and contributing
• Listening to a story/ text
• Listening to questions and discussions.
The Speaking Framework has 6 areas:
• Listening and attention
• Talking to others
• Talking with others
• Structuring Talk
• Awareness of the listener
• Adapting to the listener
The teaching of speaking and listening will be mainly incidental. Speaking and listening opportunities are
endless through the school day; from the dinner hall, playtimes, passing in the corridor – there are
many, many ‘teachable’ moments. Ultimately we want our pupils to be confident in communicating for a
variety of purposes, such as, to gain information, to be social, to get help to express their feelings and to
negotiate. We also want our pupils to be able to listen to others to be able to learn new information,
understand others points of view and to share common interests.
Reading:
At Hawthorns the reading framework is split into 6 areas:
1) Word Knowledge
2) Understanding
3) Inferring
4) Responding to Text
5) Book Knowledge
6) Blank Level Questioning
The first 5 areas are structured to allow children to access the reading framework when working at P4 to
NC4.
Blank Level Questioning has been included in the Hawthorns Reading framework to support
understanding and questioning.
To support children in accessing the curriculum we use a wide range of reading resources including:
- Story boxes which have been created to bring stories to life with high quality resources and props.
These develop imagination and comprehension skills.
- Colour coded guided reading books to share and support phonics skills.
- Telling sensory stories and using Attention Autism principles to promote engagement with stories.
- Fiction and Non-Fiction links with cross-curricular studies
- A welcoming school Library with comfy reading areas, fun characters and puppets.
Phonics:
At Hawthorns the phonics framework is split into 6 levels following the Systematic, Synthetic Twinkl
Phonics programme. These levels build on prior knowledge and progress in difficulty.
Level 1: Works on the foundation skills needed to develop word reading, blending and segmenting.
Taught through one to one, small group and attention autism sessions.
Level 2 – 6: Introduces new phonemes through 24 steps which are taught using the Revisit, Teach,
Practice and Apply method.
Children working at level 1 phonics will be experiencing stories through Attention Autism, sensory
stories, and story boxes.
Children working at levels 2 and 3 will begin to develop reading skills using decodable books in phonics
sessions. Alongside this, they will participate in story boxes and sensory stories to develop
comprehension and imagination skills.
Children working at levels 3 to 6 will participate in group guided reading sessions to develop reading
skills, comprehension and book knowledge.
All levels will use high quality resources that will engage and encourage the children to access books.
Writing:
At Hawthorns the writing framework is split into 3 areas:
1) Compostion
2) Spelling, puncuation and grammar
3) Recording
Each area has 7 levels which progress in difficulty.
The approach to writing takes on key principles from Colourful Semantics and Talk 4 Writing.
Impact
Through thorough and careful assessment processes, we strive to make learning and teaching more
effective so that learners make outstanding progress.
Hawthorns uses an online assessment system called ‘Evidence for Learning’ to support the planning,
recording, and reporting of children’s learning. EFL hosts the Literacy frameworks which have been
created to support the learning of the children within the different school pathways. Learning and
progress are captured and linked to outcomes outlined within the Literacy frameworks as well as any
relevant targets on the child’s current Pupil Learning Profile (PLP). Progress is measured considering
individual starting points and learning needs and a judgement is made accordingly.
As part of a regular moderation process, pupil progress is discussed, challenged, and justified and new
priorities for learning are agreed. Staff are engaged in a collaborative ethos whereby good and effective
practice can be shared. Staff have high expectations for children, and they are aware of their differing
needs and learning priorities at any time in their learning journey.
