Intent
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
Literacy in the Aspire Pathway:
Speaking & Listening:
In the Aspire pathway, the speaking and the listening frameworks are assessed annually. Both 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:
In the Aspire pathway, 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 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.
- Guided reading books that are directly linked to the systematic, synthetic Twinkl phonics framework. These are delivered following the Hawthorns guided reading programme which has been delivered to all staff in Aspire.
- 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.
- Inviting class reading areas with time to read for pleasure.
Phonics:
At Hawthorns the phonics framework is split into 6 levels following the systematic, synthetic Twinkl phonics programme. This framework is the same throughout the pathways and the levels build on prior knowledge and progress in difficulty.
Level 1: Works on the foundation skills needed to develop word reading, blending and segmenting.
Level 2 – 6: Introduces new phonemes through 24 steps which are taught using the Revisit, Teach, Practice and Apply method.
In the Aspire pathway, children working at level 1 phonics will be experiencing stories through Attention Autism, sensory stories, and story boxes.
Children working at levels 2 to 6 will participate in small 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:
In the Aspire pathway, the writing framework is split into 3 key areas which include sub-areas:
1) Composition
- Use of vocabulary.
- Text organisation and planning
1) Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPaG)
- Grammar and punctuation
- Spelling
2) Recording
- Handwriting
- Scribed text/ Typing/ Speech text device
Each area has 7 levels which progress in difficulty.
In the Aspire pathway, the writing is a bespoke ‘cherry picked’ approach influenced by Talk4writing, Colourful Semantics, Box Clever and Attention Autism.
The writing framework has been designed so children have opportunities to work with fiction and non-ficiton texts and focuses around familiar stories.
Literacy in the First Steps pathway:
Literacy in First Steps is taught through an integrated approach. The teaching of Literacy in First Steps involves providing children with opportunities to develop and improve their skills in Speaking and Listening, Fine Motor, Phonics, Reading and Writing.
Within Ash Class it is initially developed through stories, songs, games, and imaginative play. Further to this, children will develop their knowledge, skills and understanding through planned, purposeful play and structured activities and class staff ensure the children learn through a mixture of adult led activities and child-initiated activities both inside and outside of the classroom.
Within Oak and Fir class whilst having access to a variety of Literacy activities in their continuous provision, they also have focussed learning sessions. They have 3 focussed Guided Reading sessions a week, 3 focussed Phonics sessions a week and 3 focused Writing sessions a week. This is in line with the Aspire pathway, ensuring that as children move on from First Steps to Aspire pathway, they are familiar with the routines.
The language rich environments in all 3 classrooms include key vocabulary, visual images, symbols, and resources to stimulate interest. A positive approach to Literacy is apparent around the three classrooms and they all have Writing/Fine Motor and Role Play areas within their continuous provision to encourage independent acquisition of skills.
Literacy in the Connecting with Learning pathway:
In the Connecting with Learning side of the Connections Pathway, literacy progresses through the Readiness to Learn framework and the Reading, Writing and Phonics frameworks used in Aspire.
Starting in the EYFS classes, children are provided with literacy opportunities through Attention Autism, continuous provision, speaking and listening, story boxes, level 1 phonics boxes, and programmes such as Dough Disco and Squiggle. Children are assessed using the Readiness framework areas:
- Imitation
- Listening
- Responding to Feature Function and Class
- Intraverbal Skills
These all build on the pre-requisite Literacy skills needed for phonics, reading and writing.
Following on from the EYFS classes are the bridge classes where children are developing early behaviours for learning. Within these classes children are learning to transition to more formal table work, follow instructions when working at the table and develop shared attention. As children are at different levels of developing these skills, some children work on the Readiness areas above and some have early academic targets in the Readiness areas:
- Phonics
- Reading
- Writing
Teachers will then plan appropriate literacy sessions. Similar to EYFS, for early learners in these classes, Literacy will be taught through Attention Autism, one to one work, independent learning boxes, speaking and listening, dough disco, Squiggle and level 1 phonics boxes.
For children ready to access more formal learning, teachers will plan more specific reading, writing and phonics sessions which will still include the key principles of Attention Autism and are adapted from the reading and writing programmes in Aspire.
In the formal classes, children follow the same reading, phonics and writing frameworks as Aspire and have similar delivery styles with smaller groups.
Throughout the pathway Speaking and listening is assessed using the SCERTS framework which is broken into Social, Language and Conversational Partner stages.
Literacy in the Connecting to the Social World pathway:
In the Connecting to the Social World side of the Connections Pathway children follow the Readiness for Learning framework to embed those early academic skills. The Readiness framework has a designated section for Literacy within this there are 7 areas following a progressive path, the pathway predominantly uses the first 4 areas these include imitation, listening, responding to feature function and class and intraverbal skills. These areas are designed to be easily integrated into everyday activities and embedded into the natural environment through playful interactions for our learners. Throughout class timetables children are exposed to storytelling and nursery rhymes through lessons such as Attention Group, Early Learning, Messy Play, Communication Group and Speaking and Listening sessions all tailored to children’s individual sensory needs and learning levels.
Literacy in the Enrichment pathway:
In the Enrichment Pathway children follow both the Aspire Reading and Writing frameworks alongside the My Communication Framework which builds on the key skills needed to work towards targets in smaller steps. Literacy sessions are 3 times a week in 3 week blocks focusing on a specific story.
Children also follow the whole school Twinkl Phonics framework starting from level 1 and progressing through. Phonics is taught twice a week.
Speaking and Listening is encorporated into all Literacy lessons and the class have a specific speaking and listening session on their timetable. These focus on different areas each half-term, for example instructional language/ questioning.
A lot of the children within the class follow the Chatterbox/ Babble box speech production programme which is delivered by the class team twice a week.
The classroom has a reading area, is a language rich environment and a continuous provision that includes literacy focused activities.
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.
Speaking and Listening
At Hawthorns children will be provided with meaningful and purposeful learning opportunities that will enable them to demonstrate their listening skills and confidently communicate with others. Speaking and listening progress will be seen mainly in the way that our children interact with their learning and others.
Phonics
Through the teaching of systematic synthetic phonics, our aim is for children to develop and improve their reading ability alongside developing fluency and comprehension. Attainment in phonics is measured by ongoing teacher assessments and, where appropriate, the Phonics Screening Test at the end of Year 1. The impact of our phonics curriculum can also be seen in children’s writing.
Reading
By the time children leave Hawthorns, they have been exposed to and engaged with a wide range of reading genres and have developed their skills in accordance with their needs and learning priorities. Through immersive teaching experiences, regular guided reading sessions and individualised learning opportunities, the reading of books will have enhanced and enriched their progress at school.
Writing
At Hawthorns, children will make good progress from their own personal starting points. Strategies used to enhance the children’s progress include key principles from Talk4writing, Colourful Semantics, Box Clever and Attention Autism. The assessment of writing is broken down into three categories: ‘Composition’, ‘Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar’ and ‘Recording’
