Author: Y. McBlain

Improving Spelling and Handwriting at Antonine Primary School

Clare Casey, depute head teacher at Antonine PS and her class teacher colleagues Lucy Dowds and Alison Todd have been trialling the Wraparound Spelling approach with their primary 7 and primary 4 classes this year. When researching approaches to the teaching of spelling, they were introduced to Wraparound Spelling by Sharon Earacker from Kinnaird PS. They felt that this approach complemented their use of other literacy initiatives such as Word Aware and Colourful Semantics.

Wraparound Spelling was developed by Highland Council literacy support team and is:

“a principled approach to the teaching of spelling based on the phonic code, the meaning of words, and the application of words. The approach makes the connections between decoding (for reading) and encoding (for spelling). The Wraparound Spelling approach to the teaching of spelling can be used universally to support the learning and teaching of spelling for all children, and as a targeted approach.

Click here to learn more.

This spelling improvement focus was instigated by both whole staff self-evaluation and evidence from children’s work. Staff observed that children were not de-coding words correctly or transferring their spelling skills and strategies within literacy work or their wider learning.  Through moderation of the planning of spelling and handwriting, the spelling improvement group noted significant variations across the school.  Staff wanted to feel more confident in planning for handwriting and spelling and to improve their knowledge of strategies and approaches which would support their children’s progress.

Alison and Lucy trialled their interpretation of the programme as a universal spelling approach with their primary 4 and 7 classes. They were thrilled to observe very significant impact with some children in both classes progressing by 1 to 1.5 years when assessed using the Single Word Spelling test. Alison also observed her children talking more frequently about their use of the spelling strategies taught. In addition, Antonine’s House Captains worked alongside the Improvement group to redevelop Antonine’s Spelling Sheriffs. This is a whole school initiative which promotes learners self-checking skills and celebrates success in spelling.

To enable you to explore their approach to planning and assessing spelling as a result of this work, Clare and colleagues have shared documentation here within our Literacy in Falkirk team. (Please contact Yvonne McBlain to join this team) However, here is an extract of Alison’s adaptation of planning using the Wraparound spelling approach.

Termly plan: Each term pupils should be taught a new spelling strategy which will be practised weekly as a whole class.

  1. E.g. Term 1: Mnemonics
  2. Term 2: Rhyming words (looking for similarities in spelling of rhyming words)
  3. Term 3: Stretch with friends (Growing words by adding prefix or suffix e.g. ing, ed, etc.)
  4. Term 4: Vowels and Syllables (How are they related?) Structure of a sentence using Colourful Semantics (create own dictation sentence)

Weekly Plan:

Monday – Practice Whole Class Spelling Strategy & Teach new spelling words to each group:

  • Say the words
  • Split into the sounds (Elkonin boxes or diacritical marking)
  • Look for diagraphs
  • Create sentence of the week (or introduce teacher made sentence)
  • Pupils complete independent spelling task while other groups are being taught e.g. pyramid writing, rainbow writing, etc.

Tuesday – Independent task:

  • Spell words into Elkonin boxes or diacritical marking
  • Practice Dictated sentence
  • Find rhyming words

Wednesday – Grammar:

  • Can you spot the noun, verbs, and adjectives?
  • Play Spelling game- 60 second challenge, tricky word square, etc.
  • Practice Dictated Sentence

Thursday – Independent task:

  • Write words 3 times (perhaps using ipads- notes, stikbot animation, etc.)
  • Practise dictated sentence

Friday – Spelling and dictated sentence test

  • Self-assess – Full stop, capital letter and spelling accuracy
  • Play spelling games- eye spy, boggle, etc.

Clare and all teaching colleagues in Antonine PS will now build on the success of this work by introducing the approach for the teaching of spelling from primary 3 upwards. A draft programme has been developed by the Improvement Group and will be introduced to the whole school through staff CPD next session.  This will then be piloted and evaluated at the end of next session.  Primary 1 and 2 teachers will continue to use Jolly Phonics and Jolly Grammar to lay the foundations for this work.

The same Improvement Group also developed Antonine’s Handwriting Policy this session. This is a document which details:

  1. the rationale behind teaching handwriting
  2. preparation for handwriting
  3. a planner detailing skills progression
  4. the focus of assessment

This policy has been shared a. cross the school and will be implemented by all next session. Teachers across the school are also supported by their “What Literacy Looks Like at Antonine PS” document. Alongside effective use of the school staff share area, this provides valuable guidance for all staff regarding their teaching of literacy

As a result of all of these improvement actions, staff confidence has increased for all aspects of literacy. Teachers are 38% more confident in their teaching of handwriting, and 24% more confident in their teaching of spelling. Please read this post in the Literacy in Falkirk team to view the “What Literacy Looks Like at Antonine PS” document.

 

Developing Writing at Larbert Village PS

As part of her Masters in Early Years Pedagogy, Frances McMahon, class teacher, led recent work to develop teaching of writing in Larbert Village PS (LVPS). She and her colleagues in school defined the following aims for this work:

  • to create a shared understanding and ethos of writing across the school
  • to share good practice/engage in professional dialogue
  • to discuss plans for moderation of writing

Frances initially facilitated a collegiate meeting with colleagues to share key information about children’s development of writing. This included: why writing matters, the cognitive load required as children learn transcription and compositional skills, teachers’ responses to children’s written work, and the purposes of writing. Falkirk practitioners can view her presentation in more detail in our Literacy in Falkirk Team here.

Larbert Village PS teachers then explored different approaches to writing which included:

  1. Shared writing: helps to highlight what goes on in a writer’s head, whilst being a partner in the process
  2. Modelling writing: strategic intervention, teacher or peer modelling the process or specifics e.g. sentence structure and punctuation
  3. Guided writing: conferencing 1:1 or small group. Talking to the child about their writing as a reader not an assessor. Scaffolding them to think about the purpose/ audience help them get out what they are trying to say
  4. Building in opportunities for paired and group readings of writing for children to check they have said what they wanted to say
  5. Low stakes writing (less pressure) building to high stakes (more formal pieces of writing with success criteria)

Staff spent time during this session exploring low stakes writing and sharing current writing practice. They then agreed to use the PM Writing framework to structure their teaching of information report writing during a 5 week period so that they could then moderate the resulting pupil evidence together.

On the May in-service day teachers met with stage partners to moderate this evidence and valued seeing the progression of writing for this purpose from primary 1 – 7. The examples shared here are from primary 1, 4 and 7.  Staff used the core and information report writing targets from PM during this moderation process. When reviewing this whole writing initiative, teachers raised issues about the variation in teaching practices used, how each learning experience had been planned and the degree of scaffolding provided for pupils. They recognised that all of these factors affected the validity of their assessment and moderation of children’s evidence of writing.

As a result, next session, they will take quality time to plan their writing lessons and will moderate their planning, teaching and assessment together. Their moderation will focus on a range of pupil evidence and purposes for writing (writing genres). Throughout this work, they will apply their knowledge of the demands of writing development for children. They will build in small changes to their writing teaching practice too.

 

 

Frances and colleagues teaching primary 1 and 2 children in Larbert Village PS have adopted specific pedagogical approaches to support early development of writing.  They build on the use of Helicopter Stories in the nursery by continuing to capture children’s story-making through similar strategies.  Children sit around a delineated space and volunteer to share their improvised narrative tales. They direct fellow pupils in role as their characters to act these out while the teacher scribes the tale. In this way, children build their capacity to create characters, setting, storylines, beginnings, middles and conclusions. Their communication, vocabulary, speech and sequencing skills are all developed in a fun and non-threatening way. These are known as “Stage Stories” in LVPS and each classroom displays these tales to celebrate and share this playful, adult and child-initiated learning.

 

Foundations of Writing is also employed by teachers as a developmentally appropriate adult-directed way to scaffold children’s development of the physical skills and cognitive capacity to write. Teachers using this drawing-based programme initially encourage children to make representative line drawings which they then scribe in writing for each child. These drawings depict not only the way things look to the children, but also less tangible information such as the movement of things being shown.

The teacher gradually initiates or directs children to increasingly detailed drawings/depictions of events and stories. As they draw increasingly complex and detailed lines, shapes, and patterns, children develop the fine motor skills and muscle stamina to make the transition to letter formation. When “telling” their picture/story to the teacher/adult who is scribing for them they understand the symbolic and representative nature of mark-making and begin to connect phonemes and graphemes in a gradual and natural way.

 

Frances and colleagues observe each child’s progress carefully to identify when their letter-formation and blending becomes reliable enough for them to write independently.

To read another post about Foundations of Writing click here.

 

 

 

Developing Reading Fluency at Bonnybridge PS

Mark Finlay, class teacher at Bonnybridge PS has been studying children’s reading fluency within his Masters in Professional Educational Leadership enquiry. Using a critical collaborative professional enquiry approach (CCPE), Mark and colleagues designed an 8 week reading intervention which took place in all first and second level classes.

This work was the culmination of careful research into what reading fluency was, and how to ensure an equitable improvement in reading fluency for all children in each class. Mark and his collaborative enquiry group of teacher colleagues were passionate about breaking down reading barriers for all children involved.

Mark presented his research and findings  via an online professional learning session during our Falkirk Learning to Achieve Festival. The selection of slides shared here provide a summary of his CCPE enquiry project and its impact.

 

The intervention or test of change which they implemented included:

  1. Initial teaching of the elements of reading fluency (see visual above)
  2. 10 minute reading fluency task each morning
  3. Use of the same passage for all children in each class (different passages for each class)
  4. Texts were selected to challenge the majority of the children in each class
  5. Texts were linked to current learning  such as the class IDL/topic or discrete literacy learning (e.g. spelling words in context)
  6. These included fiction and non-fiction texts
  7. Monday – teacher modelling of reading of this text
  8. Tuesday to Thursday children’s independent reading/practise of reading texts
  9. Friday “Reader’s Theatre” to share reading.
  10. Data-gathering methods: Participant observation, teacher journaling and meetings, focus group discussion.

 

Despite the short timescale of this reading fluency intervention in Bonnybridge PS, Mark and his colleagues have observed the following outcomes so far for children involved:

  • They have equal opportunities to attain and achieve to the best of their ability
  • They are increasingly aware and in control of their own reading progress
  • They are building their knowledge and vocabulary
  • Their ability to decode, process and understand words when reading is improved
  • Their reading comprehension is better

Mark and his colleagues have used their research into fluency to adapt their teaching of reading effectively in practice. They used agency to build a learning environment which is even more focused on social justice and equity. They feel that their CCPE has had a positive impact on the literacy outcomes of most of the children involved.

They will continue to develop their teaching of reading fluency as a key strand of learning within literacy.

 

Rainbow Readers at Denny Primary School

Teachers at Denny PS have observed significant impact on pupil reading skills resulting from their use of the Rainbow Readers programme. They have been using this programme as a specific reading intervention from primary 5 upwards for around 4 years now. Teachers using it have observed the following impact on pupil progress and attainment:

  1. Children can read and recognise more high frequency words.
  2. Reading fluency and understanding is improved – the reading ages of a few second level children increased by 1-3 years between August 2023 and May 2024.
  3. Children enjoy using the range of high interest texts – 2 second level children who previously avoided reading at all costs are now choosing to read books from their library.
  4. Children using the programme are now more confident readers.
  5. Children’s ability to read with appropriate pace and tone is improved by mirroring the listened text.

The paragraph at the end of this post shares key information from the official Rainbow Readers website, but Kerry Brown, primary 5 class teacher shared the following information about how some teachers in Denny PS are making use of the programme :

  • It has texts (different coloured book spines) matched to 5 levels and the texts are read aloud as the child taps and moves a digital pen device over the words.
  • These include fiction and non-fiction texts which are high interest but require lower  reading ability.
  • There is an initial assessment to enable selection of the correct reading level or text colour suitable for each child.
  • Pupils can choose from the selection of texts in their level or colour and there is a wide selection of these.
  • Children use the pen to read each text independently. They read the text multiple times and can then work on the related comprehension and sequencing tasks.
  • These tasks include literal, inferential and evaluative questions.
  • The school purchased the New Heights text collection of Rainbow Readers and this is ensuring that they never run out of new texts for children working in each level to choose from.

Kerry builds her use of the programme into her differentiated planning of reading in class for her children. She combines their reading of the texts with flash card tasks, coloured overlays, handwriting tasks to develop fine motor skills, Nessy and other common word practise tasks. She feels that repeated listening to the text is key to developing children’s progress – particularly when this is supported at home also. Kerry collates all of the children’s reading work in their folder so that they can see their progress. She integrates their use of Rainbow Reading with whole class reading comprehension tasks depending on the amount of support available for her children. She feels it is a manageable reading intervention where group and individual working is possible.

Kerry also likes that the methods involve a break from screen-based learning. She offered a few points to note:

  • if the children accidentally tap the pen twice instead of once during their reading, the reading will start again from the beginning.
  • the programme requires children to be able to follow the text while listening.
  • the required initial assessment is time-consuming at the start but absolutely essential.

Teachers’ and children’s use of the Rainbow Reader New Heights programme is working well as a reading intervention for second level children in Denny PS. The children using the programme are experiencing success in reading aloud more fluently with appropriate pace and tone. They are able to read an increasing range of texts and are choosing to read more as well as being more confident readers.

Information from Rainbow Readers website:

The Rainbow Reading Programme is designed to present students with a variety of topics, authors, styles and illustrations to make reading interesting while skills are improved. Each story or article has been carefully selected because of its educational value and attraction to a wide range of students with varying needs and interests.

Books are levelled, colour-coded, and are accompanied by  specially recorded audio available on a magical reading pen, CDs or as MP3 files to provide support and a good model for readers. A comprehensive Teacher’s Manual and Training video ensure that this simple, yet effective programme (which incorporates repeated readings) can be easily implemented (often by Teachers Aides).

Assessment sheets feature the titles of the books presented for teachers to take Running Records to monitor progress. Cloze (Text Completion), Text Sequencing, Word Search, Writing and Dice Game sheets provide meaningful text-related activities.

You can find out more about this programme and the research it is based on here.

Literacy and Digital Tools Professional Learning Resources Now Available

Falkirk Literacy Team colleagues and Kerry Abercrombie, DigiLearn Falkirk Support Officer have been co-delivering professional learning about digital tools which support learners’ literacy skills since 2020. We responded to teachers’ requests for guidance on which digital tools might help remove literacy and/or curriculum barriers for their pupils. The training sessions shared digital tools which we felt could be vital to the learning of some children and young people but also valuable to all (helping to close gaps and improve equity). These training sessions have been very well attended and  evaluated by teachers, early years officers and senior leaders across our Forth Valley & West Lothian Regional Improvement Collaborative (FVWLRIC).

We are delighted to share Kerry’s one-stop-shop link (click on the picture above) and QR code below which leads to the support pages where she has collated the materials from each session . The landing page enables you to learn about digital tools for reading, writing, creating, presenting or for learners with English as an Additional Language.

Each page includes:

  • The Powerpoint slides from the session
  • A recording of the session
  • A description of the digital tools and how they support learners’ literacy
  • Demonstration videos
  • Ideas and suggestions for ways in which the tools can support literacy learning

 

 

Interdisciplinary Literacy at St Margaret’s Primary School

Megan Melrose, principal teacher at St Margaret’s PS, has worked closely with staff and pupils to develop and create a literacy progression planner that shows links between writing projects and high-quality texts from Pie Corbett’s reading spine.

Planning in this way has enabled the school to streamline their curriculum, ensure learning is delivered through the four contexts, and maintain a focus on the four capacities.

Their literacy planner ensures a clear progression of skills and wide coverage of E’s an O’s throughout the school and helps staff make links with other literacy organisers.

The school are continuing to build on the successful implementation of their literacy planner by creating STEM planners that link with the high-quality books being read and Talk for Writing projects. Although planners have been created to give guidance to staff and ensure progression and consistency across the school, pupils are involved in planning and staff are encouraged to adapt plans to suit the needs and interests of their class.

Following the initial implementation of the Talk for Writing programme in 2022-23 there was, on average a 3.6% increase in writing attainment across the school. Feedback from staff, pupils and parents has been positive with teachers reporting an increased enjoyment and engagement form pupils.

 

Our annual Writing Week – Writing for Pleasure at Bonnybridge Primary School

Writing Week has been an annual event at Bonnybridge for the last four years. It has grown from an idea to encourage children to enjoy writing to a highly anticipated time of year which many of our children look forward to.

Raising attainment in writing was a school improvement priority, so as well as focusing on how we teach writing throughout the year, we wanted to raise the status of writing as something, like reading, which could be done for pleasure. The guiding principles of Writing Week are that pupils have choice over their genre and content, and that they are equipped with the necessary skills to start to see themselves as a novice author who has responsibility for taking their piece of writing through the writer’s process, from an idea, through drafts, editing and revision, to a final published piece.

Writing Week looks different across the school as we have developed the initial idea to suit the age and stage of the children. In P1 and 2, the classes take a storybook approach which fits naturally into our play pedagogy. The children are given opportunities to take part in tasks related to a variety of books which encourage their oral, pictorial and written story-telling skills.

From P3 – P7, the children work to a greater or lesser extent on taking their piece of writing through the writer’s process. Each day of the week is allocated to Ideas and Planning, first draft, editing and revision, final drafts and publication. Idea generation, planning and the first draft are completed using a quick write strategy. We use this method in order to remove any potential transcriptional barriers. The pupils are encouraged to let their ideas flow and if they are unsure of a spelling or choice of vocabulary they ‘circle it out’, meaning that they draw a circle around the word or phrase knowing that they will have the opportunity later in the week to revise and edit their work.

As the week progresses, the writing becomes more deliberate and slows in pace with a focus on accuracy. We have found that reinforcing the concept of a first draft for all age groups has stimulated a shift in attitude towards writing and has helped to remove some of the writing anxiety or writer’s block that some children have experienced in the past.

As the years have progressed, the children have become more and more excited and engaged in writing week and this has had an increasingly positive impact on the attainment in writing throughout the year. The children respond well to having more ownership and choice over their writing and the teachers have enjoyed the opportunity to develop Writing Week within their classrooms using the guiding principles.

This year, many of the teachers identified a need to enhance our publication process and have been developing digital publication using sites such as Canva. Please click to see an example from one of our P2 classes or use the QR code below.

 

 

 

 

Supporting Attainment in Literacy at Stenhousemuir PS – Our use of Read Write Inc

Catharine Gillespie is the raising attainment teacher in Stenhousemuir PS and, with the support of her principal teacher Dawn Easton, she is leading the use of Read Write Inc Phonics (RWI) from primary 1- 4  as a key support for progressing pupils’ reading, writing and spelling. The Read Write Inc Phonics programme is produced by Oxford University Press and Catharine was trained as a reading leader via the Ruth Miskin training programme. All teachers using the programme in Stenhousemuir PS have also been trained and Catharine provides ongoing professional learning and support for them. This training comprises the first three steps of a seven-step RWI programme which also includes:

 

  1. Rigorous assessment, tracking and monitoring
  2. Grouping children for maximum progress based on the above assessment
  3. Making consistent use of teaching strategies and pedagogy which encourages children’s best learning behaviours
  4. Supporting parents and carers so that they can contribute to their child’s progress

What impact on literacy learning is the use of this programme having?

The current primary 5 children at Stenhousemuir have been developing their literacy skills through this programme since primary 1 and there has been significant improvement in their attainment as a result. Most children across the school are on track with their learning with only a small number needing additional interventions to support their learning differences. Catharine notes that more children are achieving more quickly and measures this impact by comparing the attainment of current primary 2 children with those of previous primary 2 classes prior to using the programme. She attributes this impact to:

  1. Close Assessment of children’s progress:

Catharine assesses all children at 6-8 week intervals to determine where they are in their learning. Using the assessment resources within the programme, she identifies the consolidation opportunities and new learning needed then adjusts the groups which the children learn within to provide the correct degree of challenge for them.

2. Grouping of children:

Primary one children experience the programme within the adult-directed literacy element of their learning day. Fred the frog is introduced to children (the character used to engage children) and then used as a focus for structured teaching strategies across the programme. From January the children are grouped across both primary 1 classes and learn their initial sounds visually through the “Fred Talk and Fred Fingers” procedures, rhymes and visual clues. These procedures are taught in primary 1 and are then used consistently by all teachers working with groups across the school. From primary 2 upwards, Catharine groups the children using their assessment information within mixed class groups. She allocates each group to a teacher and a learning space within the school. The Read Write Inc sessions take place during an hour between play time and lunch time Monday to Thursday of each week. Catherine ensures that no child works in a classroom space which is below their actual primary stage.

3. Pedagogy and teaching strategies used:

The initial training guides teachers’ use of interactive, consistent routines for each part of the daily RWI sessions. Catharine and colleagues use these effectively to ensure that ways of working remain familiar and constant so that children can focus on the new learning. Each literacy session includes the Fred talk exploration of the new sound and teachers make this as multi-sensory and accessible as they can through their dialogue and interaction with their group of children. The Fred Fingers strategy involves children pinching their fingers in time with each of the sounds they hear in each word they see and learn. The teachers use flash cards with words which contain each new sound and a selection of review sounds, in a familiar routine with their whole group.

The RWI 1 hour sessions are focussed, with the actual activities  and ways of working changing every 15 minutes or so to support children’s focus and engagement. There is:

  • Always a review of the learning from the previous day’s work,
  • Introduction of the new sound and flash cards as above
  • Review of previously taught sounds
  • Writing of the letters, sounds and words learned
  • 3 readings of the text identified for the group (more detail below)
  • A quiz/differentiated comprehension questions
  • Linked writing opportunities at appropriate levels
  • Proofread and editing tasks
  • Grammar and vocabulary challenges
  • Longer writing tasks which enable children to apply their writing skills more creatively

The children are prepared for reading by learning the decodable and tricky words they will encounter in the story. They have a lively and engaging story introduction which builds enthusiasm for reading the text and puts the story into a context. Then they do paired reading – each child reading it again in turn. When listening to each other, the children use a lollipop stick as a pointer to guide their partner’s reading. After the first read, they have the text read by the teacher to model confident, fluent and expressive reading. Read two develops fluency and read three focusses on comprehension of the text and voice choice to match

The whole philosophy is that children are given every skill they need to be successful in their reading before they begin. As the children progress in their reading, the levels of challenge in vocabulary increase, as does the length of the text.

All of these activities support children’s ability to:

  • de-code the text
  • develop their reading fluency
  • link the phonemes with their corresponding graphemes
  • form the graphemes and
  • use the graphemes correctly when spelling.

The texts also have comprehension questions which increase in quantity and difficulty as children move through the levels of the programme.

The Ruth Miskin training programme includes the specification of pedagogical/classroom management techniques which support children’s learning behaviours and attitudes. These promote a calm, ordered, focused learning environment and familiar routines and ways of working. Teachers at Stenhousemuir PS use these actions rather than their voices to manage the different procedures involved in each literacy lesson. For example, children learn that when the teacher raises their hand this means it’s time to stop what they are doing and listen for instruction. When moving from one activity or group to another, teachers use a 1, 2, 3 finger signal to manage children’s standing, moving and sitting. These techniques have been so successful that they have become adopted throughout the teaching day for all classes.

What do the children think of this literacy learning?

When asked for their opinions of their teachers’ use of this programme children in two learning groups said:

“It’s not hard or easy” gave thumbs up sign with smile “it’s medium.”

“It’s helping me learn.”

“I like the books – they are nice and good. I feel like I am learning all of the words.”

“The lolly stick helps me see all of the words.”

“ I love Read Write Inc because it helps me to read fast.” – P2

“You have to work hard to learn all of the sounds” – P1

“I read my home reading book to my mum and she is proud of me!” – P3

The teachers feel that as the programme moves up through its levels, it supports specific literacy skills and understanding such as children’s knowledge of alternative spellings for similar sounds and their capacity to proof read and edit their writing. Catharine feels that their use of the programme offers their children small, measured steps to success leading to independent working and the ability to apply literacy skills purposefully across the curriculum.

How are teachers adapting and using this programme for their children?

When reviewing their use of RWI, teachers at Stenhousemuir agreed on adaptations to their use of the programme. This included:

  • Adapting the assessments provided to be more focussed
  • Adding in a Fred Star of the Day award to the child who’d engaged, progressed or contributed well to the daily RWI hour
  • Changing the classroom  literacy displays weekly to reflect the learning focus
  • Enabling children to take Fred home for the weekend (a child in each group does this and provides a simple diary insert for Fred’s adventure book).

On Fridays children’s literacy hour happens with their own class in their own room. Teachers use elements of PM Writing to teach varied and creative writing lessons  which enable children to apply the learning they’ve acquired over the previous week.

Ongoing Development and Next Steps

To complement their use of the RWI programme, teachers are also supporting primary 6 and 7 children to catch up on any gaps in their learning by using the RWI Fresh Start programme. Children work in small groups to develop and consolidate their literacy skills, using texts which have a more age appropriate interest level.

Upon seeing the impact of Read Write Inc Phonics in the lower school, the school invested in the Read Write Inc Literacy and Language programme for Primary 4-7 children. This forms part of a language rich curriculum which develops children’s reading and understanding in different genres and builds upon the work done in the phonics programme.

Engaging Parents

It was decided that maximum impact on learning could be gained through the purchase and use of  RWI text collections of home readers and speed sound booklets. In conjunction with information night opportunities for parents and carers, these booklets enable parents and carers to support their child’s reading homework tasks. The home readers are matched with the taught content of the RWI texts used in school to ensure that children will experience success while reading. Similarly, the speed sound books enable parents and carers to engage in fun consolidation of their child’s knowledge of their taught sounds at home.

Parents and carers have been very positive about these developments, but Catharine and colleagues at Stenhousemuir PS now want to build on this initial parental involvement in their children’s literacy. They would love to attract or recruit more parental helpers who can work with children in their learning groups.

In summary, staff use of the Read, Write Inc Phonics programme at Stenhousemuir PS is engaging learners, improving reading attainment and enabling children to progress their literacy skills at an appropriate pace. Catharine would be delighted to speak with colleagues wanting to know more, and an information/sharing opportunity will be scheduled via Falkirk CPD Manager before Easter 2024.

Supporting Pupils’ Literacy Progress at Hallglen PS

Over the past 2 school years, staff at Hallglen PS have developed how they support children with their literacy progress. They have identified a selection of programmes and processes which enable them to tailor interventions to children’s individual needs. Diane Ramage, principal teacher, and Samantha Nash, support for learning teacher have also worked with staff colleagues and children to establish new ways of working. This includes the creation of a new support for learning space and the adoption of a range of literacy materials and activities which their support for learning assistant can use with children.

Which Interventions are being used?

The programmes and interventions being used will be familiar to colleagues, and include:

  • Read, Write Inc Phonics (for p 2-5)
  • Read Write Inc Fresh Start (for P 6 & 7)
  • Reading Recovery Wave 3
  • Nessy
  • Story Club
  • Use of tracking and monitoring data to inform specific intervention plans for children
  • Regular dialogue between class teachers, support for learning teacher, support for learning assistant and school leaders
  • Timetabled blocks of literacy support – 6-8 weeks
  • Liaison with Jude Davies, Support Teacher Specific Learning differences
  • Use of the Falkirk Literacy Pathway

How are these being employed?

Sam began to use Read Write Inc Fresh Start last session to help identified groups of children in primary 5, 6 and 7 to raise their reading attainment and build their confidence in reading. Initially this involved 21 pupils but the group gradually dwindled as more and more children “caught up” with their peers and no longer needed specific support. This programme was so successful that less than a third of this original group of children now require support with their reading.

In response to their observation of this impact on the children involved, Diane and Sam planned how to continue to use the Fresh Start programme with children in primary 6 and 7. In order to intervene earlier, Sam also trialled the Read Write Inc Phonics programme to support children in primary 2 – 5.

Both Read Write Inc programmes are helping children to learn the sounds which they need to read successfully. The children benefit from the use of the programme’s flash cards. These support explicit teaching of the links between the visual form of the letter/sound, its memorable and explanatory rhyme and the repetition and consolidation of the sound itself. The pedagogy employed by Sam and colleagues scaffolds the children’s ability to recall their sounds swiftly as they read – gradually enabling them to both de-code and increase their fluency and confidence.

Children progress through the Fresh Start programme at an appropriate pace and the intense, structured approach is re-engaging children with learning to read and reading to learn. Impact on reading for enjoyment is becoming visible also. This is evidenced by children’s voluntary participation in the Story Club initiative which Sam has started to run at lunchtime once a week. This initiative is an intervention designed to support issues with reading skills at the primary 2 stage.

Children choose to opt into Story Club and each session involves her in reading a story to the children then offering an related activity (currently adult initiated). Twenty eight children came to the first session and numbers remain high at this early stage of this initiative. Sam noted the attendance of one child in particular who, following his use of the Phonics programme, is beginning to master reading. This child previously hated and avoided reading so his choosing to attend Story Club evidences a huge change in his attitude to this essential skill.

Diane, Sam and colleagues regularly analyse their tracking data and other intelligence relating to their learners’ reading and literacy progress. They have instigated a 6 week assessment cycle which informs timetable and menu of support changes every 6 – 8 weeks.  This regular review of where children are enables more accurate selection of interventions for children and more intense, structured support.  In addition school processes enable class teachers to liaise with Sam at any point to explore how best to support their pupils.

Staff at Hallglen PS are also using the Nessy online platform and resources in a number of ways. Primary 6 and 7 pupils at Hallglen access Nessy online learning routinely using their digital devices. Sam noted that this independent, on demand access was not possible for primary 4 and 5 children because they don’t yet have individual devices. She set up 4 iPad word spaces within the Support for Learning classroom and primary 4 and 5 pupils now come regularly to use these independently to support their reading and spelling skill development. Teachers are also making use of individual children’s Nessy spelling targets to support more accurate differentiation of spelling tasks. Staff plan to explore other parts of the Nessy platform to consider further applications which may be valuable for their children.

As part of her To Lead or Not to Lead professional learning, Sam is working with primary 2 teacher colleagues to gather data about the comparative impact of the Read Write Inc Phonics and North Lanarkshire Active Literacy programmes on children’s reading. The outcomes of these studies will inform how these literacy interventions are used to support children’s progress in future.

Review and Next Steps

Diane, Sam and colleagues feel that their support for learning processes and intervention “package” has been transformative for their school and children. They have a “menu” of support which is responsive, pacey and is raising children’s confidence and ability to read. By making use of data, intelligence, professional dialogue, assessment and timetabling in combination with effective pedagogy and programmes, they are raising their children’s attainment in, and enjoyment of reading. They plan to consolidate this focus on reading while integrating development of spelling and writing to extend and enrich their menu of literacy support for their children. Diane, Sam and colleagues are rightly proud of their “package” of support for literacy learning and look forward to continuing its development for the benefit of their children.

 

Antonine PS and their Reading Schools Journey

Setting off on our journey

Antonine Primary School in Falkirk hit the ground running with their Reading Schools journey.  They had a clear idea of their reading culture and opportunities to develop. Prioritising reading and writing was identified through their school improvement planning, so there was a common focus to drive their activities.

After undertaking reading attitudes studies with both learners and staff, Antonine Primary School introduced a Reading Leadership Group with Primary 7 Pupils, teaching staff, the Deputy Head teacher, and a librarian to promote reading for pleasure across the whole school.

‘Being a mini librarian has helped me get better at my alphabet. I loved making the shelf labels to help everyone find books.’

Reading for Pleasure: The Reading Forest

The leadership group’s first task was to design and develop a Reading Forest: environment and mind-set to encourage and support reading for enjoyment, fostering a love of books and elevating their learners’ experience. The Reading Forest involved:

  • Woodland-themed, leafy and tranquil reading areas with forest sounds to evoke the sense of being outdoors
  • TREE (Together Reading Excites Everyone) time
  • An outdoor library

Having the Reading Forest as a core focus allowed learners to play an active part in planning and implementation. It also raised the profile of reading for pleasure through whole-school investment.

‘I like our new library, I can borrow lots of different books.  I like all the books about insects and small animals.”

The leadership group were involved in many administrative tasks throughout this process, such as indexing library stock and creating resources.

Since receiving silver Reading Schools accreditation, Antonine Primary have developed two outdoor reading spaces to provide learners with the opportunity of reading for pleasure during school breaks.

 

Impact on staff

Antonine’s Reading Schools experience was incredibly rewarding for staff. Opportunities arose for them to receive CPD training and become actively involved in the Forth Valley Regional Improvement Collaborative literacy group.

The Reading Forest encouraged free reading time in the classroom and encouraged staff to read too, modelling reading behaviours and supporting learners to find their next great read.  Every week, all learners across the school were invited to read for pleasure through a whole school initiative TREE (Together Reading Excites Everyone), where rainforest music is played through the school tannoy. When they hear this music, all learners pick up their chosen book and enjoy some quiet reading time.  Staff also plan for reading aloud to their class twice per week through Forest Rangers.

‘The children are really enjoying seeing me read during TREE and will often ask what the book is.’

‘My class are constantly checking me for updating my door sign to make sure I have added my new book to this.’

Opportunities were created for more conversations around books using resources like Book Jenga, monthly reading polls, book discovery QR code hunts and building scenes in shoe boxes. This allowed teachers to understand learners’ interests better and find enjoyable and sometimes challenging texts.

Staff also increased their knowledge of contemporary children’s literature by using Scottish Book Trust resources and engaging with programmes such as Authors Live. Activities and resources were actively shared among staff, creating a positive culture for professional development.  We now also have a Star Books display in the staffroom, displaying termly newsletters and suggested contemporary literature for teaching staff to use with the class.  We liaise closely with our local librarian to update this termly.  Similarly, all classes across the school have a Reading Spine box informed by Talk for Writing.  This provides each class teacher with a range of quality literature to explore with their class throughout the session.

Supporting families

By surveying families and learning about their reading habits, Antonine developed a range of opportunities to meet families’ needs, from building networks with the local library service to launching home reading challenges. The gap between home and school was closed, with families engaging in community book hunts and activities on social media, building on rich foundations and helping to foster a love of reading at home as well as at school.

‘It allows us to have some nice quiet family time together. It feels like we are all going off on an adventure together.’

“[I enjoy] hearing my child’s reaction to stories – hearing my child’s progress in their own reading – the opportunity to spend quality time with my child.’

In working towards Gold Accreditation this session, both the Staff Improvement Group and School Library group are taking reading for pleasure into the local community with 3 new initiatives:  Read While you Wait, Read Enroute and a Community exchange library.

Wider impact

Reading Schools helped Antonine Primary cement reading activities and a framework to monitor their progress and success. Termly reading challenges became mainstreamed and linked to the Reading Forest, organising the schools’ reading activities under one framework.

Creating an evaluated driver diagram helped build momentum behind the fantastic work already undertaken while also identifying areas for improvement.  This continues to be an approach we are currently using in aiming towards Gold Reading Schools accreditation.

The programme provided a coherent structure and clear progressive route where all literacy activities would be celebrated and documented, knowing that they would contribute to the school’s wider aims and priorities.  Reading Ambassadors are celebrated weekly at whole school assemblies. What Reading Looks Like at Antonine, a reading policy, has been developed to provide all staff with an overview of all reading for pleasure initiatives that are now embedded across Antonine Primary School.