Literacy is an essential part of every child’s education and at Percy Shurmer Academy, we believe in striving for the best possible provision. We provide opportunities for all pupils to develop independence in composition and transcription, and develop a love for writing for enjoyment and satisfaction.  Our vision is to ensure that every child  achieves their full potential in all aspects of English to become confident readers, writers and communicators. Please read on to find out more about our Literacy curriculum. We regularly offer workshops throughout the year to support your child, so please ensure you sign up to attend. 

Reading is really important to us at Percy Shurmer Academy as it is the foundations upon which we learn everything else.  We encourage all of our children to read every day, both in school and at home.  The children are taught to read through a structured and systematic programme that develops their skills upon entry to Nursery through to Key Stage 2.

Those who love to read are much more likely to succeed in all subjects and achieve academic success at secondary school and beyond than those who don't. Following on from the early phonics work, the children progress to understanding and enjoying a range of high quality texts which have been chosen based on the National Curriculum Programme of Study. Regular reading sessions provide opportunities for encouraging and embedding reading for pleasure. Similarly, whole class texts and reading books for each year group are ambitious and reflect the realities within our school.  

In Early Years and Year 1 the children are taught reading individually or in small groups using a variety of texts.  They also take part in a ‘Whole Class Reading’ lesson daily.  All of the children have the opportunity to study and discuss the same quality reading texts.  As well as reading these quality texts, the children will also read a selection of non-fiction texts (such as newspapers, chronological reports and diaries) that will support their understanding of the main text.  During these sessions they will have the opportunity to discuss texts and orally answer questions.

From Year 2 to Year 6 our children follow the ‘Whole Class Reading’ model, whereby all children have the opportunity to study and discuss the same texts. These quality texts are carefully chosen in order to meet the academic needs of each year group.   In order to support the children’s understanding of these quality texts, the children will read a variety of non-fiction texts and answer questions about these.

For those children who require additional reading support, they will also take part in additional supported sessions using the ‘Whole class reading book’ or other reading materials. We have invested heavily in developing our reading materials as we want our children to develop a genuine love of reading. These programmes have been built for guided/supported reading with entertaining stories and non-fiction texts by top quality authors and illustrators.

To promote a love of reading at Percy Shurmer, we use a wide range of stories, poems, rhymes and non-fiction texts that develop pupil's vocabulary, language comprehension and love of reading.

As part of our reading culture, we:

• Create class libraries which are inviting, well-organised and contain a range of quality texts

• Have daily story time sessions

• Use 'Reading Ambassadors' to promote reading around the school

• Encourage author visits

• Provide weekly timetabled library sessions with our school librarian for pupils

• Provide weekly library sessions to support story telling at home with our school librarian

• Hold regular parent workshops

• Set reading challenges

• Celebrate World Book Day

• Provide book prizes for all rewards

• Share bedtime stories on the website which can be viewed and enjoyed at home

• Hold cosy reading sessions for EYFS pupils and parents to support with bedtime reading

• Work closely with Birmingham Library Services

• Provide a 'home book swap' for children to bring in books from home that they have read to swap with another pupil

• Hold weekly lunchtime clubs, where children can read for pleasure and book talk about texts that they enjoyed with their friends

We teach writing through Pie Corbett’s ‘Talk for Writing’ approach. Talk for Writing is used to teach fiction, non-fiction and poetry through a multi-sensory approach. There are three main stages:

IMITATION – familiarisation

This involves retelling a story or text until it can be told fluently. It also involves analysing the text and understanding the structural and language features.

INNOVATION – adapting the text

This involves using the model from the ‘imitation’ phase and developing the text even further.

INDEPENDENT APPLICATION – creating your own text.

This involves building up a new story or text independently and applying the features taught throughout the unit.

To support this we use a range of high quality texts, some of which are linked closely to our curriculum topics to engage all pupils and allow them to write for a purpose. We also use a range of classical literature to develop the children's skills including: 'The Wind in the Willows', 'Paddington,' 'Street Child' and Shakespeare, as well as texts which reflect diversity including: 'Child I,' 'The Breadwinner' and 'The Star Outside my Window'.

We constantly strive to provide opportunities for our children to write independently about what interests them. Topics this year include: Emotions, Celebrations, Travel, Under the Sea and Letters. During these lessons, teachers scaffold and model what writing for pleasure looks like through a set of activities in order to develop pupils' ability to do this themselves over time. Giving children the freedom to choose the form of their writing allows the pupils to take ownership of their writing and develop their voice as an author. 

Spoken Language is integrated throughout our curriculum. We place a high emphasis on learning vocabulary across the subject areas and weave in opportunities for application. We also link teaching closely to our ‘Talk for Writing’ units of work. This includes creating story maps, oral rehearsal of texts, drama, language games, sentence construction and grammar activities. Pupils also have the opportunity to attend after school clubs which have an emphasis on language in a range of contexts, including cookery, gardening and sports. We work alongside the Birmingham Hippodrome Education Network (HEN) to bring creativity into the curriculum, connect learning outcomes to exciting opportunities at the Hippodrome, and provide young people with the chance to experience and connect with theatre. 

Currently, we use the ‘Penpals’ scheme for handwriting. This will allow our pupils to develop a neat, joined script by the time they leave our school.

We want our children to develop a genuine love for reading and so strive to provide lots of opportunities during which they can do this. There are daily sessions of Independent Reading during which children have the opportunity to read with other children or in a small group or read individually with an adult.  We have a wonderful library which the children will visit weekly and have the opportunity to choose a book to take home. Parents are invited to visit the library after school and have access to a selection of both children and adult books to borrow.

Our Phonics Intent

That all children develop the ability to decode texts confidently and fluently so they are able to become lifelong readers and learners.

Phonics at Percy Shurmer Academy

When teaching Phonics, we follow the 'Read Write Inc phonics scheme'.  Read Write Inc is a DfE accredited phonics scheme that fully aligns with our aims. The RWI mission is: to teach every child to read and write, and to keep them reading. 

Pupils are taught in groups by their teachers and teaching assistants.  Children in Year 1 will complete the Phonic Screening Check during the summer term.  We strive for all of our children to pass the Phonic Screening Check and additional support will be put in place for those children who require it.  The children who do not achieve the pass mark in Year 1 will take the test in the following academic year, when they are in Year 2.  For more information, please click on our phonics tab on our curriculum page.

From Year 2 - Year 6 we follow the Read Write Inc Spelling scheme.

In EYFS and Year 1, the children receive daily phonics lessons and are assessed each half term. Children who do not pass the phonics screening test in Year 1 will continue with phonics in Year 2 in a small group to ensure all children reach their full potential.