Language and Literacy
Language and Literacy is an Area of Learning in the curriculum. It focuses on developing children’s language and literacy skills. These enable our children to interact effectively in the world around them, express themselves creatively and communicate confidently.Our literacy standards have been recognised as 'Outstanding,' by the Education Training Inspectorate (ETI).
In November 2024, ETI stated:
The success of previous school improvement work, for example the focus on the development of writing skills across the curriculum, has led to children in the nursery unit engaging in purposeful mark making across the pre-school curriculum, and children in the primary school being able to talk confidently and knowledgeably about different genres of writing, the key features of each genre and the key language they would expect to see.
Across each key stage, the learning activities are well paced and the teachers make connections with, and build effectively on, previous learning. They role model learning processes very skilfully and as a result, the children understand and can see the progression in their learning and the impact on their outcomes. There is detailed, comprehensive long- and medium-term planning in place across all areas of the primary curriculum. Planning for key curricular areas incorporates progression across different ability levels and is responsive to the interests and needs of the children. The progress made by the children is monitored and evaluated regularly by the teachers, and the provision, strategies and approaches used are amended to meet individual needs.
Accelerated Reader
At its heart, the Accelerated Reader (AR) programme is simple. Our children read a book, take an AR Quiz, and get immediate feedback. Our children get excited and motivated when they see their progress and our teachers can easily monitor and manage the childrens' independent reading practice.
Bug Club
Bug Club is a whole-school reading programme designed for use at Foundation, KS1 and KS2. It is the first phonics-based reading programme to join books with an online reading world to teach today's children to read.
At Oakwood, our children love using the online books and answering the bug questions. Bugclub has been embedded at Oakwood for years and was a vital part of our remote learning programme during lockdown.
Bug Club is a great way to get those reluctant readers interested and to allow the more fluent readers the independence to read more books and gain rewards as they go along.
Lexia Core Reader 5
Lexia Reading Core5® programme is a fun, computer-based programme that is used to support some of our children. The activities in Core5 support and build on our classroom curriculum and focus on developing reading skills in six areas: phonological awareness, phonics, structural analysis, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.
Time to Read Programme
We are delighted to have the Business in the Community Time to Read Pupil Mentoring Programme in operation at Oakwood IPS.
Established in 1999, Time to Read is offered within school time in a group environment where local business people read on a one-to-one basis with some of our children, supporting their reading progress and giving them an insight into the world of work
The programme has been in operation at Oakwood for many years and our children have benefitted greatly from the experience of reading with their Time to Read partner.
Business in the Community commissioned an independent evaluation of Time to Read through the Centre for Effective Education at Queen’s University Belfast. The evaluation focused specifically on assessing the impact of Time to Read on children and identified that the programme made an improvement in reading outcomes in decoding, oral fluency and reading rate as well as aspirations for the future.