Raising Boy

Raising Boy’s Achievement in Literacy Policy

‘What the child can do in co-operation today he can do alone tomorrow.’

(Vygotsky 1934).

Introduction

Traditionally many boys in all schools have disengaged from the learning process in school and subsequently from society in general.

We believe that the new Literacy programme has the potential to re-engage many of our boys and immerse them in the learning process. However, it will not capture the imagination of all boys, as life is not that simple.

We recognise that the role of talking and listening has emerged as a significant factor in raising boys’ achievements in literacy. Consequently, we seek to foster the promotion of creative and imaginative activities that will enhance learning opportunities for boys & girls to achieve their potential.

Teachers are willing to take risks to engage individual pupils in roles where they are actively supported to make choices and to achieve success.

The staff is fully committed to creating opportunities to give pupils space to articulate their feelings and emotions. Pupils will be offered challenging activities where individuals have opportunities to excel.

It is our intention to reduce the number of boys on the Special Educational Need's register in relation to literacy and behaviour over the next five years by engaging boys in the Literacy programme in school.

The policy’s ethos will be explained to the School Council for comment and advice.

We will foster boys’ engagement with reading through developing a new reading policy to reflect the preferences of boys and their learning styles.

● We will enhance and extend the provision of books and other texts which include boys’ preferences.

● We will introduce the “Buddy System” where older boys who have ‘barriers to learning’ mentor younger readers.

● We will use members of the school community to share reading from a variety of texts.

● We will use reading journals on a regular but not routine basis as a reflective space to record, by choice, responses to texts.

● We will have teachers modelling ways of responding to the meaning and content of books rather than just decoding the text.

● We will set homework to encourage pupils to read all kinds of texts and share these with their parents.

Even in high achieving schools writing was a relative weakness and the low achievers were often boys. We believe that we will get writing right through adoption of the following points.

● We will provide time for boys to generate ideas and to take a piece of writing through to a finished product based on their own level of satisfaction.

● We will move from ‘learning to write’ towards ‘becoming a writer’ where the emphasis is not on technical skills but towards a wider view of what writing can mean.

● We will adopt an integrated approach to literacy teaching where reading, writing, talking and listening are seen as contributing to the development of ideas for writing.

● We will take every opportunity for boys to see themselves as writers and learners and to celebrate their success.

We recognise and accept that significant factors to promoting achievements in writing can be categorised in terms listed below.

● Adopting a genre-based approach across all curriculum areas where work in literacy sessions is consolidated in another subject in a systematic way.

● Covering a range of writing types but also teaching different ways to approach writing.

● Enabling boys to experience writing without the initial constraints of attention to the secretarial features.

● Using writing journals and opportunities for sustained writing, with time to generate ideas, time to improve text and ‘get it right.’

● An emphasis on talk and time to reflect by finding ways to talk about learning and literacy.

● More oral preparation for writing, with explicit attention to the structures of texts and opportunities to tell stories.

● Proving opportunities for explanations or instructions, debating issues, before having to write narrative, procedural or persuasive texts.

● Deliberately using visual texts and visual approaches to writing and explicit discussion of how these relate to writing.

● Teachers will promote the perception of themselves as writers not only through modelling different forms of writing but also writing for pupils and alongside them in the classroom.

● Teachers will take risks in bringing more creativity to literacy sessions.

● Teachers must have a clear sense of the levels and experience of all pupils and using this information to move learning forward;

● Teachers will seek to have some sense of how literacy is perceived and supported at home.

The success of these factors is related to the coherent management of learning at whole school and classroom level.

● We will establish a culture which values learners as individuals within an ordered learning environment.

● We will have a culture that involves and creates trust between children and adults.

● We will manage mixed ability teaching with a very clear view of pupils’ achievements and progress and knowledge of how to move their learning on through informed differentiation.