Dissemination of Good Practice

2003-2004

ReadIT

an e-learning project to raise literacy standards throughout the

school

Specific Objectives/Targets

What are we aiming to achieve and by when?

Create a bank of pupil/teacher made reading resources, produced and published by the school. These will be available online and as paper books and discs. The characters and events will be selected by the pupils themselves and may feature their families and friends. Attention will be paid to encouraging children to participate in and record events in the community and relating to cultural activities of their own and other traditions.

Create a bank of literacy worksheets/activities for specific improvement in reading and writing using ICT.

Create an online literacy environment (intranet) for the school and its associates.

Enter P7 pupils for KS2 Accreditation Scheme.

Link the project with ongoing program of ‘Positive Behaviour’

We will raise the percentage of children achieving Level 2 at KS1 and Level 4 at KS2 by 5 per cent by June 2004.

The reading quotient of an identified number of children (‘control’ group) with literacy difficulties will be improved by an average of

3 points.

Most pupils will, by age 7, be able to recognise the first 100 words.

Baseline Reference Point

How well are we doing at the moment?

Last year’s AU results showed that 53% of pupils achieved level 2 at KS1 and

50% of pupils achieved level 4 at KS2. 44% achieved level 3 at KS1 and 23% achieved level 5 at KS2.

At present we have 56 children on the Special Needs register, 4 of them at

stage 3.

To date, no-one has entered the KS2 Accreditation Scheme.

Success Criteria

How will we know if we have succeeded?

Pupils will show enthusiasm and a positive attitude to literacy

Pupils will make regular contributions to class output and to school reading library, both online and paper based

Increased parent contribution and confidence in child’s learning

Standardised tests will be administered to the ‘control’ group at the beginning and end of the project. For other pupils, results from the May 03 test will be compared with those of May 04

KS1 and KS2 Assessment Units will be used and official results recorded

Each child will be tested on vocabulary knowledge

Completion of KS2 Accreditation – aiming for 70% gaining level 4

Project Team

ICT Coordinators SENCO Literacy Coordinator Others

Actions

What are we going to do in order to achieve our objectives and the targets stated within

our success criteria?

Through using more relevant and pupil-chosen and developed materials the level of interest, motivation and positive attitude towards reading (and writing) will be improved for pupils, particularly boys, with literacy difficulties.

Computer resources, both commercially produced and school designed will be the focus of the reading material used.

Pupils will make extensive use of interactive activities and will be introduced to scanners, digital cameras etc. in order to create their own reading and writing materials.

Regular tests and assessment will take place through games and tasks which will give encouragement and feedback to pupils.

Pupils will use ICT to write for real audiences through the use of Internet websites such as www.fanfiction.net and through email contact with specialist authors and other schools, together with parents.

Pupils will work as groups encouraging each other and responding to each other’s efforts and working

collaboratively to produce reading materials for each other.

Pupils’ work will regularly feature on the school intranet and they will be increasingly responsible for a

section of its content.

Pupils’ work will regularly feature in a ‘gallery’ on the school website.

‘Drop In’ Sessions for staff providing extra support.

Monitoring

How are we going to monitor the implementation of the

programme?

?

Evidence collected by … class teachers, ICT Coordinators, SENCO

By means of … work saved on disc, in class books, discussion with child tape recorded,

video evidence as appropriate. Printouts of work, displays etc.

External evidence … AU results, psychologist etc.

Analysed by … Project Team

Reported to … Senior Management and Board of Governors

Evaluation

At the end of the implementation period of the

action plan how will we decide how successful we

have been?

Increased use if ICT suite in all aspects of school learning.

Examination of percentage of pupils achieving Level 4 and above in KS2 Accreditation Scheme.

More staff input into production of school-based resources.

Staff use of ICT for all aspects of planning.

Targets set for End of Key Stages.

Use of ICT suite at lunch time and after school.

Community awareness of ReadIT.

Positive attitude to literacy sustained by pupils and parents.

Support

What help is available?

School based inset with teachers to explain activities and software

Inset training on PowerPoint etc.

Support from C2K Consultants and technical services

Support from SEELB Literacy, Positive Behaviour and ICT Advisors

Positive Behaviour

Super Pupil On Trust

SPOT

AWARD

Super Pupil On Trust

Awarded to Primary 5 pupils who are committed to observing all rules

governing the use of computers in Comber Primary, including Internet safety

Will be granted permission to use the Computer Suite at lunchtimes to

continue work or carry out independent research

This privilege is earned and will be withdrawn if trust is broken

SPOT

AWARD

SPOT

AWARD

Boys

More boys than girls have special needs, say they don’t enjoy school, are excluded, have poor

attendance and lower teacher grading.

The underachievement of boys occurs right across the school age range. Exeter University's Leverhulme Primary Improvement Project found boys several points behind girls on average on reading at 6 years old, and they never catch up. Several hundreds of 5 to 11 year olds across the country were given NFER reading tests at the start of a school year and on

average the boys were 4 to 5% behind the girls and the difference was about the same at the end of the year.

The gap between boys' and girls' achievement in literacy is greatest in writing.

http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/Research/boysact.html