Strategic Leadership and Management of Literacy

Using a rich environment to develop boys’ language, literacy and communication skills in key stage 2

Book area

 books, designed to appeal to boys, displayed attractively and easily accessible in comfortable and quiet surroundings

 good quality story books, including old and modern fairy tales

 poetry

 joke books

 non-fiction texts

 multi-cultural texts

 books about Wales’ geography and history

 bi-lingual texts

 books in English/ Welsh by Welsh authors, or those who write in Wales

 comics and pamphlets

 newsletters

 story-sacks designed specifically to appeal to boys

 puppets

 laptop computers, notebooks, e-Readers, electronic tablets with good literacy-related software – interactive where appropriate

 listening centres – CDs with accompanying books and facilities for boys to record their own stories, poems and plays

 plays and dialogues in English or Welsh

Countering the Under-achievement of Boys (a Tribal project for WAG, Oct 11 to Aug 14)

 art work created by Welsh-born artists (e.g. Sir Kyffin Jones, Kevin Sinnott, John Rogers, John Knapp-Fisher, James Crisp, Steve Robinson, Rolf Harris, Jackie Morris, Chris Neale, Andy Clay, Diane Walkey, Shani Rhys James, Bethan Huws)

 art created by artists who have visited Wales (e.g. Joseph Turner, Alfred Sisley, Lawrence Stephen Lowry)

Writing area

 the alphabetic code on display in English and Welsh

 a good range of different writing materials, such as paper, postcards, envelopes, notepads, sticky notes etc on tap

 support for boys’ writing such as scaffolding, story beginnings and endings

 high-frequency words on display in English and Welsh

 words on display in the home language of boys with EAL wherever possible

 topic word banks

 class books

 photo-stories with captions

 book club display board for e.g. critical reviews by boys of books they have read and recommend

 stimuli for boys’ writing such as story cards

 teachers’, governors’ and boys’ writing on display

 magnetic letters and images to ‘play around’ with words and create new stories

 small whiteboards and felt pens for each boy

A literacy-rich environment at key stage 2 should therefore include:

 a rich and dynamic indoor and outdoor literacy environment, where speaking and listening, reading and writing are all given high status

 plenty of good-quality opportunities for children to read and write in comfort in all areas of learning

 listening area, reading area, writing area, ICT areas and role-play (oracy) areas that are well equipped with resources for imaginative drama, reading and writing E.g. a dressing up box and clothes wardrobe hanger, a small semicircular stage

 good quality displays illustrating the forms / genres and purposes of writing in a readable format suitable for KS2 boys

 frequent use of story-reading and story-telling sessions, including poetry and role-play, which may be for boys alone at times

 practitioners who provide good language role models for speaking and listening, reading and writing

 visits by actors, poets and authors and examples of pupils’ writing stemming from such visits