One of the values of Community National Schools is Excellence in Education.
In Tallaght Community National School we have worked hard to redesign our Literacy (English) policy to ensure that it gives all of the children in our school the best chance to fulfil their potential.
It contains a lot of modern programmes, methodologies and resources which make us confident we are using best practice in the classroom everyday.
Junior and Senior Infants – Phonics, Phonemic and Phonological Awareness
This sounds very fancy but put simply it means that in the infant class we work very hard to make sure the children are;
– hearing the sounds, chunks and parts of words correctly.
– able to represent these sounds with letters.
To do this we use;
– the Jollyphonics programme for phonics.
– the Heggerty programme for Phonological and Phonemic Awareness.
Many schools use the Jollyphonics programme but we believe using a combination of these two programmes together will mean that all children will be able to be the best readers they can be.
Literacy Lift-Off
Literacy Lift Off is an intervention that gives children lots of opportunities to read books at their own level of competency and gradually lift the complexity of what they can do in both reading and writing.
In Tallaght CNS we run the Literacy Lift-Off programme in Senior Infants, 1st and 2nd class. The programme is based on the teachings of Reading Recovery .
During the six week programme there will be at least three adults in the one classroom providing intensive reading instruction to the children.
Guided Reading
From 1st to 6th class we use a programme called Guided Reading to improve children’s comprehension and reading abilities.
In Tallaght CNS we have invested a lot of money buying books and resources to ensure that we can effectively run the Guided Reading programme.
Guided Reading focuses on making the children “good” readers. Can they read books and draw information out of them? Can they think creatively about questions posed to them from the books?
Guided Reading allows them to practice these skills using reading books at their level.
Classroom Librarys
It is very important that the children in Tallaght CNS learn that reading is something fun.
We use books that have been donated to our school over the years to create wonderfully well stocked classroom libraries.
Children are encouraged to read for pleasure and not simply to get good at reading so you can be good in school.
Literacy Week
Each year in Tallaght CNS we run Literacy Week. During this week we promote reading and the joy of reading throughout the school.
As part of Literacy Week we have activities like Drop Evrything And Read, Reading Buddies, World Book Day, and we do art based on our favourite books.
Tallaght Library
We love going to visit Tallaght Library in Tallaght CNS.
We encourage all of the children to get library cards and try to head to Tallaght Library once a term as a class.
Our teachers also rent sets of novels from the library which they then use with their class.