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Whitehouse Primary School, 2 Doagh Rd, Newtownabbey

Communication (Literacy)

 

As a school we know that we have a massive responsibility to help our pupils become literate.  This means they need to be able to speak well, listen to others effectively, read with fluency, understand what they have read and be able to write skilfully and with a sense of style.

Our intention, however, is that our pupils' learning will go beyond skills they can do.  We want our pupils to have a joy and excitement about literacy.  It would be our hope that our approach to literacy will promote a passion for speech, reading and writing.

Why do we call literacy 'Communication'? First of all, this is the term used in the Northern Ireland Curriculum.  The term Communication indicates the real life application of literacy and the need for a clear audience and purpose for their work.  We are trying to stress to pupils the importance of their literacy skills in the world around them now and in their future roles as grown ups.

Miss Blain and Miss Hasson are the Literacy Leaders in our school.  

What are some of the indicators in our work that demonstrates our commitment to the development of Communication?

  • We have an excellent Literacy Team who are committed to the promotion of Communication;
  • We have heavily invested in books and other literacy materials;
  • We each year have a 'Festival of Words' week to promote Communication skills across our community;
  • We have developed the fantastic Roald Dahl Library to encourage reading;
  • We have evidenced based literacy improvement schemes including Reading Partnership and Accelerated Reading;
  • We invest in bringing quality drama productions to our school to inspire pupils' interest in stories and theatre;
  • We believe our data would indicate that our pupils are achieving above what is expected for similar schools across Northern Ireland.