SFA (Success for All)

At Discovery Primary Academy, we believe that for children to succeed in school, they must be reading at the national curriculum stage of learning by the end of each year group. To enable this, the school uses ‘Success for All’ (SFA) which is an evidence based school improvement strategy and of which, Discovery Primary is proudly a Flagship school.

Details about the scheme and how it is delivered at school can be found below. 

Phonics

We follow the Success for All (SFA) phonics scheme.  This is a systematic, cumulative program that is fast paced and engaging.  It encourages automaticity through the application of newly learned phonemes coupled with opportunities for revisiting past learning. Phonics lessons are taught daily with opportunities for children to practice their phonemic knowledge within the phonics session but also within the shared reading section of SFA lessons.  Through our systematic and consistent approach we aim to develop confident, independent, strategic readers and writers that are prepared for KS1, KS2 and beyond.

Reading

Reading at Discovery Primary Academy

Here in our Academy, we promote the love of reading and are committed to raising standards in reading. Throughout the school we follow a programme for Literacy called ‘Success for All’ (SFA). It is a programme for teaching reading, speaking and listening from Reception to Year 6. The programme is based on research and has been used widely both in the USA and the UK. It has been proven to raise standards in reading and oracy. Our children enjoy a wide range of carefully selected high quality ‘real’ texts across all genres. In most cases, our children will read the whole book, giving them ‘Reading Stamina’. Higher level Reading comprehension is systematically taught across all levels of the programme which ensures children are taught to read, analyse and respond to texts.

Alongside our daily lessons of SFA; children take home reading books from our colour banded system.  Children choose their own reading book from a wide selection of carefully levelled texts made up of different scheme books and ‘real’ books.  The books are organised into different colours and children move through these colour banded books as their reading skills progress.  Children are expected to read at home five times each week. To encourage reading at home we run Year group ‘Race to Read’ competitions with classes competing against each other to win a class reward. 

We appreciate that parents can make the biggest difference to a child’s success in becoming a reader.  Reading every day, even for just 10 minutes, can make all the difference to a child’s success in reading.  We work with our parents through reading advice pages in children’s reading records, holding reading information sessions and promoting reading events both in and outside of school. 

We aim to nurture a love and appreciation of reading which will stay with children for life.  Each class, from Reception to Year 6 have timetabled story times.  This is an opportunity for children to listen to books read aloud by their teacher.  It enables them to listen to longer more complex stories than they may choose themselves as well as discover new vocabulary and develop reading comprehension skills. 

TWLS

Tutoring with the Lightning Squad is a reading tutoring programme where pupils work in small groups with a tutor to improve their reading skills. To find out more about TWLS please click on this link. https://fft.org.uk/tutoring/

The video is very useful as a guide to TWLS and on viewing you may recognise a few people. Happy watching. 

Spelling

Discovery Primary Academy introduced CUSP spelling in the Spring of 2023. The spelling program teaches spelling through a pattern approach. Teachers will teach a spelling rule or common exception words the children are required to know and use these as a focus in their SFA lessons and where applicable in other subject areas. This means there will no longer be a weekly spelling test. Children will be rewarded by the teacher if they are using the words in their work. Spelling lists may come home, so you are aware of which words are being taught and it is helpful if the children spend time looking at these words at home too. The children may also be set relevant spelling homework to reinforce the spelling rule.

Writing

Here at Discovery Primary Academy we follow the 'CUSP' programme for writing. CUSP is underpinned by evidence, research and cognitive science. Modules are deliberately sequenced for robust progression and allows teachers to focus on the lesson.

There is an emphasis on oracy and vocabulary acquisition, retention and use to break down learning barriers and accelerate progress. A rich diet of language and vocabulary is deliberately planned for.

CUSP writing provides better cohesion
• Focus on vocabulary
• Long term learning
• Quality modelling
• Improved subject knowledge
• Depth teaching
• Meaningful connections

Oracy

Discovery Primary Academy is a Voice 21 academy. We are embarking on our second year of the program in September 2023. The focus for this year will be Oracy across the curriculum.