Pupil Additional Literacy Support (PALS)
The PALS department provides specialist literacy support to pupils who demonstrate a specific difficulty in acquiring literacy skills (reading and/or spelling). The aim of this provision is to enable pupils to achieve their full educational potential and to raise pupils’ confidence and self-esteem.
Pupils are taught in pairs and lessons are forty five minutes long. Each pupil works on their own individual programme of work. Teaching groups are small to enable the teacher to meet the specific needs of each pupil.
Reading and spelling are taught using a multi-sensory, cumulative approach. Pupils follow a reading and/or spelling programme which teaches them to identify the individual sounds in words and to segment, blend and manipulate sounds to aid reading and spelling. Pupils are taught common high frequency words in reading and spelling to improve their reading fluency and spelling accuracy.
All pupils have a termly Individual Education Plan (IEP) which outlines their specific targets and assessment criteria. The IEP is mapped to the pupil’s programme of study. Reading and spelling levels are re-assessed annually to track progress and to inform future teaching programmes.