Research shows us that Literacy is a vital strategy in improving outcomes for every young person that is part of our school community. The Education Endowment Foundation research shows that “Young people who leave school without good literacy skills are held back at every stage of life. Their outcomes are poorer on almost every measure, from health and wellbeing, to employment and finance.”
Across the school we focus on improving the literacy of all our students. We all see the huge benefits that this has on our students, in every aspect of their life and we hope that you are already seeing the benefit at home.
Form Time Reading Programme - twice a week KS3 students are read aloud to by their form tutor. This programme is designed to expose students to a rich, diverse and challenging canon of books that they might not ordinarily read themselves.
The emphasis in these sessions is to read for the sake of reading alone and to encourage a love of reading that will make for more inquisitive minds across the curriculum and indeed outside of the classroom as well. Students will enjoy a range of different forms of both fiction and non-fiction and will engage in some challenging ideas that will encourage them to think critically about the world around them and develop the key reading skills of: expression and volume; phrasing; smoothness and pace.
We are helping students to improve their knowledge and understanding of Tier 2 and 3 words that are both academic and specific to the subjects that they are studying. By doing so, students will be better able to navigate their lessons, as they feel confident in using a range of words.
These words form the Keystone Vocabulary for each unit in a subject – the most important words that we need our students to know and understand. We know that if we can help students to understand these key words then we can help them predict the meanings of a number of other words they encounter in the future.
As part of this, we have introduced Frayer Models across the school.
They are a simple yet effective way to organise our knowledge of the keystone vocabulary. Students will be completing these in class collaboratively, as well as independently, as part of their home learning across all year groups. Students will become more confident in their use of these words and will further develop their word consciousness moving forwards.
All our students have taken to this initiative with excitement and inquisitiveness. Ask your children what new words they have learnt this week and what they mean? We have seen some amazing work from our students in all years, confidently being able to discuss the etymology and morphology of some really complex words. You will be amazed at the wonderful work they have done!
In addition to whole school literacy skills development, we also offer additional literacy support within the curriculum, as follows:
We know that teaching students to write with accuracy, confidence and bravery can transform their life chances and will help them in every way in their life beyond school.
Students need to learn to write in a variety of forms and for many different purposes across the school. This will help them to communicate their ideas coherently as well as ultimately being the vehicle through which they are assessed at KS3 4 and 5.
We have broken the writing strand into three distinct sections:
Sentences are the building blocks of writing. They convey information without the need for any other context. When combined with others, sentences convey complex information and thoughts.
Not being able to craft sentences is a limiting factor: a writer who cannot craft accurate sentences will not be able to craft a successful paragraph.
