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Literacy is the gateway for new knowledge; effective literacy means students are able to know more, understand more and do more. Equally, literacy is the means in which students display this knowledge, either through written communication or verbal communication. Therefore, literacy is a cornerstone of social mobilisation and something to which we are fully committed to. We challenge the notion that the development of literacy is the preserve of the English and SEND departments. Equally, we reject the notion that it can be a bolt-on policy led by one colleague. Because of this, our strategy is whole-school and embedded across the curriculum.
Our priorities:
Secure the vision of ‘every child a reader’ by promoting and developing reading opportunities in and out of school
Prioritise disciplinary literacy across the curriculum
Support students who are at the early stages of reading to become confident in terms of comprehension and fluency with the aspiration that every child reads at or above their chronological age
Support for students who have English as an Additional Language (EAL) to access the curriculum and ensure that literacy and language is not a barrier to academic progress
Tutor time reading
All years throughout their time in school, as a tutor group, collectively read up to three novels across the academic year. These novels have been carefully chosen to build vocabulary, comprehension and cultural capital through the exploration of different countries and cultures, support development and give students the opportunity to approach and discuss challenging topics in a safe place.. The novels cover topics such as: migration and its difficulties, censorship, war, discrimination, extremism and its consequences, and how these topics link to the British Values.
What it involves?
Books are read by the teacher to model fluency and intonation before students practise these skills through choral or echo reading at regular intervals to develop oral reading miles, confidence and build belonging. This is further supported using Reading Champions who model fluent reading during tutor time. From September, we will also complete peer reading sessions with younger year groups within their house.
Year group book list
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Year 7 |
Year 8 |
Year 9 |
Year 10 |
Year 11 |
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Popular Fiction |
Kick, by Mitch Johnson |
The Ghosts of Heaven, by Marcus Sedgwick |
Brother in the Land, by Robert Swindells |
The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas |
Animal Farm, by George Orwell |
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Classic |
The Thirty-Nine Steps, by John Buchan |
Animal Farm, by George Orwell |
Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck |
The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Arthur Conan Doyle |
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Biography |
Boy, by Roald Dahl |
I am Malala, by Malala Yousafzai |
The Boys Who Challenged Hitler, by Phillip Hoose |
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Sparx Reader
Sparx Reader is an online reading platform which is used across the school to help students practise reading regularly for homework. This supports the development of comprehension and fluency which in turn helps students to succeed in school and later in life. Furthermore, Sparx Reader can be used to help identify those who are in need of support and intervention.
What it involves?
Sparx Reader involves reading for 30 minutes as homework every week along with a reading lesson in English lessons every fortnight. With each page read – a comprehension question answered – students gain points which contributes to the house trophy. This encourages that sense of belonging amongst the house alongside their want to achieve through friendly competition. This is celebrated and tracked throughout the year in our celebration assemblies.
Library
Students can access our extensively stock library from 0800 to 1700 for reading, homework support and independent study. It is a place of exploration and a safe learning environment with passionate staff to support those in need.
The library is also home to our student librarians, a group of passionate young readers who help to create a wonderful, accessible library but also offer weekly book recommendations to their fellow students.
The library ensures that all students have access to books of their choice. All students are given the opportunity to have a book from the library of their choice, including Year 6 when they take the big step of transitioning to our school.
Homework
With the introduction of our new homework strategy, there is a reading article every Wednesday which links to the whole school theme for that week. The purpose of the article is to ensure equity, coherence and cultural capital development. A QR code provides access to a video of a teaching modelling the reading of the article utilising the reading fluency strategies which is particularly beneficial for our students at the early stages of reading.
Link here
How can you help support your child with reading at home?
Talking about books and reading with them. This can include encouraging them to discuss what they are currently reading for their Sparx and asking where they are on their class leaderboard.
Listen to them read aloud as often as you can & encourage them to read to younger members of the family or friends.
Let them see you reading. Modelling behaviour is extremely important in influencing our student’s to do the same.
Encourage them to read a broad range of texts that cover their interests. Reading isn’tjust about novels: newspapers, biographies, blog posts etc, they all count. Any reading is good reading!
Reminding them that reading can be a joyful and exciting experience. It gives them to opportunity to escape and learn about places around the world. Where else can you escape to other worlds, deal with a dictator in an apocalyptic city, slay dragons and walk in the shoes of characters all in one place?
Join your local library. The Taunton library is an amazing community resource for readers and often runs amazing reading events for all ages. Remember its free!
Support them to know that the best way to improve their understanding of anything new is to read about it.
Lessons
At The Castle School, literacy is at the heart of our curriculum. It is essential to a student’s education, and we aim to ensure all students are confident readers. We focus on disciplinary literacy here at The Castle School which is explicitly taught through the identification of key vocabulary and subject specific skills. It is using word roots, syllables, morphology, etymology and dual coding that students develop their literacy skills.
Every subject has identified opportunities for and embedded reading into lessons to build these skills utilising the reading fluency strategies.
Early stages of reading
We assess reading ability at the start and end of the academic year. This allows us to identify students who require further intervention. Once identified students work in small groups working on phonics, blending of sounds, fluency and comprehension. These are short-term interventions to rapidly increase the abilities of those in need. These interventions equip students with the skills to access subjects with confidence.
Here at The Castle School, we recognise that reading comprehension is broken down into two different components: decoding (word recognition) and language comprehension. Both skills are essential to being able to access texts. By understanding a student’s area of need, interventions can be tailored to them. Furthermore, this enables staff to further develop the skills of weaker readers in lesson by using strategies for each quadrant of the Simple View of Reading.
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