Literacy

Literacy Coordinator at Grainville is Miss N. Eastwood email address n.eastwood@grainville.sch.je

At Grainville, we recognise the importance of developing Adult Literacy in young people so that at the age of 16 students are fully prepared for the independence that they need in an adult world of work.

Literacy is much more than simply reading: it is the ability to think and translate ideas, knowledge and understanding into written words that express meaning; and the ability to speak and listen. High levels of Literacy create positive life chances, whilst low levels of Literacy will adversely limit life chances. At Grainville, we want all students to become confident communicators and successful learners. To achieve this, we need all students to be highly literate at the age of 16 when they take their next step beyond the school gates.

‘Literacy can give our children that most important of things: the ability to grow into adults and have the whole world available to them. The child who can speak well, can write well and can read well is the child who can step out into the world with the skills to be successful and happy’ Charlie Carroll: writer, musician, teacher

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Principles

In an adult world young people must be able to communicate effectively. The ability to be confident in both Literacy (Reading, Writing, Speaking and listening) and Numeracy will determines a young person’s future life chances, financially, socially, emotionally and in terms of life expectancy. The following are ambitious but morally sound Literacy Targets.

Reading:

To create a school culture and environment where reading is promoted across the school
To provide time in school every week for all students to read
To support reading through a range of varied and appropriately differentiated reading resources
To promote and support reading in non-school hours

Writing:

To provide students with a range of challenging writing tasks in every subject
To provide students with ‘real’ audiences and creative writing ‘outlets’ where possible
To support writing with frames or scaffolds where appropriate, and use modelling where possible
To ensure spelling, punctuation and grammar are supported in all subjects and rewarded

Speaking and
Listening:

To raise awareness of the importance of speaking and listening across the school
To encourage a more systematic approach to the use of speaking and listening tasks in all subjects
To support subject teachers in assessing speaking and listening
To provide extra-curricular opportunities for students to extend their speaking and listening skills

Expectations

1. Reading

1. ALL students (exception EAL2) leave Grainville at the age of 16 with a RA in line with or above their chronological age (CA) +/- 12 months.

A Reading Plus intervention programme will be introduced in June 2018. It aims to regularly assess students’ Reading Age (RA) and narrow the gap through reading interventions over a 2 – 3 year period so that the minimum expectation is that 85% of students in the Reading Recovery – ‘Keep-Up’ Programmes will achieve RA gains 3X that of their chronological age (CA). Lexia (phonics support programme) will also be used with students at KS3 with RA well below their CA

2. Writing

2. All students will leave Grainville confident in their ability to express their thoughts and ideas, knowledge and understanding in writing in a mature and comprehensive manner.

To achieve this following will have been achieved:

A. A Literacy Marking Scheme will be introduced in June 2018 to promote good spelling, punctuation and grammar (SPaG) across the curriculum. In support of this, ALL students will have identified an individual Literacy Target by their English teacher and all staff will support each student to achieve success towards this target. Literacy targets will increase in complexity. All students will have the range of Literacy Targets inside their book cover and their current Literacy Target sticker on their book front cover.

B. All staff will receive regular (termly) professional development on how best to promote Literacy in their subject. This will include:

how best to promote the spelling of subject specific vocabulary,
Interpret and understand the key words and language in examination questions and
writing skills and requirements in extend writing tasks

C. Through planned Literacy and PSHE lessons, students will be encouraged to write about ‘real-life’ and personal topics (i.e. CV/applications, Emails of complaint, dealing with difficult customers)

3. Speaking and

4. Listening

3. All students leave Grainville aged 16 as confident communicators, having developed the skills to speak to an audience and listen effectively. This will include skills to present, discuss and debate.

Literacy pathways

The expectation is that all students will be assessed each year for their Reading and Spelling Age. Likewise, students in Years 7-9 will complete an annual Progress in English, and Progress in Maths assessment. Data used from these benchmark assessments will help to target support for students using Lexia (phonics) and / or Reading Plus.Students in Years 10 and 11 will need additional support with literacy for examinations From September 2018, any EAL2 joining Grainville School with no English will undertake an initial term of induction to rapidly improve their basic starting points in English. This will mean a reduced timetable in mainstream and peer support.

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Literacy lessons to be introduced for KS3 for all students from September 2018

In order to focus on the development of Literacy skills, a new timetabled Literacy lesson and Literacy Programme will be developed to commence in September 2018. All students will have a weekly one hour Literacy lesson, delivered by English specialist teachers with support of TAs. Students will follow a Literacy programme that supports and challenges all students regardless of their RA. It will promote reading, extended writing, speaking and listening. The Literacy Programme will be incorporated into the Year 7 Horizon programme and delivered by Horizon staff. In Years 8 and 9 (Year 9 September to Feb only) by the English teaching staff

Development of expectations for a Reading Programme from September 2018

It is expected that all students at KS3 will complete an annual six book challenge, to read a one book per half term and write a termly assessed review. £10,000 of funding will support the purchase of new Reading Age (RA) related fiction books with an Interest Age (IA). Books will purchase and managed by three departments. Two schools, Grainville and Haute Vallee will collaborate to discuss the selection of age appropriate and interest appropriate books and genre in both schools.

Year 7 Horizon (£2,000) 285 books @£7.00
Year 8 and 9 (English (£4,000)
SEN (£4,000)

New Partnership with the Town Library

In support of the Literacy Action Plan and the establishment of a KS3 Reading Programme, a new partnership will be established between Grainville, Haute Vallee School and the Town Library. All new students in Year 7 will be inducted into, and become a member of the Town Library. All students at KS3 will be expected to visit the Town Library once a term. A data sharing agreement will support monitoring and evaluation of the effectiveness of this initiative.

Establishment of departmental libraries

The current out-dated book stock in the old library will be distributed to subjects in the summer term 2018 to enable each department has its own mini-library by September 2018. For most subjects these non-fiction bases will provide teachers and students with immediate access to resources. Fiction books will form an ongoing updated library within Horizon, English and within the SEN department.