SEAHAM HIGH SCHOOL Literacy Policy Adopted by the Policy Committee on behalf of the Governing Body Signed: Chair of Governors Adopted on: 18 th May 2016 Review by : May 2019
Literacy Across the Curriculum Policy Improving literacy: effective characteristics of secondary schools is a best practice report that draws on visits to secondary schools that have been delivering cross-curricular improvement in literacy. As a result of the report, Michael Cladingbowl, Ofsted s Director of Schools Policy said that it showed that; Improving standards of literacy must be a priority for all our schools, as it is instrumental in helping children in every subject. Many pupils are still emerging from school without the confidence and secure literacy skills they need to thrive as adults, the case to improve standards of literacy across the whole curriculum is urgent. This survey of best practice found there is no quick-fix for raising standards in literacy. The best schools made literacy an integral element of the whole school curriculum. In these secondary schools, there was no attempt to address literacy through one-off training days for staff. Literacy in the best schools was an integral part of longer term school improvement plans and informed the content of action plans for each subject. Rationale At Seaham High School we are committed to ensure that the literacy levels of all students, at all stages, are of a standard that can drive their learning across the whole curriculum. Literacy therefore underpins the school curriculum by developing students abilities to speak, listen, read and write for a wide range of purposes, using language to learn and communicate, to think, explore and organise. Helping students to express themselves clearly orally and in writing enhances and enriches teaching and learning in all subjects. Consequently, all departments and all teachers have a crucial role to play in supporting students literacy development. A whole school approach to developing literacy helps to support the aims of the school by: Ensuring pupils are able to access the curriculum Ensuring pupils are confident, independent learners Putting in place the foundations for life-long learning Aims The aims of this policy document are: To raise literacy standards across all subjects To support students learning in all subjects by helping teachers to be clear about the ways in which their work with students contributes to the development of students communication skills To develop a shared understanding between all staff of the role of language in students learning and how work in different subjects can contribute to and benefit from the development of students ability to communicate effectively To enable all pupils to access the whole curriculum more effectively To develop pupils confidence and self-expression To use that confidence to take responsibility for their own learning and to be prepared to take risks in their use of language
To prepare pupils for life by ensuring that literacy is embedded and taught across both key stages To encourage a love of reading for pleasure that is enjoyed within school and post -16 To provide good quality data on pupils literacy skills for teachers To look for opportunities to enlist the support of parents To look for opportunities to involve pupils through Pupil Voice Guidelines Literacy and English Teachers of English have a leading role in providing pupils with the knowledge, skills and understanding they need in order to speak and listen, read and write effectively. At both KS3 and KS4 the need for literacy to be taught at all levels has long been recognised. Therefore all units of work at all stages have specific weekly literacy skills that are delivered in each of the pathways. Additionally in KS3 and 4, the green and blue pathways have extra literacy lessons to help embed and consolidate these skills further. Literacy Across the Curriculum The challenge for all other subject areas is to support and enhance skills that are taught in English that will then have a positive impact on the outcomes in their particular subject area. All subjects make a specific contribution to developing pupils language through the use of subject specific vocabulary, reading skills that enhance understanding and writing that is appropriate to that subject. In developing literacy across the curriculum teachers at Seaham School aim to enable our pupils to: Express themselves clearly, correctly and appropriately orally and in writing Read accurately and with understanding Use grammatically correct sentences Spell and punctuate accurately for effective communication Recognise and use standard English at appropriate times Marking Policy Throughout writing tasks, feedback to pupils should make use of the Marking Codes for Literacy. When responding to pupils work teacher s should: target specific areas for improvement (a selective and focussed identification of errors); give guidance on how to achieve the short-term targets set. For example, whilst improve your spelling is unhelpful and vague, the identification of a particular spelling error e.g. doubling of letters before adding -ing is specific and presents the student with a target which can be addressed; give priority to content, ideas, organisation and meaning above secretarial features; create opportunities for students to reflect on the quality of their own work and for peer assessment.
Aims of the three language modes Although the following is divided into three sections, Speaking and Listening, Reading and Writing, it is essential that these three modes are interdependent. Speaking and Listening. Teachers will help students; to understand that talk (and not just reading and writing) is a valuable means of learning in itself by ensuring the task and purpose is clear by giving to reflect on the content to value and respect the talk of others to be confident contributors in a wide range of oral activities, in individual, paired and group situations to understand that differences in task, purpose and audience require different language choices and formality to build confidence by starting small: an explanation to a partner, then to a small group before presenting to a whole class Reading Teachers will develop students reading skills by:- providing texts at appropriate reading levels for the range of student reading ability; encouraging extended reading as well as reading in short bursts providing opportunities for students to access texts independently e.g. using CD ROMs and the Internet, works of reference, library catalogues and indexes teaching students how to select/note/summarise information from their reading, drawing students attention to the way texts are organised in different subject areas e.g. format, page layout, print, illustrations and diagrams, and other key textual features. helping students to develop a range of active reading strategies skimming, scanning, reading intensively for a range of contexts and purposes helping students acquire a variety of comprehension skills literal, inferential and evaluative helping students experience different ways of reading, for example, individual or shared Ultimately, our aim is for our pupils to have the skills and confidence to be able to independently choose which techniques are the most appropriate for the task. Writing Teachers will aim to develop writing skills by:- providing opportunities for students to write in a variety of styles, and for a variety of audiences and purposes providing opportunities for students to write in subject specific ways, providing annotated examples in the subject so that the requirements are clear providing students with models of different styles of writing, including through teacher modelling, and structured assistance (e.g. writing frames) in reproducing their linguistic features giving students further opportunities through peer and self-assessment to recognise the successful use of specific stylistic features in a text
drawing students attention to the importance, and the techniques, of the drafting, editing and proof-reading process Again the aim is for pupils to be able to confidently choose and put into practice the most appropriate organisation and style of writing for the task. Additionally, spelling is an area that needs to be consistently addressed across all subjects. Teachers will aim to develop spelling skills by:- displaying key words for each stage encouraging students to find the correct spelling of the word themselves instead of providing a correct version for them supporting pupils in developing an understanding of subject specific vocabulary, encouraging the use of glossaries or dictionaries