Literacy
In our most recent Ofsted inspection, literacy was not only in the spotlight, but also celebrated. We are so proud of our literacy curriculum as it allows all of our students to flourish with our CARE principles:
“Leaders have a clear focus on developing pupils’ reading and vocabulary knowledge. Pupils read regularly and fluently. Pupils who are at the earliest stages of learning to read benefit from an effective programme to support them to catch up. This helps these pupils to access the wider curriculum. Teachers support pupils well to develop subject-specific vocabulary. “ Ofsted, March 2022
Our core values are Consideration, Aspiration, Resilience and Equality. Our Literacy intent is to ensure that all students have equality in their learning of literacy; all students show resilience when developing their literacy skills and that this in turn helps them achieve their aspirations both in school and beyond the classroom.
Throughout the school, our ethos is centred around ‘enriching lives, inspiring ambitions’ as is our Literacy intent. Our school aims to support students in fostering an independent and proactive approach to improving their own Literacy, to value the impact that Literacy can make in their own learning. We have high expectations of all students in our school curriculum. Effective Literacy is a keystone of lifelong success. This begins with each classroom; each member of staff and each student in the school and should be reflected in teaching and learning across all subjects and in every department.
As a school it is our duty to our students to provide consistent and structured opportunities to develop Literacy skills to equip them for success beyond the classroom and as a member of modern society. These opportunities are provided regardless of ability, social background or education need and are tailored in order to support each student to make their own progress towards success. Extending beyond functional literacy, we seek to create a literacy focused environment for our students in which they develop a love of Literacy: written and verbal communication, vocabulary and reading for pleasure. In order to achieve this, we take a structured, measured and formalised approach informed by data and relevant academic research. Activities should be consistent and sequential across the school and monitored for effectiveness with an aim of improving reading ages, spelling ages and vocabulary.
In partnership with the National Literacy Trust we use an evidence-based approach to improve whole school literacy using the 7 strands of disciplinary literacy which informs departments how they develop literacy skills within their subject areas including the offering of high quality CPD to staff and parents. Often, students have the ideas but do not possess the skills with which to articulate themselves.
Our Core Strategy
In our most recent Ofsted inspection, literacy was not only in the spotlight, but also celebrated. We are so proud of our literacy curriculum as it allows all of our students to flourish with our CARE principles:
“Leaders have a clear focus on developing pupils’ reading and vocabulary knowledge. Pupils read regularly and fluently. Pupils who are at the earliest stages of learning to read benefit from an effective programme to support them to catch up. This helps these pupils to access the wider curriculum. Teachers support pupils well to develop subject-specific vocabulary. “ Ofsted, March 2022
Since our inspection, we have developed our ambitious strategy even further with our evidenced based core reading strategy, to help all students build intrinsic and valuable reading skills throughout the curriculum.
In all subjects, students will be trained to read with a goal in mind. Before, during and after reading students will be prompted to respond and think deeply about the challenging text they are given.
Here is our core strategy:
Students will be encouraged to use these reciprocal strategies during their homework in order to develop and solidify their reading skills. If you want to help your child from home, some questions you may like to ask at each stage are:
Whilst reading with your child at home, or after your child has completed their independent reading, support your child further by following our simple at home reading ‘PEER’ strategy:
- Prompt the child to say something about the text (question and connect)
- Evaluate their response (do they need a clarify question?)
- Expand their response (could you ask them to make a prediction, or link it to other knowledge they have?)
- Repeat the prompt (to help them repeat and build on their answer).
Additionally, the ‘how can I help my child at home’ tab on this page has similar strategies.
If you have any questions regarding Literacy, please contact our Literacy Co-ordinator, Mrs Beach.
How to support your child with reading at home.
Summarising has the biggest impact on a child’s ability to understand a text and developing their reading age. By asking your child two simple questions you can make a massive impact on their understanding and maximise their reading time.
Activating Prior knowledge
Before reading ask one question which links to your child’s existing knowledge.
For example, any of the following:
- What do you think this book could be about?
- What has happened so far?
- Have you read anything like this before?
- What do you think will happen next?
After reading ask one question which allows student to summarise their reading.
For example, any of the following:
- What do you think will happen next?
- How do you feel about this text?
- What else do you need to know to decide what you think about the character/topic/theme?
Extra suggestions:
- Encourage your child to write a book review
- Get caught reading – whether it’s a newspaper, magazine, cooking book, it doesn’t matter. Children seeing adults read is incredibly powerful
- Keep reading together! No matter how old your child is, reading together and having ‘book talk’ is incredibly beneficial for all children.
If you would like further support on helping your child from home, then please let Miss Powell the Literacy Co-ordinator know. Furthermore, bookmarks with reading strategies are available should your child wish to collect one in school.
Our Library
Moorside High uses a library management system called Oliver.
You can access the site and search the stock we hold in the library from the comfort of your own home. It also has information on the latest competitions, new purchases, clubs and events.
Students can pop into the library and speak with Miss Smith who will be more than happy to march them to their perfect book.