Abbey Multi-Academy Trust is proud to be a ‘talk rich trust’, where every child’s voice is valued. We are committed to developing the vital communication skills of all of our young people so that they are supported and empowered to become the confident, articulate and globally minded citizens of the future. We are proud to be developing a culture of fluent, proficient communication within our academies, which has innovative teaching and learning at the heart of its philosophy: to work in partnership to educate, nurture and empower.
Literacy is at the heart of teaching and learning here atAbbey Grange. It refers to the essential communication skills of reading and writing; literate pupils communicate with a high level of fluency and sophistication, in both written and verbal forms. Literacy skills form a‘toolkit’ which will enable them to experience a high degree of success across the curriculum and throughout their time at secondary school and beyond.
What we offer
KS3:
- All students always have a book in their bag.
- Every English lesson begins with silent reading for pleasure.
- Frequent opportunities to read and access a range of challenging literature texts: poetry and novels in English lessons.
- Challenging tier 2 and tier 3 vocabulary starters explicitly taught in lessons.
- Literacy intervention homework booklets
- Spelling and vocabulary focus on all EnglishREACT lessons
- Fortnightly Forensic Reading lessons to encourage detailed analysis of challenging fiction and non-fiction texts.
- Access to a book fair annually.
- Intervention strategies to support with literacy skills such as Lexia and Accelerated Reader programmes.
- Reading for pleasure in form time with form tutor.
KS4 and KS5:
- Frequent opportunities to read and access a range of challenging literature and non-fiction texts.
- Explicit teaching on decoding questions across the curriculum.
- Emphasis on academic writing style and register in lessons.
- Specific teaching of Tier 2 and 3 vocabulary
- Extra - curricular book clubs.
Whole School:
- Celebrating annual events such as NationalPoetry Day and World Book Day.
- Weekly whole school Drop Everything And Read sessions
- Abbey 100 - Vocabulary Initiative
How you can help at home:
- Encourage reading for pleasure at home; aim for at least 10-20 minutes per day
- Ensure your child always has a book in their bag.
- Ask your child what they are reading and what they are enjoying.
- Support and encourage your child to participate in annual events such as World Book Day.
‘Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.’—Emilie Buchwald
WORD Strategy (Writing, Oracy and Reading Development)
Our Vision
Abbey Multi-Academy Trust is proud to be a ‘talk rich trust’, where every child’s voice is valued. We are committed to developing the vital communication skills of all of our young people so that they are supported and empowered to become the confident, articulate and globally minded citizens of the future. We are proud to be developing a culture of fluent, proficient communication within our academies, which has innovative teaching and learning at the heart of its philosophy: to work in partnership to educate, nurture and empower.
‘Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope.’ — Kofi Annan
Writing, reading and oracy development
Our aims are:
- To ensure that the standards of writing, oracy and reading are raised throughout all key stages and across all subject areas
- To embed writing, oracy and reading skills across all subject areas
- To have a shared language for oracy
- To empower our young people to use language appropriately, efficiently and with purpose in a range of contexts, both spoken and written
- To engage all young people in the enjoyment of reading for pleasure, engaging them in high quality material and stimuli which will captivate their imaginations
- To provide a range of intervention strategies that begin with quality first teaching and are targeted to support our young people to attain and surpass national literacy standards
Responsibilities
For pupils:
- To recognise strengths and areas for development in their own oral and written communication and to apply a range of strategies to further develop their communication skills
- To transfer oracy, reading and writing skills across different subjects and to deploy skills efficiently beyond the classroom
- To always proof read and edit written work and respond to any feedback given to make progress
For parents and carers:
‘Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.’ —Emilie Buchwald
- To actively support the Trust’s writing, oracy and reading support and interventions, understanding the importance of these skills for lifelong learning
- To support their child by reading and discussing learning each day
- To actively support reading at home through various mediums, including reading books, magazines, newspapers, recipes and other forms of extended writing
For teachers, teaching assistants and pastoral staff:
- To provide a role model to consistently demonstrate high standards or oracy
- To ensure all classrooms are talk rich and provide explicit teaching of key writing, oracy and reading skills
- To follow the whole school literacy marking policy and provide opportunities for pupils to respond to areas for development
- To explicitly plan for highly effective oracy, reading and writing strategies in line with pupils’ needs through use of the SSIPs
- To fully support academy-wide reading initiatives
- To be fully committed to raising writing, oracy and reading skills at all levels of pupil attainment
For the English department
- To provide models of best practice, advice and training to colleagues so they are able to implement these effectively in their subjects
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‘Education is much more than a matter of imparting the knowledge and skills by which narrow goals are achieved. It is also about opening the child’s eyes to the needs and rights of others.’ - Dalai Lama
For subject leaders
- To ensure that all curriculum planning has explicit reference to the knowledge and/or skills needed for pupils to acquire writing, oracy and reading skills
- To ensure that challenging tier 3 and tier 2 wording is evident in curriculum planning and that these are made explicit to students as appropriate
- To routinely evaluate the impact of writing, oracy and reading strategies on all pupils’ progress through formal and non-formal QA (including lesson observations, climate checks, work reviews and SSIP scrutiny) and provide training and interventions where needed.
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‘When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful’ - Malana Yousafzai
Senior Leadership Team
- To actively promote writing, oracy and reading, ensuring that the needs of all pupils are met
- To ensure that the most innovative and cutting-edge practice is embedded into all T&L provision
- To ensure that monitoring and intervention programmes for writing, oracy and reading are rigorous to minimise underachievement and maximise the standards of communication capabilities
- To ensure that the intent, implementation and impact of the curriculum allows all students to make excellent progress with their writing, oracy and reading skills
- To ensure that writing, oracy and reading targets, provision and monitoring is embedded within SEFs and the academy action plan.
- To ensure that all pupils sit nationally recognised reading age tests and that this data is effectively used by all teachers within the academy to plan effectively for pupils to make progress with their reading
- To provide research based, innovative CPD for all stakeholders based on raising standards of writing, oracy and reading for all students
Governors
- To support the implementation and development of the Trust’s drive to improve standards of writing, oracy and reading for all students
‘The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.’ - Dr. Seuss
Marking for Literacy 2021 - 2022
Marking Codes and Meanings
SP - Spelling Error
P - Punctuation Error
Exp. - Expression is incorrect
// - New paragraph needed
T - Tense error
© (circle around a letter) - should be a capital letter
_ - Should be a lower case letter
A - Apostrophe Letter
^ - Insert Word(s)
