Literacy & Reading

‘Language and literacy provide us with the building blocks not just for academic success, but for fulfilling careers and rewarding lives’

At Shoreham Academy, we are working hard to promote our students’ literacy and ensure they all achieve to the very best of their ability. We believe all teachers are teachers of literacy, that every teacher communicates their subject through academic language, and that reading, writing, speaking and listening are at the heart of knowing.

We place high value on reading fluently, widely and often. Students are encouraged to read books across a variety of genres and authors. We have an excellent librarian and library facility we are proud of with a range of interesting books for every learner and all abilities. Every child in Y7 and Y8 is gifted a book each year. We also have ‘book drops’ in the RED (ReadEveryDay) boxes so students and teachers can pick up and swap a book any time they like.

How can you support your child at home?

Be enthusiastic and encourage your child to be a reader: even if you are not.
Ask questions; show an interest in what they are reading, get them to predict what might happen, who their favourite character is… it makes a massive difference.
Reading at home can include listening to your child read, reading with them or simply making sure they are given the opportunity to read independently.

Encourage your child to read a range of materials such as newspaper articles, blogs and non-fiction text as well as fiction. Many students prefer non-fiction like biographies or anthologies of shorter extracts, this is perfectly acceptable and should be encouraged.
Graphic novels and comics can often engage even the most reluctant of readers.
Test your child regularly on their spellings and encourage them to look up definitions of unfamiliar vocabulary in a dictionary.
Encourage your child to check their written work for errors. Sometimes this can simply be a case of reading their work aloud to you or to themselves. This can often encourage students to see their own errors.
Be as helpful as you can in helping your child write. Talk through their ideas with them; help them discover what they want to say. Sometimes writing out a short plan can really focus students and help them to structure their work more effectively.

Whole School Reading

Our whole school Literacy strategy is embedded across our curriculum and role modelled by all staff every day.

We base our strategies on our context and diagnostic assessment of need in school but also on informed research such as the approaches suggested by the EEF which can be found here.

Improving Literacy in Secondary Schools | EEF (educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk)

We are always keen to hear your feedback on our approach to Literacy in school. Please do contact Suzi Butler Assistant Principal should you have any queries regarding literacy at Shoreham Academy

Suzanne.Butler@shoreham-academy.org

Reading is an essential part our curriculum that support students learning, well- being and development of cultural capital. We have a bespoke mentor time reading programme that can be found here:

In every key stage there is a part of their mentor time curriculum where students read.

Mentor Time Reading Programme

Why we do what we do:

Many of our students do not have access to a rich reading environment. Those that do have also lost their love of reading due to the influence of technology and the smartphone.

Our mission is to create a rich reading environment and make sure that students experience the joy of reading a novel. We have carefully selected the texts that are read to our students to provide a diverse range of stories, authors and genres. Everything from the timeless classic to the modern greats!

We read in at least two mentor sessions a week and for a minimum of 25 minutes per session. Quality reading is modelled by all the staff here at Shoreham Academy.

Reading exposes your child to a vast range of vocabulary that perhaps is not always familiar. This helps them develop their reading ability their writing accuracy and the verbal confidence (oracy).

To view the books we're currently reading - click here.

Masked Reader

Can you guess which member of staff is reading here…

Red Boxes

We have our RED boxes placed around the school site. These are our Read Every Day boxes, which students can borrow from anytime. We want to ensure all students have the opportunity to have a book to read. If you have spare books at home that you would like to donate, please send in for the attention our librarian, Rachel Johnson.

Rachel.Johson@shoreham-academy.org

Reading Volunteers

Are you able to spare time each week to support some of younger students with their reading? If this something you would like training on how to do and you have the availability please do contact Bryher Armstrong.

Bryher.Armstrong@shoreham-academy.org

Author Visits

Each term we aims to have an Author visits the school and share their experiences of how they ended up in this role. The students love this and we frequently link with our feeder primary school too to make sure this becomes a wider community event

Frayer Model

We are using a range of strategies to support students develop their literacy skills in school. One thing we are using school wide this year is the Frayer Model. This model supports students when learning about new vocabulary and is a nice approach to use at home.

The process is the new word is placed in the centre. Then students look up or learn the description of the word, links it may have or etymology of the word, the antonym of the word and then place it into a sentence

Oracy

We are keen that Literacy is not just seen as Reading and Writing and have a developing focus in school on the use of oracy.

We have recently launched the ‘Great Debates’ at KS3 of which there are some image below. Please click on the link to see the concept of next debate for Year 7!