Leeds West Academy

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Literacy for All

Introduction 

‘We know that poor literacy blights life chances.  We know being able to read, write and speak with confidence and accuracy opens doors otherwise barred and bolted… In the vast majority of lessons, pupils are asked to read stuff and then write it down.  Even in those where printed material and pens are seldom seen, there is almost always a requirement that pupils listen, if not speak.  This means that every single lesson is a golden and unmissable opportunity to take responsibility for pupil literacy.  Without this, the gap between the haves and have-nots will only get wider.’

David Didau, The Secret of Literacy

Academy Commitment  

At Leeds West Academy, we are committed to supporting every student to:

  • read fluently and confidently in every subject and understand the reading required in every subject,
  • cultivate an enjoyment of books and reading to understand how reading can enhance and enrich their life,
  • build a wide vocabulary through disciplinary knowledge,
  • take part in effective spoken communication,
  • develop their ability to write extensively, academically, and creatively.

As such, our Roadmap explicitly references the inclusion of reading and literacy in the curriculum as a way to publicly highlight this cause, continue its momentum, and stand as a constant reminder of our dedication. This approach is lived and developed through:

  • prioritising reading and literacy through the curriculum via Curriculum 4,
  • the understanding of student reading performance,
  • dedicated time for reading and the discussion of reading,
  • access to a wide range of books and reading resources,
  • continued crafting of writing, including focused vocabulary tuition,
  • opportunities for oracy.

Section 1: Curriculum 4

Curriculum 4 places literacy at the heart of the curriculum to ensure that our literacy provision is as rigorous and robust as it can be to secure exceptional futures for our students and our community.

1.1 Reading for Decoding and Comprehension

Reading in the curriculum at Leeds West Academy focuses on subject-specific material that brings each subject to life. Academic reading is undertaken regularly, across all year groups, is broken down by staff appropriately and is modelled effectively. The development of reading is most effective when prioritising decoding of vocabulary and assessing the comprehension of a text at sentence, paragraph and text-levels. When secure, this provides the springboard for activating prior knowledge, allowing for prediction and forward-thinking, and prompting and evoking questioning all of which are skills required of our students in future life.

1.2 Quality and Quantity of Writing

Writing practice, especially extended writing, is continual and frequent. This builds on the skills of crafting (planning monitoring and evaluating) from at Key Stage Two. Students should be able to recognise the features, aims, and conventions of good writing within each subject due to modelling and other writing strategies.

One of the ways we will improve the literacy skills of our students is by increasing the opportunities they have to produce extended writing. By creating opportunities for extended writing we are helping foster students’ abilities to: make predictions; build connections; raise questions; discover new ideas and promote higher-level thinking. To achieve the best outcomes, we must set writing within a rich and varied teaching and learning experience with active approaches and appropriate scaffolding, where students are supported but also stretched, challenged and encouraged to grapple with challenging concepts.

 

Section 2: Reading

2.1 GL Assessments

As part of our commitment to our community and their futures, we invest in the assessment of reading performance for all students so that we have responsive and precise reading ages. These reading ages generate individualised support for each student that can be used daily by staff to personalise and prepare for all aspects of our provision and the date enables purposeful tracking of reading ability across their five years at LWA.

2.2 Dedicated Reading

All students in Key Stage Three are provided with one hour a week of dedicated reading time delivered by an English teacher. Reading levels and frequency are monitored by teachers and Catherine Sykes (Academy Librarian). This includes the completion of class readers, i.e. full texts read to the students by the member of staff with corresponding comprehension and knowledge questions, as well as time for students to access our library, borrow texts in line with student likes, and use our online platform, Sparx Reader. All Key Stage Three and Key Stage Four students have access to the library during break and lunch times and all are able to access Sparx Reader.

2.3 Sparx Reader

Our online reading platform provides students with a range of eBooks that they can access at home, via any device with a browser and internet connectivity. All students are given reading homework each week that encourages the careful reading of books.

2.4 Reading for Pleasure

Regular high-profile reading events, including Reader of the Week, Book Buzz, Book Club, the ‘Wonder’ transition project, author visits, #getcaughtreading and World Book Day, frame our approach to reading for pleasure which is designed to engage, inspire and enthuse students, increasing reading frequency and boosting the engagement with Sparx Reader. For Years 9 and 10, all students receive one form time period per week dedicated to reading for pleasure that has been designed to expose students to a wide variety of texts, of differing genres.

Section 3: Writing

3.1 A Shared Understanding

At LWA, our shared understanding of extended writing is that students write frequently and that the work increases in length towards our minimum of three paragraphs. As a guideline, for subjects where writing is an integral element, extended writing should happen at least every four lessons to enable our students to process, organise, formulate and extend their thinking about what they have been learning.

3.2 Scaffolds

Students can be supported to build up the length and detail in written responses through carefully chosen scaffolds. Scaffolds are anything that gives a structure or outline in order to help students organise their ideas and can easily be differentiated. Teachers need to be mindful that the scaffold still requires the students to do the cognitive work – any scaffold that does the thinking for the student is not going to be effective in developing their skills. Scaffolds should be created in a way that means they are able to be gradually withdrawn with the student achieving the same or better standard with increasing independence.

3.3 SPaG codes

The SPaG code sheet lists the fourteen key elements of technical accuracy students need to secure for effective written communication. The SPaG codes are in the front of all exercise books and are used by staff to support the technical accuracy of written communication. Some of these ways include:

The teacher identifies and corrects SPaG errors. The student rewrites the sections accurately.

  • The teacher identifies SPaG errors. The student independently corrects.
  • The teacher identifies the line(s) where there are errors. The student independently identifies and corrects.
  • The teacher writes the SPaG code(s) at the end of the piece. The student independently identifies and corrects.

3.4 Writing Events

Alongside the internal provision, students are able to access wider opportunities for writing including First Story, the Leeds Poetry Slam, and Young Writers.

Section 4: Spoken Communication and Vocabulary

Myhill and Fisher tell us that spoken language “forms a constraint, a ceiling not only on the ability to comprehend but also on the ability to write, beyond which literacy cannot progress.” Talk is one of the most powerful levers for cognitive change; if we want to improve pupils’ ability to write, we need to improve their ability to think.

4.1 Verbal scaffolding

The use of verbal scaffolds can support students in articulating a developed response. LWA teachers use pre-prepared questions to support verbal scaffolding, alongside the use of our Learning Modes to develop oracy skills.

4.2 Vocabulary acquisition and use

  • Tier 1 – high frequency in spoken language (table, slowly, write, horrible)
  • Tier 2 – high frequency in written texts (gregarious, beneficial, required, maintain)
  • Tier 3 – subject specific, academic language (osmosis, trigonometry, onomatopoeia)

Teachers deliberately expose students to Tier 2 vocabulary and explicitly teach Tier 3 vocabulary through ‘Total Recall’ and modelling.

Section 5: Literacy and Intervention

Some students will require additional support to develop competent literacy skills and remove barriers to their progress. There are several avenues for this at Leeds West Academy, including the following:

  • Referral to the Academy Librarian who will monitor reading ages and provide targeted support within library/reading lessons.
  • Liaising with the student’s English teacher who will provide appropriate, supportive strategies.
  • Additionally, SEND students who require support with literacy will receive literacy intervention via trained teaching assistants.