Reading

Research shows that the proficiency of reading amongst young people has a direct influence on their future educational attainment and their ability to fulfil their potential beyond school. Mr Shearer leads our approach to reading. All students are encouraged to read at UCC, with a book being an essential item that all students are expected to bring to school. Dedicated silent reading time is built into English lessons and into the weekly tutor programme for all year groups.

To ensure that we fully understand the reading abilities of our students, all students in Years 7-11 have two reading assessments per year to determine their reading age and their standardised reading score. This information is used to highlight students who would benefit from support with reading and to measure the impact of our interventions.

Our Paired Reading Programme for Year 7 students is an important part of developing reading across the school. Selected Year 7 students are encouraged to read on a regular basis with older students in the school. Our ambition and plan is to expand this programme of peer-to-peer reading support across the school.

The school library also plays a vital role in developing reading and a love of books. The library provides a supportive and encouraging environment to stimulate and develop an interest in reading. It offers books for a wide range of interests so that our students value reading as a source of pleasure and as an important life skill. The library advertise a Book of the Day, and run several extra-curricular clubs.

Some examples of how reading has been developed at UCC, can be found below;

• Every student has a reading book as part of required school items
• There are Reading Trolleys and book boxes in classrooms for those who don’t have a book
• Form tutors keep a log of tutees’ reading on a shared staff document
• We have created an anthology of the different text types students encounter
• ‘Drop Everything and Read’ events take place throughout the year
• We celebrate World Book Day and National Poetry Day with events and readings
• We have restructured the Library services (now aligned with and line managed by the English Department).
• Our librarian is an expert in their field, and a recent ‘Librarian of the year’
• We have revisited the library catalogue and made significant investment in current and engaging texts
• We enter national reading competitions like the Carnegie and Greenaway Award
• We have invested in the Accelerated Reader Programme
• Paired readers from older forms read with lower year group forms
• Parents and the community continue to donate books to support engagement
• We have a designated Literacy Teacher; Miss C Miller

Literacy

Excellent literacy is the key to the success of all learners, not just in the classroom or examinations, in order to allow them to fulfil their potential beyond school.

Ullswater Community College ensures that literacy is taught throughout the curriculum. Mr Shearer (Head of Media Studies & an English teacher) leads the school approach to literacy. Significant work is taking place to ensure that teachers are trained in how to effectively promote literacy within the curriculum, support learners to develop their spelling, grammar and punctuation and broaden their vocabulary. The school has a commitment to developing our approach to literacy; we work closely with the National Literacy Trust and engage frequently with the Education Endowment Foundation as well as keeping up to date with current developments in literacy.

In Year 7, we run a programme of ‘Catch-up’ for students whose literacy at the end of Key Stage 2 is below the national standard. In having a separate literacy class, it is our intention to hone in on specific skills and ensure that students are ‘secondary ready’ and master the aforementioned skills, providing the basis for students to be able to access the secondary curriculum confidently.

Our English department plays a pivotal role in the development of literacy. As of September 2020, Key Stage 3 will use a tailor made ‘vocabulary ladder’ in class, which will be differentiated by tiers. This outlines the vocabulary that students ‘must, should and could’ be able to use by the end of the year. In Year 7, they begin with terminology that the National Curriculum outlines at Key Stage 2 and 3, with some literary features added to challenge more able learners.

In Year 7, students will have 4 English lessons per week, with one of these being dedicated to literacy and class reading. While this will hopefully emulate KS2 a little, it will also strengthen skills they are developing and learning at Key Stage 3 – particularly ‘explanations’ and ‘impact’. Although students may practise these skills at KS2, our ambition is to continue to develop these throughout years 7-9.

Some examples of how literacy has been developed at UCC, can be found below;

• The literacy coordinator provides literacy CPD for staff in termly briefings
• ‘SPAG BALLS’ – laminated posters helping with spelling/vocabulary- are displayed throughout school
• MARKING CODE posters appear in all classrooms
• UCC is now a pilot school for the National Literacy Trust writing frames research
• We have a ‘Synonym of the Week’ form vocabulary competition
• There is, also, a ‘Made- Up Word of the Week’ form vocabulary competition
• We have created an anthology of the different text types students encounter. There are vocabulary bookmarks for students
• Departments use the ‘tier words’ triangle for identifying different word types
• We have reallocated a specialist literacy support TA to work within the English department to support teachers and students in class and in intervention
• We are developing a whole-school approach to embedding literacy skills such as sequencing & justification, and modelling ‘word consciousness’ in lessons

Literacy resources