Reading and Literacy

The school recognises that proficient literacy is at the heart of student development and underpins both the curriculum and many other aspects of wider school life. Developing our students’ ability to listen, speak, read and write for a wide range of audiences and purposes, enhances and enriches their metacognitive processes and overall summative achievement. A curriculum with broad and challenging literacy at its core, prepares students not only for future academic, vocational or technical pursuits, but has a wider reaching impact on their personal and professional lives.

As experts in their area, teachers and support staff across the school, have an influential role to play in facilitating the development of literacy skills, with each member of staff making a valuable contribution to this common purpose. In addition to its place in the curriculum, literacy also lives in the very fabric of the school community and is an important aspect of wider enrichment opportunities for both students and their parents and carers.

Literacy and reading in the curriculum

Reading is recognised across our school as the responsibility of every teacher, with staff understanding that strong reading skills are essential to accessing the secondary curriculum. Teachers recognise that students encounter increasingly complex vocabulary and texts and therefore explicitly teach key vocabulary and front-load important knowledge to support access. Texts are carefully selected to be appropriately challenging, while reading is scaffolded where needed to support less confident readers. We recognise that strong reading also provides the foundation for developing vocabulary, oracy and writing, enabling students to express themselves with greater confidence and precision. Teachers also promote reading for pleasure within their classrooms, helping students to develop confidence, independence and positive attitudes towards reading.

…giving All Children the Opportunity to Read Novels.

The ACORN Reading Project

The ACORN Reading Project gives Key Stage 3 students regular opportunities to enjoy reading during tutor time throughout the week. Guided by their form tutor, students explore one of the novels from our carefully chosen canon, which includes a diverse range of texts — from classics to futuristic dystopias — and opens up conversations about discrimination and prejudice, belonging, wellbeing and identity.

During these sessions, students listen to their tutor model fluent, expressive reading, develop their vocabulary and deepen their understanding of the ideas explored in each text. Through these books, students encounter both “windows” into lives and experiences different from their own and “mirrors” that reflect aspects of their own identity and world. By making reading a regular and shared part of school life, ACORN helps students build confidence, curiosity and a lifelong enjoyment of books.

The Library

Our school library, led by our librarian Angela Parkinson, who has been shortlisted for the School Library Association’s Librarian of the Year, is at the heart of reading across the school. It is a welcoming space where students can read quietly, research, discover new books and access support in finding something they will enjoy and that is appropriate for them, helping to remove barriers to reading. The library supports our wider reading culture through book clubs, mindfulness activities and our tutor reading programme, alongside our Reading Champions — students from every year group who actively promote and champion reading across the school. We also celebrate reading through events including book fairs, author visits and World Book Day, creating a vibrant reading community in which every student is encouraged to see themselves as a reader.

Sixth Form Reading Buddies

Our Sixth Form Reading Buddies programme provides targeted support for students who begin secondary school with a reading age below that expected for their age. We train Year 12 students to work with these students weekly, helping them to develop word decoding, fluency, vocabulary and confidence. This regular support not only strengthens reading skills but also develops students’ oracy by building their vocabulary and confidence in communicating and expressing themselves. The programme creates positive relationships with older student role models, while also developing our Sixth Formers’ interpersonal, communication and leadership skills. Students who participate demonstrate measurable progress in their reading, highlighting the positive impact of this peer-supported approach.