“The limits of my language means the limits of my world.”                                                                                                                              Wittgenstein.

We want students to love reading and become life-long readers.

We know that securing basic skills of literacy and developing highly literate learners means our students flourish. We are also guided by the aims of the National Curriculum: literacy is an essential, core activity which is explicitly promoted, supported and developed.       

Our Library takes on a variety of guises! It is a peaceful and calm environment where reading and private study habits are developed. However, it is punctuated by seasons of competition, reading groups, author visits and a very vibrant Book Week. At the end of the day too, it houses our Homework Club. Student Library Ambassadors alongside our wonderful Library staff support students and staff in creative ways to engage with books - both physical (we have around 12,000 books!) and online. Our Sixth Form students too provide 1:1 reading support for Key Stage 3 students and are excellent role models in developing a love of reading. Because it is so popular, our Library opens at 8:15am and does not close until 5pm. 

Complementing our reading provision, all students take part in vocabulary building programmes, and oracy is promoted through a wide range of enrichment activities as well as all students presenting, for example, in Tutor Group Worship.  

Here are just a few of our reading associated activities:

• Bedrock Learning (vocabulary curriculum Year 7 and 8)
• Curriculum Library lessons (Year 7)
• Bespoke reading activities for each subject (Key Stage 3)
• Whole school reading festivals (including ERIC - Everyone Reading in Class, author visits, sponsored readathons, Book Week, associated competitions)
• Reading Partners (Sixth form students reading with Year 7 and 8)

Next Stage Ready: a range of literacy support strategies are also in place through our Inclusion Team to ensure that no student is left behind with their literacy. (e.g. Units of Sound, comprehension groups, 1:1 tuition)

Mrs Antonina Fletton

Literacy Lead

"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".                                                                                       Myhill and Fisher.