Literacy
It is central to the school's core values for us to focus on the key skills of reading, writing and speaking in every lesson. At Robert Clack we believe 'everyone is a teacher of literacy' and it is our aim to develop these skills in every subject. We place literacy at the heart of what we do. Our aim is to encourage positivity, enthusiasm, creativity, confidence and independence in all of our students through embedding literacy in all that we do.
As a school we take the literacy of our students very seriously. The Senior Leadership Team and literacy leads work tirelessly with classroom teachers to ensure students are supported through a series of targeted and focused interventions – especially on the lower school site. These interventions can be arranged on a one to one basis with our team of dedicated mentors or in groups to target specific areas of need. A couple of examples include: the year 9 reading mentors who work with year 7 students and in year 8 we run the National Literacy Trust 'Skills Academy' programme.
We use assemblies and form times to promote the ‘Word of the Week’, which is a whole school initiative used to encourage students from KS3 and KS4 to actively participate competitively in literacy quizzes and learn about the etymology of words. Students are then encouraged to apply what they have learnt in lessons to extend their vocabulary.
We encourage reading through a series of exciting competitions and initiatives. All students are required to carry a book with them at all times and they are expected to reading for a minimum of 20 minutes every day.
Each department has a literacy representative to ensure that literacy is addressed throughout the school in every lesson. Please see our literacy policy which is used across the school in all lessons.
We provide a transition assembly for all new year 7 students in September with well known children's author Dan Freedman. It is through this work we have also been awarded the CLIP Reading for Pleasure Award.
Robert Clack also organise an event called English Excellence Day in the summer term where we invite a range of authors to come and speak to our students about the importance of literacy. We place great importance in celebrating the world of literacy by also organising annual World Book Day events for all key stages and regularly encouraging students and staff to read with Drop Everything and Read events which span the entire school.
We are working hard at Robert Clack to become a centre of excellence in relation to our work with literacy at a whole school level. We work with trusted and respected organisations in the field and we use these links to help us provide the best literacy support to students across the school.
We are very proud of our many achievements and recognition for our positive literacy practices. In January 2018 we were recognised with a CLIP Reading for Pleasure Award and in July 2018 we were contacted by Renaissance Learning who awarded us with Champion School Status. We continue to maintain close links with the National Literacy Trust and we are pleased to be featured in some of their case studies:
Our Strategic Approach to Literacy
Work with the Princes Teaching Institute is taking place in two key areas in regard to literacy. Our English Associate Department project focuses on vocabulary enhancement and development and the Leadership project is investigating building a culture of whole school literacy. For our work last year we have received a PTI mark in both areas.
If you have any questions about reading or literacy at Robert Clack please contact ieames@robertclack.co.uk