Literacy

Literacy

At Ormiston Denes Academy, we are working hard to promote our students’ literacy and ensure they all achieve to the very best of their ability. We believe all teachers are teachers of literacy. The key skills of reading, writing, and oral communication are what enable students to access all areas of the curriculum and wider society. 

Our strategies for improving student literacy are drawn from the Education Endowment Foundation research base and best practice nationally (through OAT) and internationally. We are committed to systematically building our literacy provision from what research tells us work – not just the latest trend.  

Vision 

  • Every student leaves the school with the literacy skills to succeed in the future. 
  • Those students who join the school not yet at age expected reading levels are supported in order to help them rapidly improve. 
  • Every student leaves the school with the communication skills required to be successful in the next phase of education, their future careers and in wider society. 

This will be achieved through 

  • Our whole community modelling high-quality speaking and listening, reading and writing. 
  • Literacy being fundamental and specific to every lesson. 
  • Students being helped to lead their own learning. 
  • Building on the core literacy skills developed in the primary key stages. 

Knowing the meaning of words and having the ability to decode language is crucial for child development. Therefore, the acquisition and command of vocabulary is key to their learning and progress across the whole curriculum. Research shows that the larger a student’s vocabulary the better able to comprehend and infer meaning.  

Through high quality curriculum planning, we are committed as an academy to broadening our students’ vocabulary and narrowing the word gap that inhibits their academic progress. The teaching of new vocabulary will be explicit and connected to the foundational knowledge required in the lessons.  

We explicitly address students’ vocabulary needs through direct instruction in the classroom. Using the OAT wide ‘Golden Triangle’ we explicit teach how the morphology, sound and meaning of words. Through this academic year, students will also be exposed to the Lexonik Vocabulary approaches through their afternoon form time provision (from January). 

The development of speech, language and communication starts at an early age and has a direct impact on children’s social and educational outcomes, health and wellbeing: 

  • Children who do not have secure attachments will be less emotionally resilient and not be more able to make positive relationships. 
  • Children who do not experience regular empathic listening from adults are less able to learn, to use life well, to concentrate, to enjoy relationships and to be kind to others. 

We have a key role in bridging the gap between students’ ability to communicate – in school, with staff and each other for their academic achievement and in preparation for the wider world. 

As an academy we set high expectations which inspire, motivate and challenge students and these expectations are rooted in mutual respect. We take responsibility for promoting good and courteous behaviour both in classrooms and around the school and at all times treat students with dignity and as we would hope to be treated ourselves. We work actively through pastoral sessions, in form time, assemblies and our PSHE lessons to teach students the behaviours that we expect of them. 

In lesson teachers will use, where relevant, a range of oracy strategies to support learning: 

  • Think, Pair, Share or Turn and Talk 
  • Write before you talk 
  • We are working towards a culture where no student opts of an opportunity to talk, discuss ideas and fuse them together or respond to teachers’ questions. We aim to warm student up to talking or responding to questions in all lessons. 

Students also prepare for the Spoken Language certification in GCSE English Language in Year 10. This is a formal talk presented to an audience followed by questioning to demonstrate their knowledge of the topic and their flexibility to discuss it. This is a required component of the English Language qualification.

We understand that writing is challenging in its varied contexts across the academy. Therefore, we have developed schemes of learning that follow the academy four-part lesson with a focus on applying knowledge by thinking hard and expressing these ideas in extended writing as frequently as possible as we know practice makes permanent.  

Prior to the application phase, following the Education Endowment Foundation guidance, expert teachings provide students with explicit instruction and modelling in how to access tasks and live feedback to improve their writing. We also provide scaffolds to support students’ writing development and gradually release greater responsibility to them over the learning to build their confidence and resilience as writers.  

At the end of a lesson, teachers review student learning and look to share good examples of students work. Where individuals need further support to write fluently, they receive support and feedback to improve writing quality from their class teacher. 

We hold the belief that to access education, work and society reading is a non-negotiable component to unlocking students’ potential. We believe it is our duty to accelerate students’ reading ability for all our students. In building a reading culture we aim that it is prioritised to allow students full access to the curriculum. 

Equally, we believe students are entitled to experience a wide range of reading texts during their time at the school and that reading is a vital aspect for academic and wider development of each student. Reading should be challenging for all reading abilities and it is the role and responsibility of all educators to be aware of how reading develops so we can better support students. 

To aid this, we are committed to offering: 

  1. Quality, high level, academically challenging texts in every subject. 
  1. Student a chance to hear high quality fluent reading, every day in every lesson. 
  1. Explicit vocabulary teaching in each lesson (when relevant to the learning). 

These reading strategies have been a key focus for curriculum leaders and teachers alike. Teacher will also use a range of other reading strategies (where appropriate) to support students accessing and understanding texts, such as activating prior knowledge before reading, summarising, asking questions, making predictions and checking for understanding after reading.  

In the classroom, students will be exposed to a wide range of challenging non-fiction and fiction texts. Our aim is that all teachers model reading fluently – whether that is a short mathematics problem or a longer science text, as we believe subject literacy is crucial for learning in subject disciplines and for improved attainment. 

Reading is seen by the whole school community as central to students’ being able to access their exams and show their understanding.

To support development of reading, and intervene with students who are struggling with reading and need help, we have three clear approaches to development and intervention for those who need further support. 

Our Universal Offer (following the EEF Secondary Literacy Strategy): 

Explicit vocabulary teaching using the ‘Golden Triangle’ and Lexonik vocabulary development (from January 2025), reading strategies to support comprehension , oracy support through structured discussions, Writing support through scaffolding and the gradual release of responsibility, and library lesson (inc, Accelerated Reader). 

Targeted support 

In addition to the univeral offer, students with standardised aged scores (SAS) below the good for age average (100) down to 81 access are range of targeted intervention support using: Lexia (Powerup), reading intervention sessions with 1:1 and small group phonics development using Lexonik Leap, Accelerated Reader, Catch Up Literacy 1:1, and where appropriate Lexonik Advance. 

Bespoke support 

In addition to the univeral offer, students with student with standardised aged scores (SAS) below 81 access a range of bespoke intervention support using: Lexia (Core 5), Lexia (Powerup), more frequent reading intervention sessions with 1:1 and small group phonics development using Lexonik Leap, Accelerated Reader, Catch Up Literacy 1:1, and where appropriate Lexonik Advance 

To ensure that students get the right type of support, we run a series of assessments throughout the academic year. This includes a series of GL Assessments to identify needs with all new students (Year 7 and in year entries) and three times a year for all students in the reading intervention programme through the new group reading test (NGRT).  

To ensure the target and bespoke support is having an impact, the early reading intervention team, will also supplement this assessment with ongoing testing of fluency, comprehension and decoding levels.  

We place high value on reading widely and for enjoyment and our students are encouraged to read books across a variety of genres. We are proud of our library and stock it with a range of interesting books for every learner and all abilities.  

To support students’ access, we run a fortnightly timetabled library lesson within the English curriculum in Year 7,8 and 9. These are structured sessions where all students: 

  • Are supported to select and read age appropriate texts for use in home reading; 
  • To develop reading fluency, read aloud to a teacher, the librarian or anther adult during the lesson; 
  • Participate in library skills development sessions.  

In partnership with OAT, to supplement the planned curriculum we have developed an exciting high quality reading curriculum that covers a wide range of thoughts and experiences.  Students have a Read-Aloud session four to five times a week during their afternoon registration. 

The benefits of reading for cognitive development are well understood. Through reading, students are introduced to vocabulary, syntactic structures and background knowledge which they might otherwise fail to encounter. 

Although Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) programmes are the most effective way to leverage the benefits of reading*, some students are not sufficiently fluent readers to read independently. As a result, SRR programmes can have the unintended effect of widening the attainment gap between fluent and non-fluent readers. 

Listening to a skilled reader read aloud provides most of the benefits of SSR with none of the barriers for non-fluent readers. As a result, a Read-Aloud programme is both more likely to narrow the attainment gap and positively influence the reading culture in schools. 

Purpose of the programme  

  1. Students should be entitled to experience a range of high-quality texts throughout their time at secondary school. 
  1. Reading aloud to students is a ‘gap-narrowing’ intervention that will benefit all students but vastly benefit the least advantaged. 
  1. Hearing these texts read-aloud is not only likely to improve students’ reading ability and potential for academic success, it will give them access to a world of ideas they may not otherwise be able to experience. 

Supported by the wider Ormiston Academy Trust, we believe students are entitled to experience a wide range of texts, including various ‘classics’ that they otherwise might not encounter. Some students experience the pleasure and excitement of these books outside of schools but for some students school is often more likely the place where they have high-quality texts read to them. 

In order to ensure this entitlement is met, the trust has curated a curriculum of books (the OAT Read-Aloud Curriculum) which we believe represent a diversity of thought and experience, as well as being age appropriate for students in different year groups. To ensure students have the best experience we have designed a fully resourced set of materials for training and implementation for each of these texts. 

Through our student leadership teams, students will have a choice of text for the school year. The initial text choices for the academic year are: 

Year Text Synopsis 
Year 7 1. The Outsiders, SE Hinton Tough, gritty and, at times, violent, set against 1960s US teenage sub- cultures, this is an ultimately heart warming classic that firmly positions reading as cool and boys as capable of compassion and friendship. 
 2. I Am Malala, Mala Yousef There are few autobiographies as inspirational as this one and few stories of educational disadvantage so severe. 
  3. Mythos, Stephen Fry Greek mythology is foundational to an understanding of Western culture. Stephen Fry’s retelling of these myths makes them fresh and relevant for a new generation but sticks faithfully to the source material. 
Year 8 1. Noughts & Crosses, Malorie Blackman The story takes place in an alternative 21st-century Britain. At the time of the series, slavery had been abolished for some time, but segregation, similar to Jim Crow laws, continues to operate to keep the crosses in control of the noughts. First published in 2001 but still a highly relevant novel in today’s society. 
  2. Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes A stunningly hard hitting sci- fi novel about a mentally disabled man who undergoes experimental surgery to raise his intelligence. It explores ethical and moral themes about how we treat the disabled. 
  3. Empire of the Sun,  
JG Ballard 		The story of a boy’s experience of being separated from his parents and interred in a Japanese detention camp in Shanghai during WW2. 
  4. Norse Mythology, 
Neil Gaiman 		Gaiman’s retelling of Norse myths is witty and exciting whilst laying the groundwork for understanding how these stories affect us still today. 
Year 9 1. The Curious Incident with the Dog in the Night time, Mark Haddon In the best tradition of Sherlock Holmes, Haddon has written this award winning novel about difference, about being an outsider, about seeing the world in a surprising and revealing way. 
  2. Fahrenheit 451, 
Ray Bradbury 		A still-powerful, dystopian classic sci-fi novel about censorship, conformity and dangers of social media. 
  3. Things Fall Apart, 
Chinua Achebe 		Told from the perspective of Okonkwo, this novel depicts clash of cultures in the late Nineteenth century as European missionaries first encounter the Igbo people of what is now Nigeria. 
Year 10 1. To Kill a Mockingbird, 
Harper Lee 		Not only a classic coming of age story, but a hard- hitting look at the values and prejudices of Depression era America. 
  2. They Both die in the End, 
Adam Silvera 		Two teenage boys, Mateo and Rufus, discover that they only have one day left to live. Adam Silvera reminds us that there’s no life without death and no love without loss in this devastating yet uplifting story about two people whose lives change over the course of one unforgettable day. 
  3. Oranges are Not the Only Fruit, Jeanette Winterson A semi-autobiographical novel which is a coming of age story about a girl who grows up in an English Pentecostal community. Taught at GCSE and A Level, this award winning text introduces students to a wide range of experiences and ways of living. 
 Optional The Great Gatsby, 
F Scott Fitzgerald 		The classic novel of the Jazz Age which explores themes of obsession, isolation, crime and loneliness. 
 Optional Brave New World, 
Aldous Huxley 		Arguably the most prescient dystopian novel ever written. Hugely influential on Orwell and widely considered one of the best novels written in English. 

If you have feedback on our Read-Aloud curriculum or suggestions for a high quality fiction or non-fiction text that you think the students at the academy would benefit from exposure to, please email [email protected]