Literacy
“Literacy is a platform for democratisation, and a vehicle for the promotion of cultural and national identity. For everyone, everywhere, literacy is, along with education in general, a basic human right.... Literacy is, finally, the road to human progress and the means through which every man, woman and child can realise his or her full potential.” (Kofi Annan 1997)
At Corby Technical School, we believe learners need to be able to read and discuss a wide range of texts which they will experience throughout the curriculum and in the outside world. For every learner to meet our high aspirations, our learners must become proficient, fluent readers who enjoy what they read and actively participate in discussion and debate about great texts.
Our highly ambitious aim is to cultivate a lifelong love of reading. Employing research led strategies we aim to systematically embed the habit of reading in our learners; to develop their confidence in reading and to foster a love of reading that will last beyond the curriculum regardless of their background. We are committed to ensuring that learners have access to a wide range of challenging and engaging books and that they are systematically immersed in the reading and discussion of high-quality texts.
Reading
In order to build reading fluency and true comprehension, students need to build “reading miles” within their lessons and, increasingly, independently. We draw on quality texts and resources to teach reading.
Building “reading miles “at KS3 is further supported by the use of the Sparx reader programme. The programme encourages students to read widely and independently to inspire a positive reading culture at home and in school. Year 7 and Year 8 students have a fortnightly library lesson where they explore the library resources with support from our Librarian with the reading content closely linked to the English curriculum. Year 7 and Year 8 students also have a fortnightly literacy lesson which uses extracts of literature and literary non-fiction to promote discussion, predictions and through close analysis. These lessons explicitly teach reading skills which build student understanding and comprehension of written texts.
Students have access to our school library before school and through after school clubs and at break times and lunchtimes. There is a designated study area in the library with revision resources available for KS4 and KS5.
We use NGRT to identify students who find reading difficult. Those students who cannot yet read well will be unable to access the full curriculum. We will offer intervention for those who require additional support using a bespoke reading intervention programme.
Corby Technical School is a reading school. We believe that “reading is a ticket for life” and we celebrate reading across the school with assemblies, themed events, visits, competitions and activities.
Writing
Throughout school specialist academic writing is taught in every subject using writing strategies which are appropriate to each of the subjects. Students will practice their academic writing in all of their lessons to ensure specialist vocabulary and appropriate academic style is used regularly.
We regard it as essential to explicitly teach subject specialist vocabulary to build powerful knowledge since that knowledge can only be understood with mastery of the correct terminology. We feel it is important to recognise that each subject has different priorities for vocabulary for example in History it is important to understand the context or certain words whereas, in Science, it might be about establishing precise meaning of words. Therefore teaching focusses on the exploration of words in different contexts and importance of breaking words down to understand the origins of the words and how they can be applied in their own work. All of these are part of academy language we want our students to understand and acquire in their day to day vocabulary.
Oracy
Oracy skills are a necessity for learning and success beyond academic achievement. Oracy can boost a range of social, emotional and interpersonal skills that are fundamental for securing success in their lives. We want all students at CTS to have the confidence and ability to be able to question and debate key ideas to form their own opinions. In lessons students are encouraged to explore and develop ideas with others through paired and group discussions. Teachers provide all students with opportunities throughout their lessons to actively engage in verbal communication to hone their communication skills.
