At Ratton we believe that literacy is the heart of all learning. It is crucial to the success of students in their career aspirations and their quality of life. The complexity of today’s world means that students leaving Ratton need to be proficient in reading, writing and communication in order to access and participate fully in all aspects of life.
For students to benefit from the curriculum, their reading skills needs to be effective. To support students with accessing the variety of texts they encounter every day, we promote Strategic Reading. It benefits all students and ensures students are reading with purpose.
At Ratton School, we strive to ensure that all our students read as well as they possibly can. We use a standardised reading test to measure reading ages and monitor student progress. Our focus on reading skills is driven by the fact that secure readers succeed across all subjects.
To enable pupils to catch up with their reading, we use Lexia Powerup. This is a computer-based program that tailors instruction to their specific needs. The activities in Lexia PowerUp, support and build on our English language classroom curriculum, focusing on three areas essential to becoming a proficient reader: word study, grammar, and comprehension. Lexia is delivered to targeted students once a week in tutor time and are expected to also access it at home in order to complete 60 minutes a week practice. We have had great success with Lexia PowerUp with most pupils making rapid progress in their reading ability. Lexia PowerUp Literacy – Login and Student Program
In order to provide further support, some pupils will also be invited to attend Literacy intervention. The intervention sessions will comprise of small groups, practising reading and writing, to accelerate their progress and help them to work towards their target. The sessions will happen during the school day. Literacy Intervention has made a significant impact to the progress of our students. It allows us the opportunity to support and challenge students of all abilities.
We believe that reading a wide variety of texts maximises students’ awareness of the everchanging world around them. Register and Read is a weekly tutor time activity that consists of tutors reading a range of excerpts from fiction and nonfiction texts. This is followed by discussions about the texts and exploration of key vocabulary which provides students with the opportunity to explore topical issues and themes.
We want to provide everyone in our school community with the access to books and the opportunity to read for pleasure. We put time aside in the school week called ‘Drop Everything and Read’ which happens once a week in tutor times and in English lessons. Pupils are encouraged take responsibility for choosing their own books from our well-resourced library and take the opportunity to read for pure enjoyment. If you are looking for reading suggestions, please click on the link attached at the end of the page.
A wide range of clubs are available to promote Literacy in our school. We have a reading club called Book Buzz for Year 7s and 8s, The Southern School Book Awards for Years 9 and 10 and we also have our very own resident UKLA Judge, Mrs Stark, with insight into the most exciting new additions to the world of Young Adult Fiction. In addition, there is also a creative writing club open to all students.
Every term we promote a new competition which is focused on creative writing. These include a range of national competitions for poetry and short stories and Young Writers challenges. We also encourage students to participate in half term reading challenges.
World Book Day is a fantastic opportunity to celebrate our favourite authors, books and characters. Teachers and pupils get involved by dressing up as their favourite characters. Tutor groups take part in a World Book Day quiz and subject teachers take part by reading a section of a thrilling short story at the start of each lesson – pupils must wait until lesson 5 to hear the ending, which makes it even more tense and exciting.
We aim to equip all students with the vocabulary to express their thoughts, feelings and ideas. By promoting Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary in every subject, we aim to support all students with their vocabulary development. Termly words appear in each subject across the school, high frequency cross curricular words feature in all exercise books and each week there is a word of the week.
We want to keep parents and carers informed of the key resources to support their child’s reading, writing, vocabulary and oracy. Each term KS3 parents receive a Literacy Newsletter promoting new resources, literacy events, competitions, book reviews and suggested reading lists to support literacy development at home.
Please click the link below to see an example of our Literacy Newsletter
Bedrock Vocabulary is a reading and vocabulary programme that aims to improve outcomes across the curriculum for all students. We are pleased to be using Bedrock for all Year 7 – 9 students. Bedrock is accessed through the our school website and the Bedrock website using the students provided log in details. Parents and carers can also access their child’s progress using their parent access code. If you have any questions or issues around Bedrock, please contact Miss J Kearney using the Edulink app.
