Literacy is a whole school priority at St Mary's and each subject emphasises the importance of developing strong literacy skills that support academic progress and improve opportunities for our students. 

Our library is a well-stocked resource for our students and we encourage the use of this space before and after school as well as at break and lunchtimes for private reading of fiction, non-fiction, articles, world news, biography and autobiography and revision materials to support academic development. Students can also use this space for homework, research and educational games that often feature literacy skills.

Mrs Griffiths, our librarian, is happy to offer book recommendations and guidance to our students and our expectation is that every student should be completing 20 minutes of private reading per day.  For further information on the benefits of reading please see the attached link to the National Literacy Trust: https://literacytrust.org.uk/research-services/research-themes/reading/

English Department

KS3 English lessons begin with 10 minutes of private reading and every student should come to school with their own book to use in these dedicated periods which help with the development of vocabulary acquisition, reading fluency and reading comprehension. Students have the opportunity to read a range of texts over the course of a yearwith this protected time for reading -  

Glossaries and Disciplinary Literacy

Disciplinary literacy refers to the specific ways of reading, writing, thinking, and communicating that are unique to different academic fields or disciplines.For more information on disciplinary literacy see here: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/news/eef-blog-what-do-we-mean-by-disciplinary-literacy

Each subject has its own glossary of key terms and in each classroom specialist terms are on display to support students. Our current glossaries are available here for parents. Knowledge organisers, resources and assessments often feature these key terms and teachers support students with definitions of key terms that will appear in assessments. Practicing using such vocabulary in new and unfamiliar contexts hishugely beneficial to students and their understanding. 

Form Time and Vocabulary

Each morning and afternoon staff use dedicated time to support students with their pastoral, spiritual, social and academic development and as part of a wide programme of activities and resources, students are encouraged to develop their vocabulary with expansion tasks, quizzes and challenges. Each of these activities is graduated in challenge as they move from Year 7 to Year 11 with a view to eradicating common misconceptions and increasing student confidence. 

Reading Plus and Interventions

Our intervention manager, Mrs Rogers, supports students with a range of literacy-based programmes and resources which are rolled out using a 'waves of intervention' approach.

We support all students with some resources, small groups with specific tailored resources and individual students with IEPs or PEPs as appropriate that may include literacy targets. READING PLUS is our universal programme to support students with literacy skills and uses short reading comprehension texts tailored to individual need to accelerate levels of reading fluency and comprehension. For more details on this programme please see the relevant link below.