It’s obvious that whilst it is not just the responsibility of English teachers, literacy does have a big part to play in the English curriculum at every Key Stage.

Writing for Pleasure

In addition to curriculum-based writing, we have embedded Writing for Pleasure into our lessons for Key Stage 3 pupils.

We want to encourage creativity and show that writing is fun and engaging, so we have invested in a creative writing book from English and Media Centre for every pupil. They are given designated time each week and their books will follow them through Key Stage Three so we can see their writing progress over time.

These beautifully illustrated workbooks offer 44 writing activities drawing on the principles of creativity, freedom, and choice.

From speeches to poems, playscripts to novel openings, these are workbooks both to harness pupils’ enthusiasm for writing and to develop their writing ‘muscles’!

Reading for Pleasure

In addition to curriculum-based reading, we have embedded Reading for Pleasure into our lessons for KS3 pupils.

Our class sets of books designated to each year group include:

Y7 Reading for pleasure list:

• Pig Heart Boy – Malorie Blackman

• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

• Wonder by R J Palacio

• Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

• Cirque Du Freak by Darren Shan

• Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by JK Rowling

• Holes by Louis Sachar

• Trash by Andy Mulligan

• Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

• Northern Lights: His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman

Y8 Reading for pleasure list:

• A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

• Small Steps by Louis Sachar

• Noughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman

• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

• Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro

• The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

Y9 Reading for pleasure list:

• The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

• 1984 by George Orwell

• The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks

• The Road by Cormac McCarthy

• Pigeon English

• DNA

• Of Mice and Men

• The Crucible

• Inspector Calls

• The Martian

• I Robot

Literacy Transition Booster

Spellings

Spellings are set weekly as a home learning task.

They are then tested in school.

Pupils seem to enjoy the regularity and routine with regards to learning their spellings. They certainly become competitive!

Pupils are encouraged to use the ‘Look, cover, write and check’ strategy for securing their spellings.

They are also prompted to look up any uncertain words to establish the definitions.

The Faster Reading Programme

We are currently piloting ‘The Faster Reading Programme’ with our Y10 pupils reading ‘A Christmas Carol’ for their English Literature GCSE studies.

We are monitoring the reading ages before and after the process and if our finding is positive, we will continue to use this approach with other groups.