Literacy Strategy
Literacy: The Foundation of Our Curriculum
Literacy is at the heart of the Academy curriculum, equipping students with the ability to speak, listen, read, and write effectively for a range of purposes. Through language, students learn, communicate, think critically, explore ideas, and organise their thoughts. Enhancing students’ ability to express themselves—both orally and in writing—enriches teaching and learning across all subjects.
Every department and every teacher play a vital role in fostering literacy by integrating subject knowledge and literacy development seamlessly.
Threads of Literacy
To ensure literacy remains central to learning, the following golden threads must be:
- Clearly identified in schemes of learning.
- Embedded in everyday teaching and learning.
- Explicitly highlighted to students so they recognise the literacy skills that underpin their subject knowledge.
Principles
- Literacy is fundamental to effective learning.
- Strong literacy skills drive higher achievement across the curriculum.
- Every teacher, including form tutors, is a teacher of literacy.
- Literacy is a fundamental right for all learners.
- Enhancing literacy empowers students to reach their full potential.
- Literacy is best developed when teachers model good practice and embed it within their teaching.
- Our commitment to literacy will be evident in both classroom practice and curriculum planning.
Aims
To embed literacy across the curriculum, we will:
- Prioritise disciplinary literacy in every subject.
- Support students in breaking down complex writing tasks.
- Provide structured opportunities for academic discussion and debate.
- Deliver targeted vocabulary instruction, helping students decode unfamiliar words through etymology and morphology.
- Strengthen students’ ability to read and interpret complex academic texts.
- Integrate writing instruction alongside reading in every subject.
- Offer high-quality literacy interventions for both struggling and advanced learners.
By embedding these principles, we ensure that literacy remains a powerful tool for learning, achievement, and lifelong success.
| Skill | Expectations and Strategies |
|---|---|
| Reading |
Research highlights the importance of reading for lifelong learning and workplace success. We aim for students to: |
| Writing | Writing is a challenging skill, and explicit instruction benefits students across all subjects. We aim for students to: • Access high-level modelling of writing. • Receive targeted support to build confidence and competence in writing fluently. • Engage with varied approaches, such as collaborative and paired writing, to enhance motivation. • Use dictionaries and thesauri in all learning environments to develop vocabulary and accuracy. |
| Oracy | Speaking and listening skills are essential for understanding, workplace success, and social interactions. We aim for students to: • Recognise the value of talk in learning and its impact on other skills. • Engage in structured, high-quality discussions guided by teachers. • Appreciate that different subjects require different styles of spoken communication. • Access modelling of high-quality talk, incorporating key vocabulary and metacognitive reflection. |
Assessing Literacy Across the Curriculum
At Mossbourne Fobbing Academy, we recognise the importance of literacy in every subject. When assessing pupils' work across the curriculum, we should value their oral contributions and listening skills alongside their reading and writing.
A Holistic Approach to Literacy Assessment
- Assessments should consider pupils' performance in speaking, listening, reading, and writing, ensuring a balanced evaluation of literacy skills across all subjects.
- When setting writing tasks, we must clearly outline the key language features, purpose, and audience expectations that will be assessed.
- For reading tasks, we should scaffold complex academic texts, making them accessible to all pupils.
Effective Feedback and Marking
- Staff must follow the Academy’s Literacy Marking Policy, using the designated literacy marking codes consistently.
- Pupils should be explicitly taught the meaning of these codes to help them understand feedback and improve their literacy skills.
- Teachers should provide structured opportunities for proofreading and redrafting, encouraging pupils to make improvements using green pen edits.
By embedding these practices, we can support pupils in developing strong literacy skills that will enhance their learning across the curriculum.
